The Future of Burnout - Project Natal

We have all seen the little bits from CG about Burnout in 3D which will be possible if you have the right PC hardware, and now Burnout is also possible without a controller through Project Natal on the Xbox 360.

Project Natal is a unique system which captures your body movements and voice commands through a video camera so you do not need anything other than yourself to control video games.

Burnout was one of the games used when demo-ing the system to a Time Magazine reporter, thanks to Suffur for the link to this (which can also be found on Suf's E3 forum post).

Time Magazine Project Natal Report

Here is what the reporter has to say about how you play Burnout using the system:

"Kipman also showed me a version of Burnout that had been set up to work with Project Natal. Burnout is a serious game, not just a tech demo — it's a polished, fast-paced racing game with high-end graphics, and I happen to have played a lot of it. With Project Natal, instead of using a joystick, you steer by holding your hands up in the air like you're gripping a steering wheel. To hit the gas, you move your foot forward along the floor. To brake, you move it back. To trigger the turbo boost, you do a gear-shifting, fist-pumping movement with your right arm. Awesome.

It takes a few minutes to get the hang of it. You tend to oversteer, since you can't quite believe this thing is going to pick up your movements, so you exaggerate them. But soon you start to trust it, because it does actually work. I couldn't detect any significant latency. And there's definitely an extra edge to playing a game with nothing between you and the screen but your clenched, white-knuckled fists. I'm a hard-core gamer, so I'm not the person Project Natal is targeting. I love my controller as it is. But the appeal of Project Natal is real. You could compare it to the difference between regular movies and 3-D movies: it puts you in the action in a way that nothing else could."

Although I am not sure that racing games are the best use for this type of control method, it is interesting to see that CG are exploring the system and I would be very interested to see them make a bespoke game for Project Natal to see what they would come up with.

As with all consoles/hardware the success of Project Natal will depend on the software developed for it, lets hope that it is as accessible and fun as the Wii, but with enough gaming juice to keep hardcore gamers coming back for more.

Definitely one of the most exciting E3 announcements so far!