Natal Confirmed for Fable 3, In-Game Shop Also Planned

[Tom Goldman]

Ha ha, sorry about the disturbing face, someone else actually uploaded it i just couldn't resist. As a kid i would i would pretend to shoot fire out of my hands (I was a lonely boy) and Natal could allow for that sort of experience in-game. To some extent i think the Wii's tacked on motion controls have made us prejudiced towards the possibilities that Natal could bring. And you know maybe even tree chopping could be fun along with drawing magic sigils in the air or swinging a sword but in a more realistic way than the Wii allows, especially because natal can scan the whole body. Its possibly like virtual reality in your home if done right, the potential is there and could be fun.

 

[paragon1]

I'm puzzled as well on how a motion sensor control can improve an RPG--Or any game really. All this is doing is changing how a player interacts with a game, and I personally don't see this changing the core of a game in challenging the player. Maybe some gestures could do something like "draw sword" or "open menu", but this reminds me of one of Moviebob's latest videos on "Game Overthinker [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC1taRsnU-k]" where he discusses that making controls too complicated that it's a challenge for the player to remember what hand gesture to give to the game in order to do those commands (Though I think the gesture used in telling the game what the player thinks of it would be easy to remember).

Well, if they're smart, developers will eventually work out a basic standard format for their genre's of choice, or make the controls fairly intuitive (like say, making a key turning motion to start a vehicle). We already sort of see this for things like FPS. I mean, right trigger is the shoot command in every 360 FPS that I'm aware of. What I'm curious about is how their going to allow the player to move is avatar about. After all, it won't exactly be practical to have the player move forward and back to get their character to do the same.

 

[Krantos]

I remain incredibly skeptical of the whole Natal thing in relation to mainstream games. The problem comes from the fact that I see no way to easily turn or walk around. Say, for example that you want to turn to the right: you turn your head that direction and the view emulates your movement... but then you realize that now you can't see the screen, so you turn back and the view again emulates you and you end up facing the same way you were before. This could possibly be solved by the camera only moving when you look off screen, but that's a good way to get a neck cramp if you have to move your head twice as much as you normally would.

And the walking: the only solution I can think of is forcing the player to walk/jog in place, but for some games, that a lot of walking.

PN sounds great, and it will be really cool if devs can pull it off, but I really don't see that happening. More likely we'll just end up with a mess of casual games like the Wii.

On a side note, I'm not sure that Fable 3 is the best poster child for the Natal after Fable 2's lackluster presentation. If there was a question I could ask Molyneux: "Why the hell do two people, playing on two Xbox's, hooked up to two TV's have to share a single camera???!"

 

[DrDeath3191]

I'll give it some time before I judge the way Natal is used. More likely than not, I think it's mainly going to be used for the Dynamic Touch feature that Molyneux mentioned. Plus there's the possibility of voice recognition, so that might be used as well.

EDIT: And for the people wondering how you'll turn, walk, etc. with Natal: you'd use the analog sticks on the controller. After all, the two aren't mutually exclusive.

 

[Sevre]

Just make it into a MMO for goodness sake.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Well, Fable 2 was my favorite RPG of last year, so...Let's wait and see how this turns out.

 

[Diablini]

Ahhh! I hate that ****! I fell in love with Fable on the PC and guess what, he screws PC gamers by making it 360 exclusive!

 

[Superasil]

i hope to god that it dosent MAKE us use natal to play the game, i (like many others) have NO plans to buy it. i like the controllers and, like Yahtzee said, "who the fuck wants to come home from a long days work and start flailing your arms around like an idiot?"

 

[A.I. Sigma]

If there was a question I could ask Molyneux: "Why the hell do two people, playing on two Xbox's, hooked up to two TV's have to share a single camera???!"

Hear hear! That was one of the biggest disappointments of the game. I was so looking forward to RPG multiplayer, and instead we got henchmen and shared screens. Most saddening.

 

[A Pious Cultist]

Did you really have to include that massive pic of Molyneux's face? I wouldn't mind if it didn't make him look like he was some gigantc monster peering through my bedroom window. Now I know how a Sim feels.

Your post has made my day man.

 

[Krantos]

EDIT: And for the people wondering how you'll turn, walk, etc. with Natal: you'd use the analog sticks on the controller. After all, the two aren't mutually exclusive.

So you're saying that while you're standing there enjoying the free 1:1 motion capture of the Natal you're also supposed to be holding the controller? And if you're playing a game like Fable, how are you supposed to "swing" your weapon if your hands are moving the analog sticks? You'd need at least three arms or you'd need to map attack to a face button, and then what's the point of the motion capture at all?

I would say, yes the two are mutually exclusive. What's the point of motion capture if you have to use the 360 controller anyway? Besides the big selling point that MS is trying to use to differentiate between Natal, Sony and the Wii is that it is "controller free."

 

[HK_01]

Hopefully they find some good uses for it. Could be really cool, I imagine. Natal shouldn't be necessary though.

 

[Booze Zombie]

Personally, I'd prefer if Peter did the Bioware method of DLC.

"You bought our game brand-new/didn't pirate it?
Here's a bucketload of DLC for free, because you've given us enough money already."

 

[Joshimodo]

I guess my Fable III character will spend 90% of his time lying down on a sofa in videogaming position.

Still, who really cares? Fable III sounds awful, and Fable II was awful.

 

[CNKFan]

If I need to get that worthless natal then I won't be buying Fable 3. If I wanted motion control I will get a Wii.

 

[DrDeath3191]

EDIT: And for the people wondering how you'll turn, walk, etc. with Natal: you'd use the analog sticks on the controller. After all, the two aren't mutually exclusive.

So you're saying that while you're standing there enjoying the free 1:1 motion capture of the Natal you're also supposed to be holding the controller? And if you're playing a game like Fable, how are you supposed to "swing" your weapon if your hands are moving the analog sticks? You'd need at least three arms or you'd need to map attack to a face button, and then what's the point of the motion capture at all?

I would say, yes the two are mutually exclusive. What's the point of motion capture if you have to use the 360 controller anyway? Besides the big selling point that MS is trying to use to differentiate between Natal, Sony and the Wii is that it is "controller free."

You forget the voice and face recognition. Plus, the Natal could allow for a myriad of functions that the number of buttons on the controller wouldn't allow. Example, the Touch thing Peter mentioned. If he wants to stick with single button combat (X for melee, Y for Range, B for Magic) and continue with the already familiar control scheme, how would he be able to add such a function? Natal would allow for that kind of thing. Plus, what about expressions? You can very easily flip the bird to a passing villager rather than go through a menu system.

And yes, while Natal was advertised as 'controllerless', that doesn't mean that you can't also use the regular controller. On the contrary, Microsoft has said many, many times that some games will work with the two devices in tandem. It doesn't necessarily need to use the motion capture, but it could use a variety of other functions. So give the folks at Lionhead some time.

 

[Icehearted]

All this money grubbing on his part and the game will probably come bug-laden, incomplete, and messy if history repeats itself again!

I hate "micro-transactions", which is just another way of saying "nickel-and-diming".

 

[Myrrath]

Natal doesn't seem like it could work in any action game, let alone an RPG. How to you move forward back left and right? How do you turn around? How do you open the goddamn MENU? Then add on the fact that you're playing an RPG, which means that you have to interact with people an objects...I can tell you right now that it's going to feel gimmicky and unintuitive.

To open the menu you have to put your right leg behind your head, hold your nose and spank your ass. You don't even want to know what you have to do to save your game.

Hmmm, new adventures in gaming. Could be interesting.

But seriously, until we can create a holodeck and personally interact with the game world itself, we have to keep our controlers.