For some reason, whenever anyone mentions things like Wii and Natal, the first images that jump out are people jumping around like goons in their living room. Why is this? Oh, that's right: every demo ever. However, I think the real implementation has potential for far more subtlety.

While trying to throw together a list of ideas about the potential that Microsoft's Natal, one that came up was the idea of using the camera to augment — not replace — the modern FPS. No one's going to crawl around on the floor pretending to fire an invisible gun (five-year-olds don't count), and until we get 360 Degree Television or those sweet virtual reality helmets from the virtual reality machines in the '90s, using your head to look around in a virtual environment isn't going to work very well, either.

Instead, I imagine Natal using the player's motions to add to the game. You're still playing with the controller, relaxing on your couch, but a little lean to the side to peek around the corner would add a bit of flavor while cutting down on the number of buttons you're pressing at once.

And then along comes Torben Sko of Australian National University. Using the FaceAPI facial recognition software and Valve's Source engine, he has incorporated a number of head movements into the engine, demoing them for us in this video:



Head tilting, zooming, and iron-sighting/scoping all work well and might do a bit to prevent the horrible condition known as Gamer's Claw we've all experienced at one point. He also managed to incorporate the talented Johnny Lee's "virtual window" functionality (seen here).

This is all on PC of course, but it's doing it with an off-the-shelf webcam and some free software. Watching the video, the most impressive aspect is the way the facemask sticks to his face as he moves around without any hesitation or lag. That alone clearly demonstrates how far along motion capture and facial recognition tech is, and it gives the hardware a bit more credibility as a potential user interface. Taking it a step further and integrating it smoothly into a game as he has done shows that it can work in a real game situation and that it doesn't have to be a bunch of people acting like idiots in front of the camera (I'm talking to you, You're In The Movies).

Of course, there are all sorts of other possibilities we can dream about. And now's the time to dream – before the deluge of mini-game collections begins!

IGN's Hilary Goldstein suggested on one of their podcasts the idea of a roleplaying game that, instead of instead of selecting from a list of options, lets you react to what's going on and watches your posture and emotions to work through dialogue trees. It might be the first true virtual role-playing game.

Fellow Kombo Editorialist Joel Windels wants to lie to the camera: a game based on lying would test Natal to the limits (analyzing voice tone, facial expression, eye contact). Maybe a spy or crime game could implement it. A card game that utilizes the hardware could make your pokerface matter as much to your computer opponents as it does to humans. Imagine a game telling you it called your bluff because you scratch your head whenever you have a bum hand!

Joel was the first to bring up music games as well. Of course, with Natal, the motion-sensing mic that accompanies the Lips game is rendered unnecessary and games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero could give more options than just tilting the guitar for initiating star power. Tenacious D taught us the importance of the power slide, and it could inject some new blood into the increasingly boring music games scene.





Of course, flailing around like an idiot is still an option. Remember NFL 2K5's (oh, NFL 2K, how we miss you) first person mode? With a camera, that mode might actually make for not only a fun game, but a good trainer as well.

News Editor Dave Oxford, Joel and I all came to another point: Japan's love of dating sims could come to a hilarious, awkward pinnacle as we hand invisible flowers to our anime girlfriends. And give them invisible kisses. Oh man, Japan, please, this needs to happen!

With some of the disappointment that's come with all the Wii shovelware, it's easy to take a pessimistic view of the new technology coming down the pipe from the different developers. Between some impressive tech demos and the collective imagination of the game developers, some cool stuff is definitely going to come out of this. Now it's up to Microsoft to make sure they're filtering out the junk and letting the good stuff through.