The second demo was actually just a hack of Burnout Paradise, and in some ways was more interesting than the ball swatting. Kudo and his team retrofitted the racing game to take advantage of the Natal, implementing a virtual wheel for steering, and a foot forward or back as the gas pedal. The effect was nothing short of amazing -- the first time we stepped in to play it was immediately natural (save for the part about having to imagine a wheel in your hands). Sure, we wrecked the hell out of a few cars, but it was striking how easy it was to pick up the feel for it. Kudo insinuated that it would be easy for developers to incorporate this tech into pre-existing games, and we have to say, the possibilities are exciting.
We watched a chair being dragged into the middle of the playing field, and the software was able to continue to track the human movement, as well as that person sitting down -- it didn't break a sweat. The accuracy is far better than you would imagine it could be; it's very impressive stuff.
Obviously, Microsoft is still working out kinks and perfecting this thing, but what we saw at our demo (and super-secret demo) was mighty convincing. The demo that Sony showed of its new motion controller was interesting, but the fact that Natal is forgoing physical controls of any kind sets your mind reeling. For the other two competitors in this space, Natal could make a very, very strong rival. Ultimately it's up to developers to find truly compelling ways of using this stuff -- though they'd be fools to waste an opportunity like this.
