18:55:37 -
Hideo's off and it's just Mattrick now. "People ask me, can you add a motion controller? I say, of course we can." But the controller is a barrier, says Mattrick. So they asked new questions - "Can we go beyond a controller? Can we make you the controller? We can." YES WE CAN, DON.
18:56:13 -
On screen we see a big telly with a tiny camera underneath. A teenage boy walks into the room. An avatar challenges him to a fight. Now a family are driving a car just by leaning left and right on a sofa and holding invisible steering wheels.
18:56:37 -
Now the Dad is shooting an invisible machine gun. Then the son starts punching a giant monster as it smashes up skyscrapers. Or is he being the monster.
18:57:50 -
The Mum and daughter are kicking imaginary footballs. Now the teenage boy scans his real-life skateboard. It appears on screen and he starts doing jumps in his lounge, on his invisible skateboard. Or something. The teenage girl is talking to one of her friends.
18:58:54 -
They are showing each other possible outfits for the party and trying them on virtually. Back to the whole family now, who are pressing imaginary buzzers during a quiz show. Voice recognition knows which person is answering.
18:59:15 -
Looks like you can use voice control to pick and play movies, too. "Goodnight," says a lady, and the movie ends. Gosh.
18:59:46 -
It's codenamed "project Natal", apparently. "The only experience you need is life experience," is the tagline. "This is controller-free games and entertainment."
19:00:07 -
Natal will work with every Xbox 360 they've sold. "We can leap into a new era without having to launch a new console," says Mattrick.
19:00:27 -
Steven bloody Spielberg is here! That beats Paul and Hideo put together!
19:00:51 -
He's looking well. Perhaps he's going to apologise for The Crystal Skull at last?
19:01:17 -
"The vast majority of people are too intimidated to pick up a controller," says Steve. "60 per cent of households do still not own a games console."
19:01:47 -
So, says Steve, you have to make the technology invisible - and make it recognise not just your thumbs but your "entire being".
19:02:24 -
When shown Natal, Steve felt he was in "a historic moment" - just like when the movie screen went from square to widescreen and then to Imax.
19:02:53 -
"It's not about reinventing the wheel, it's about no wheel at all," says Steve, before congratulating Don. Perhaps later Don will go back to his house for a cocktail made of gold.
19:03:50 -
Turns out Project Nadal is the work of Kudo Tsunodo, that bloke who always wears the big glasses and the big chains and the rap clothes even though he's white.
19:04:12 -
Hello, Kudo! "You have control over your Avatar in the most natural way imaginable." First he's going to show us a demo of the Dashboard.
19:04:41 -
The Xbox now instantly recognises your face and signs you in automatically. When you move in real-life your avatar instantly mimics you on-screen.
19:05:00 -
You can choose between categories on the dash just by waving your hand, and wave left and right to scroll through.
19:05:36 -
Time for a tech demo fo something called Ricochet. "This is in Unreal Engine 3," says Mark. "I'm so proud!"
19:06:23 -
An Avatar is in a gym, kicking balls and whacking them against moving blocks with her hands. You will get "true physical play", says Kudo.
19:06:54 -
"This isn't a game where you end up sitting on the sofa doing some pre-set waggle dance," says Kudo. Take THAT, Nintendo!
19:08:12 -
The demo is over and Kudo is going to show us something called Paint Party. Also in Unreal Engine 3. An African elephant is on a big canvas.
19:08:30 -
An Avatar is throwing white paint at a canvas to make clouds on a blue sky. Now he's throwing darker blue paint for mountains, and brown for earth. Doesn't really look like earth, to be honest, looks more like... Never mind.
19:10:03 -
Now he's throwing on green paint for grass, and using brown to create a tree trunk in the foreground. He's like a next-gen Rolf Harris. He shows off the stencil feature, where you can use your body to make "any crazy pose you want".
19:12:36 -
Demo over. Peter Molyneux's coming on stage to show us how it's really done.
19:13:32 -
"That thing in our hands that has evolved and got more complex" has become "a barrier", he says. Natal will "change the landscape of the games we play". Lionhead has been playing around with it for a while.
19:14:19 -
In a video, Molynoire introduces us to Milo, a boy who can recognise and interact with us. A virtual boy, obviously.
19:14:46 -
A girl called Claire is chatting to him. She can tell he's worried about something, says Molynoire. "This is about you meeting a character, a person."
19:15:24 -
Milo is wandering round a lake along a rocky path. He and Claire chat about going fishing. He throws her some goggles and she puts on some invisible ones.
19:16:00 -
Milo invites Claire to peer over the edge and down in the water. Her real-life reflection appears in the water. Now that's cool.
19:16:43 -
She can swish the water with her hand and touch fish, with her real-world movements recognised on-screen. Gosh.
19:17:35 -
Claire draws a fish on a piece of paper and holds it up to Milo. Natal scans it in and Milo is able to see it. "This is true technology science fiction has not even written about, and this works, now, today," says Molynoire.
19:18:08 -
The film ends, and real-life Molynoire is back. "We're showing this behind closed doors, at E3, to a selected audience, and they'll be able to meet Milo himself."
E3 2009
Originally Posted by Ingolemo
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. Και Τονιχόκ
