WARNING!!!!!!!! THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS TO THE GAMES STAR WARS KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC AND FALLOUT 3.

Imagine, a blank black screen fills up your television set. As you patiently wait for some kind of sign to let you know that the game has indeed started strange noises of early morning announcements for the Black Mesa employees travel from the stereo and to your ears. Onto what was once blackness upon your screen a title emerges, it simply reads, Half-Life.  This was the only thing that was separating you from total immersion into an eerie, strange, and virtual world.

The title disintegrates along with the emptiness of the screen, and appearing is the inside of what seems to be a shuttle to a research facility.  As your avatar transit through locked out security guards, nuclear missile tests, radioactive sludge facilities, and underground caverns he finally arrives at his final destination, the research lab.

As my character exits the transit work shuttle he walks across a cold metal bridge connecting the train to the lab. Guarding the door to the facility are two security men dutifully standing at their posts. “Hey Freeman how’s it going?” one of the guards ask, as I wait reply for over a minute I say to myself in an upset fashion, “This game is freaking broken!” To my surprise the guard responds, “Whoa, whoa, whoa take it easy! What are you talking about Gordon?!”  Thinking that the game has finally responded to its aggravating glitch I speak to myself yet again, “That’s better.” The guard responds and looks almost confused, “I still do not understand what the hell you’re talking about?”

Shockingly I realize that the guard is responding to me and what I am saying to myself. Just to test my theory out I respond to the fictional guard, “Are you talking to me?” “Well who else would I be talking too there is no one else here, except for Joe, and he never talks to anybody,” the guard affirms. Amazed at the technology that has been placed before me I respond with my jaw dropped, “I’m sorry I just don’t know what to say? I’ve just never experienced something like this.” The guard replies, “Something like what?”

Now collecting my thoughts and throwing my sense of awe into the past I acknowledge the guard in a more sensible and astute way, “Never mind what I said. Do you think you can open up the door for me?” The guard, with a confused look about him, replies with a long drawn out response, “Sure did you need anything else?” My reply being, “No thank you,” as I quickly march into the Black Mesa Research Facility, which has been renovated in beautiful HD graphics. I walk up to the counter using my Xbox 360 controller, and the guard informs me of an experiment that requires my attention, and little did I know that this experiment is to start the abnormal and astonishing journey that has been placed before me.

This is the future of gaming, this is Half-Life adapted for the Natal technology.

During CES when Microsoft was presenting Project Natal, and assuring us that this is a technology that hardcore gamers will fall in love with. I couldn’t help but think that, “they may be right.” Think about it for a second how many RPG’s have you played that have restricted you to only 6 sentences, what if you could respond with what you were actually going to say in reality.

Let’s take another example, Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic. Remember when Darth Malak, the ruthless Dark Lord of the Sith, revealed that you were the once his master and former Dark Lord, Darth Revan. What would you have said to Malak? What would you say to your companions? How would you deal with that? The scope of the game rises to infinite possibilities, and immerses us so deep into a fictional universe that I may never want to leave it.

Now I’m not supporting the motion control in any way, shape, or form. I hate wiggling and waggling just as much as the next gamer. What I am supporting about Natal is the highly intelligent Milo concept. In my opinion, Milo is the stepping stone in what can be a revolution in the way we play games.

Contemplate the cinematic possibilities you can have with some of the characters using the Milo concept.

How would you tell your father in Fallout 3, that you blew up Megaton and how would you deal with yourself for blowing up a community who could actually respond to you in an all too real way. How would you feel for a little boy who lost his teddy bear in the Wasteland of D.C. Would you endlessly search the Wastelands looking for it, or would you spend some caps to buy the little tike a new loveable bedtime buddy?

This is the next step of gaming, there is no denying it. Natal gives us a technology that immerses us so deep into a fictional world, which Hollywood can only envy. I for one am looking forward to this Christmas when I let myself spend some money on a technology in which I consider the future of gaming.

-Quinn Sullivan (Soulibon)