First Review: Meet Milo, my new imaginary friend

Microsoft Natal

Trying Microsoft's Natal for the first time is an odd experience. Instead of the usual explanation of how to play a game, you are put in front of a large screen with a camera above it. Within seconds, it becomes obvious what you do: in the first game I tried, you leap about the screen to hit balls against a wall, which shows just how fast and responsive the system is.

The second game, a car-driving adventure, is similarly easy to play once you've got over the self-consciousness of holding a steering wheel that isn't really there. Graphics are great and identical to Mirosoft's current Xbox 360 games.

However, while the action games are fun, it is a computer-generated boy called Milo who really shows just how far ahead of the competition Microsoft is. Created by British programmer Peter Molyneux, Milo is an incredibly realistic virtual human you interact with using the camera. You can talk to him, and the advanced artificial intelligence software behind the game allows him to interact with you as if he were a real boy.

To walk around Milo's world, you just walk in front of your TV. To pick things up, you bend down and pick them up. Early in the demo I was shown, Milo throws a pair of goggles at you, and I instinctively reached and caught them. It's almost unnervingly realistic, and you quickly build a bond with his on-screen character, and really feel you are in his world.

This instinctive behaviour is the key to Microsoft's product - after a minute or two, you forget the lack of a controller, and it becomes perfectly normal just to walk forward if you want to move forward, or pick things up on screen by reaching out. Overall, I've never used a system quite like Natal - this really is a new era, not just in games playing but in how we interact with computers in general.