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Rare Looks To Innovate FPS With Natal

by Matthew Kato on Nov 03, 2009 at 12:23 PM

Perfect Dark was far from perfect, but that's not stopping U.K. developer Rare (creator of the legendary GoldenEye) from trying to take another stab at the first-person shooter genre. In an interview with MCV regarding the genre, Rare studio head Mark Betteridge put forth the developer's intention to use Microsoft's Natal to innovate in the company's next FPS.

"Right now our sights are trained on Natal," said Betteridge talking about the genre, "which is a great opportunity to break new ground with content and gameplay. It's also an opportunity to exercise some genre evolution..."

We've known that Rare was working with Natal since the controller-less motion control project was announced this E3, but it's interesting that it would choose the FPS genre.

Apart from whether this means the return of Perfect Dark or not, the genre hasn't normally been associated with Natal. Microsoft labelmates Epic, for instance, have clearly pointed out that you can't sacrifice the genre just to use Natal. Epic sees having to use a blending of using a traditional controller with Natal, and it'll be interesting to see if this is how Rare will utilize it as well.

We can imagine throwing grenades via Natal or reloading, for instance, but it would be difficult to replace the precision of aiming with the controller by pointing at the screen. What kinds of FPS mechanics do you think Natal could or couldn't handle? Are you interested in a Natal FPS?