Xbox Living

At Microsoft’s pre-E3 media briefing, the company unveiled its audio-video motion-tracking controller, previously known as Project Natal. The new control system for the Xbox 360 is now known as Kinect.

Kinect sits in front of you and responds to your body’s movements and vocal commands to control games, chat and media features within the Xbox 360.

A number of Kinect games were announced. Kinect Sports is obviously an answer to Wii Sports, but does offer the improvements that come with the full motion tracking of Kinect. Kinectamals, meanwhile, gives kids a virtual pet that they can play with. The animals respond to kids’ vocal commands and movements. Kinect Adventures, meanwhile, puts you on a moving platform where you need to move your entire body to dodge obstacles and collect tokens.

MTV Games and Harmonix are bringing Dance Central to Kinect, a dancing game that removes the pads of DDR and replaces them with full body tracking. Ubisoft also showed off a Kinect title. Your Shape: Fitness Evolved will provide a workout that watches your entire body’s movements to provide tips on improving your form. A new Forza racing game was also announced, one to drive simply by placing their hands at a ten-and-two position.

Last but not least in terms of games, a new Star Wars game was announced from Microsoft and LucasArts, showing off both lightsaber battling and force moves that are done without a controller in hand.

Microsoft showed off the communications benefits of Kinect, with a webcam chat that took place between two Kinect users. Besides the obvious voice and video chat, people can watch movies, sports or news content together while in video chat. Also a neat feature: Kinect follows you around the room, panning the video so that you don’t wander off screen.

Zune features are being extended in the Xbox 360 with Kinect. Now, audio and video can be selected, played and controlled using Kinect. Simple gestures can be used to move between tracks or pause/fast-forward/rewind videos. Alternatively, voice commands like “Xbox Pause” and “Xbox Rewind” can be used to control media.

Alongside the new Zune media controls is an announced partnership with ESPN to bring sports coverage. Recorded and live games will be streamed to the Xbox 360 console through the service, which will be available to Xbox Live Gold subscribers at no additional cost. A neat feature: say “Xbox Replay” to get your own instant replays on demand. (As a Canadian, I’ve got to say the noticeable absence of NHL content was a bit of a let-down — though I’m not sure if the ESPN coverage will even be available outside of the U.S.)

Microsoft’s Kinect will be launching on November 4. 15 Kinect titles will be available at launch.