The fight for the big Christmas seller in the computer games market has already begun.

For our Consumer Technology Review Ciaran O'Byrne has gotten a sneak preview of what Microsoft are calling the X Box "Project Natal"...

Playing a console game without using a controller at all...

"Project Natal" is the working title of the soon to be released new bit of kit for the XBox 360 - a small sensor that does away with the need for a controller and lets you play a game simply with a wave of your hand.

If you are familiar with the Nintendo Wii, you know that that console has a small sensor and remote control "nunchucks", rackets or steering wheels to play their games.

"Project Natal" on the XBox 360 gets rid of controllers for you to hold, and it can tell exactly what movements you are making.

This is done through the use of a sensor to track body movement, it also promises the ability to recognise faces and even understand voices.

It uses a camera, a depth sensor, microphone to determine where you are and what you are doing - for instance we played a demo game they call "Ricochet" which is like Dodgeball.

The sensor, which is just a small flat box about a foot wide, sits in front of the TV screen, and can plot around 40 points on your head, torso and limbs.

The "Ricochet" game then tells an avatar of you what to do depending on how you move. With all the plot points, you can then hit a virtual ball on screen with your hands, feet, torso or head.

You spike the ball, it flies down the lane away from you, smashes off a cube in a grid and bounces back towards you.

You then jump around the room like whirling dervish trying to make your avatar hit the ball back again - it's great fun, if a little embarrasing in public.

What are your first impressions?

I think it is going to be a big seller for a couple of reasons - one, there are a lot of Xbox 360s already sold in Ireland and this will take appeal to a lot of owners. For the most part, and this is a generalisation, the XBox is aimed at First Person Shooter games, Sports games, Racing, Fighting, Flying and Adverture platforms. This can take the XBox into the very lucrative "Family Games" sector which has been dominated by the Ninendo Wii, and if you have kids aged 4 to 14, you may know all about this already.

But the real tests will be price and content.

The price is rumoured to be anything from $100 to $150 which would be around €81 to €122 at the moment, but who can predict what that will be in October, with the way the currency markets are at the moment, and the local price in Ireland could be different to the US as well.

It may come with a game bundle or a bundle offer with a new XBox, which would cost €280 to €360 depending on the model.

Compare it with €270 for a Nintendo Wii.

But the content issue will be the clincher - the only game on view at the demo was the "Ricochet" game, which is an indication of the family sports games they will have on offer, but the idea of games such as first person soccer, where you are the player on the pitch would be appealing, and EA, who are opening a facility in Galway creating 200 jobs, are a development partner, and they are one of the biggest games developers in the business.

I like the idea of a Star Wars game where you could have a Lightsabre duel in person, but that's just the Star Wars geek in me.

There's even the possibility that it could work with 3D games - you could imagine a 3 Dimensional boxing game perhaps.

There are a few other potential selling points about it as well, aren't there?

It was a limited demo model we saw, but Xbox say it will recognise voice commands, even emotion in your voice, and you could use it to select music stored on your XBox by swiping you hands from right to left, as though you were leafing through your CD collection, almost like the scene from "Minority Report".

The system also takes a photo of you when you are in full flight in the middle of the game, swiping and kicking like like you are possesed, and then you can post it online onto your favourite social networking site if you are so inclined.

Verdict

Looks like it will walk off the shelves when the release finally comes in October, although we still have to see more full production games.

Here's a video of Jonathan Ross trying it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ5topOPyHo