It's no stretch that Halo: Reach could use Natal

by Alexander Sliwinski on Jun 29th 2009 1:30PM

It appears that Halo: Reach may be a warm-up exercise for Natal sales. Bungie Studio President Harold Ryan tells the Seattle Times that he "absolutely" thinks that Reach could use Microsoft's motion-sensing peripheral (provided both launched around the same time frame).

Let's take a look at why Project Natal + Halo makes sense:

The Halo name has helped sell other iffy propositions like Halo Wars.
The game is already called Reach, come on.
This answers the question: "How is MS going to get core gamers to buy/upgrade to Natal?"

However, then we must ask: "Do core gamers want to actually exercise with their Halo?" This gamer's biggie-sized core politely responds, "As long as it involves fries and a shake after."

Source

Tags: bungie, halo, halo-reach, Microsoft, natal, project-natal, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (108)

Okay it's time for teabag stretches. 1 and 2 and 3...

Actually this is the only thing I can see working if Natal and Halo team up.

good point, the rate of tea-bagging would go down, so there's a plus.

And what happens if it just so happens you are doing some press ups to warm up and didn't realise you were above a dead masterchief when your parents walked into the room?

I'm especially curious, give me a light gun and I might be more forgiving :D

You could pack in a real gun and I still won't play it after a long day of studying or work.

Is a real gun usually a good enough carrot to entice you to do things?

getting a flamethrower built into a guitar case would entice me to do anything.

btw, here's the video in case you don't know what i mean.

around the :50 mark, but you might as well just watch til then. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5COo2rPybB4&feature=related

I ponder, if I do the matrix when someone throws a grenade at me, will it work? Better yethow the hell do you fly a banshee with no controller? Open up your arms and run around making plane noises?

Who would use Natal to play Halo? Lol.

Personally, I'd love to see videos of people playing Halo using Natal. They'll look like complete fools lol

hey guess what? we don't have any idea how they are planning to do this. the tech isn't limited to "all or nothing"

this is Microsoft's baby here. they will not use natal if it doesn't benefit the gameplay in some way. and it will be optional no matter what is using natal tech.

so please stop with all the "natal will make halo suck" blind ignorant posts.

Hand signals to the computer.

I'm extremely skeptical about how succesful Natal will be. I certainly have no interest in playing a Halo game with the technology, but then again there are a lot of smart people out there with good ideas. Maybe they'll figure out something that works.

At this point all I can say is: I sure hope that if they use the Natal technology, it's only optional.

Squad of Spartans.. Natal.. maybe this is for hand gestures to your squad apart from 'I' & 'V' when the AI team gets it wrong

Hmm.. I don't know. But driving the warthog with no controller might be fun.

"Do core gamers want to actually exercise with their Halo?" Yeah my guess would be no on that since there was a Halo branded Mountain Dew, and no diet option. Don't get me wrong, I use to guzzle full strength Dew like water as a lil youngan but since switching over to diet and not drinking much soda anymore I can't handle the strong stuff.

As long as they don't make it so that Reach requires Natal in any way I could suppose they may give it a whack. Kinda sounds like the guy is just speaking in hypotheticals though, off the top of his head. I think this has 0% of becoming a reality.

It also didnt help that Gamer fuel was (is?) disgusting. It actually tastes think like its got too much syrup in it.

Regular MD, OTOH is quite tasty.

Game fuel tasted like what I imagine clown vomit tastes like. Or unicorn piss.

just fyi: made a concoction w/ the tools available at a picnic on sat... Sour Apple Vodka and Mt. Dew are actually rather tasty... was like a green Jolly Rancher.. some said clear Gummi Bear. (not usually into that kind of drink, but it's worth trying -for those 21 and over, of course.)

too old? He's not 70. The thing you gotta remember is the average age of gamers is 35, and has been for a while

@Jung guns:

Too old, are you serious?! You know how people always complain about retards on Live screaming racial slurs and obsceneties that they don't even understand and use incorrectly or even here in the comments when people make idiotic statements that everyone downvotes (like yours)? Guess what, those people that everyone complains about are not 'old'. It's actually quite the opposite. Damn kids! No respect!

with the special edition of HALO: ODST you get the multiplayer beta for HALO: REACH. so that would mean that A) Project Natal will be out before the release of ODST or B) HALO: REACH won't be a "ONLY ON NATAL" game.

BUT the multiplayer beta for Reach doesn't kick off the day ODST launches (lands?). Bungie has said that buying ODST will give you access to the beta, but everything I've read suggests that the beta won't happen for a bit.

The beta will be on the first disc of Halo 3: ODST, not the special edition. And I belive you can play it once you get it, you don't have to wait.
I agree that if you NEED Natal to play ODST, than it may be out before ODST, but it won't happen. If you can play Natal with Reach, than I think you won't need Natal.

Nah, I'm pretty sure I read on bungie.net that its going to be like the Halo 3 beta on the Crackdown disk. It's not gonna be available right away, but when it does the download link on the disk will go active.

@ ILikePopCans

there is no way the halo reach beta is going to be available right when odst comes out. first of all, i agree w/Prox that everything i have read basically says the beta won't be out until well after odst is released. second, why would bungie want to do that? that would split the amount of people playing odst to ones playing the beta and ones the playing the real game. the halo 3 beta came out a few months before the real game came out. and correct me if i'm wrong, but even when you bought crackdown, you got access to the beta but it didn't start right when crackdown came out. so yeah no way that is happening. besides they aren't going to make natal REQUIRED to play reach anyway.

Seriously, #2 is a huge stretch. That really doesn't make sense.

I thought we all left the Wii to get away from waggle controls, and shallow game mechanics?

And yes, Sony, you're just as guilty as Microsoft. Though, with the inclusion of the wand for more traditional control, I'll say less guilty... but being guilty of 40 counts of murder is only slightly less guilty than 41.

That's right, I just implied Microsoft murdered 41 people and Sony murdered 40, what are you gonna do about it!

gotta love generalizations. Keeps things fresh

Id say that comparing motion controls to mass murder is probably one of the stupidest things I've ever read.

Thanks, Girugamuk, I'm glad that my grossly out of proportion metaphors were able to brighten your day. :D

I want it

I would like to see some pure humiliating acts implemented with Natal and Reach.

Examples:

Teabagging, Boot-to-face, Curbstomping, Virtual beatdowns/assasinations as well as the ability to grab my opponents head and snap his neck as a laugh extremely loud into the mouthpiece.

me too.

Somewhere, yet another kitten died

why in the hell is this voted down?

Yeah, I was wondering that. If only for the better half of a split second....

I'm pretty sure they wouldn't make Reach use Natal 100% of the time. If anything they would make use of it in addition to the standard 360 controller. Controlling, HUDS, terminals, AI interaction controls, etc as opposed to driving Warthogs and firing lasers.

It'd be pretty damned cool to order around squad mates with it.

I agree with this, I think this is the only way core games, and the core gamers that come with them will ever really use Natal effectively. Keep the standard controller, but use Natal as well.

Something like holding a hand up to tell your team mates to stop, 'pushing' buttons or control pads ect.

Also, if Natal can track head motion, why not use it to say, allow the player to look around by turning their head slightly? But I would doubt, especially on a halo title that these things would be mandatory. Controller plus OPTIONAL natal stuff is the way forward!

HOLY SHIT ITS CAPTAIN PLANET

yeah, using it for hand signals to order your squad would add realism and be pretty cool.

Only possible uses I could see

-Head tracking with conjunction of the controller.

-Voice recognition sequences

-Video chat during game play, like in starfox. Someone can hit the up button on the D-pad and then talk to their squad that would be cool.

I could see those as possible ways NATAL could be applied. I think the last one could be cool to.

That's actually a very smart idea.

If Natal can support both the sensoring and use of a controller at the same time, it will definitely be successful critically.

also hand signals to order your squad, leaning out of cover (since it's an FPS), melee, and more.

Forced motion control is suicide in most cases. It stands to reason that the same will go for anything based on Natal.

There's a reason so many Wii games come with an option to use traditional controllers.

i agree. i dont have a problem with games that have motion control as the advertised and main method of control, but still have the option for traditional controls as well.

There's a reason why your username is peepoop.

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It's no stretch that Halo: Reach could use Natal

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