Project Natal, due to be released at the end of this year, is Microsoft’s answer to the Nintendo Wii. Two cameras, a microphone and many hours put in by people writing very clever software has enabled the device to add advanced gesture, facial and voice recognition to the 360. All the consumer has to do is get one and plug it in to upgrade their console This give developers many more tools when creating games etc for the Xbox, certainly an exciting prospect.

Using it for games isn’t something that I particularly look forward to; I imagine that it won’t be particularly responsive, very inaccurate and a bit of a novelty which will wear thin extremely quickly, remind you of any Japanese hardware? Ooooh burn! (Just so you know I think the Wii’s a fantastic innovation, just not a games console… more like an alternative to family board games like Pictionary and Tiddly-Winks).

What excites me more is the idea of using my hands as a remote, can you imagine being able to sit down in front of your TV and it loads your profile (preferably saying something like “You rang oh amazing one”). Then, if you want to select a certain video or game you can control it by using your hands or voice. Just this functionality would make Natal a winner for me, pause a film midway through without having to search for the controller down the side of the sofa… fantastic. I couldn’t really care less about being able to wave my arms about to try and block imaginary balls. I get annoyed with lag when I play games online, with the best will in the world this is going to be 10 times worse. Still, I’m sure many people will like and enjoy it; which is fantastic as long as the development of what I’d call ‘normal’ games isn’t slowed down because of them.

In terms of gaming, Natal’s got to look for something different – changing tried and tested games to a controller free edition isn’t going to work for me. As with all things, you don’t want to re-invent the wheel: you want to create something that doesn’t require a wheel to begin with. Do I know what this is? Unfortunately not, I’d like to think I’d be a much richer man than I am now if I’d had such a great idea. Fingers crossed that some infuriatingly clever guy will come up with a genius idea for the hardware (I’m looking at you… yeah you… guy in the glasses… oy! Pull your finger out and get coding ).

At the moment the release date’s a little vague, down as ‘Holiday 2010′ (American code for Christmas I think, correct me if I’m wrong). I just hope that when the time comes its been well integrated into the dashboard. Nothing would disappoint me more than if they neglected this. It just seems like such an easy thing to do and I think it would add massive value to the 360′s media playback ability.

Needless to say, you can put me down as a buyer for one as soon as its out – assuming the above functionality’s properly implemented anyway. Be sure to come back for my review! Do you plan to buy one on release, wait to see what its reception’s like or miss it completely? If you do plan on getting one what are you looking forward to using it for, and if not, why? Let us know in the comments below.