For those who have been loosely following the happenings of E3, you may have heard a bit about Microsoft’s press conference yesterday. The highlights were Modern Warfare 2 looks awesome, as does Halo 3: ODST, Metal Gear is coming to 360 and last but not least, Microsoft debuted Project Natal.

With the rampant success of the Wii and its controller waggling, the pressure has been on the other consoles to come out with something with the same low difficulty curve and inclusiveness. Unfortunately, this likely meant adopting a similar motion control system, the kind that actual gamers like myself make fun of and despise. However, when it was reveal time, that prediction couldn’t have been further from the truth.

Project Natal is Microsoft telling the world they’re skipping the motion controller altogether. The technology instead is a combination of hardware (a video camera and microphone) and software (facial and voice recognition, 3D spatial and body identification) which allows the player to use their entire body as a controller for the game.

But this has many more implications than you think. Watch the video below to see a range of implementations of the tech:

Even something as simple as the ability to wave through Xbox Dashboard menus with your hand just feels like the future, and all of a sudden, we’re practically living in a Minority Report world.

And just when you thought you’d seen everything, Peter Molyneux showed up to show what he thought implications of the technology could be. He created a project called “Milo,” to demonstrate what he thought was possible with the new system.

While I believe the video is largely a tech demo, and the situation largely scripted, the results are still pretty mindblowing. The catching of the goggles and the handing of the paper are the two most important pieces to notice, though the AI interactivity could play an important part in future games as well, as it could change NPC interaction forever.

So after that absurdly long intro, I guess my question is what exactly are the implications of this tech in future games?

The activities shown in the current Natal demos are cool bits of tech, but not particularly fun games. I would play Ricochet and Paint the Elephant probably even less time than I would Wii Sports, but really, it’s what’s implied by the tech that’s most promising.

Interesting demo, but is it really a game?

I’m trying to reconcile what types of games you could actually use this kind of technology for. I would say the easiest would be racing, as hand steering and shifting could be easily captured by the device. Next up would be sports, although I predict even more injuries than the Wii would result here.

Now, I think first person shooters may actually be able to use it, with finger gun motions replacing Wiimote pointing. Hopefully the system would even be able to recognize grenade throwing and reloading, but a simple question for games like this remains. What about the simple acts of running and jumping?

You can’t expect the player to run in place to move around, and if this is a truly controllerless system there is no joystick to use like the one attached the Wii nunchuck. The same goes for action games like Assassin’s Creed or Devil May Cry. You may be able to swing swords around, but climbing and roof jumping and backflipping? How exactly do you act that out?

The video shows a fighting game between a kid and a virtual opponent, which is great, but how do I play Street Fighter with such a system? Most gamers’ abilities will extend to “forward punch” and “forward kick” and not much else. Even blackbelts who could do a living room dragon kick if given enough space couldn’t execute a Ken spin kick or a Zangief body slam.

Sure you can act out Punch Out, but what about Street Fighter or Soul Calibur?

I think that gaming is going to be split into two distinct segments for quite some time: Interactive games and non-interactive games. Granted, by definition, all games are interactive games, but I’m talking about ones that actually require you to get up and do something.

I think that certain titles will be very successful here. Some racing games, sports games, some fighting games, but until Microsoft or Nintendo whoever invents tech like this that can successfully encompass ALL types of game, the community is going to be fiercely divided.

As much as I would like to play Halo in pantomime, I don’t think this technology translates to real world application yet. Yes, I can envision myself shooting a target with an invisible gun in my hand, and reloading, hurling a grenade like a baseball, but what about the simple act of moving forward? Turning around? Jumping onto a high ledge?

With announcements like Natal, I feel like we’re on the edge of something great here. But we’re definitely still in the transitional phase of truly interactive games, and until these kinds of issues are solved, we’re going to see two very distinct worlds of gaming.

I swear, if I read one more pedophilia joke about Milo…

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