We haven't seen much of Project Natal after the E3 demo, but the Xbox 360 motion camera seems to have gained a lot of attention outside gaming realms. Even Time took an interest to it. In fact, it impressed them so much that it earned itself a place among the ranks of Time's 50 Best Inventions of 2009.

Some of the big guys behind Final Fantasy are now working hard to deliver another epic RPG, Lost Odyssey, under Microsoft's banner. Development studio Mystwalker, spearheaded by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, have been keeping the title under wraps. Ray Nakazato, president of Feelplus that aids Mystwalker in the coding side of things, spilled the beans to reveal some info on the upcoming Xbox 360 blockbuster.

While the game looks undeniably mind-blowing, the devs seem to make it a point that Lost Odyssey will stick to the roots of traditional RPGs. The story will be linear with only one single ending but plenty of side quests will be available, said Nakazato.

As some of us already know, the main protagonist, Caim, is an immortal who's been alive for 1,000 years. The game's story will only be a brief portion of his life, but players will be able to see his past through many short dreams.

Immortals obviously don't die. Characters who drop to zero hit points will only fall down but will recover in a few turns. Game over will only happen if the entire party goes down, Nakazato added.

So far, we've seen that the game has a very western feel despite being a JRPG at heart. According to Nakazato, we can credit this to Lost Odyssey's Hollywood-calibre visual director and Microsoft's support for multi-lingual production. That isn't to say that the game will look too American, because some FF concept artists are behind the lines.

We are yet to find out who'll be the voices to bring the game to life, but we can expect the best quality from professional voice actors.  More info on the game should surface leading to its release later this year. We'll keep you posted, so watch this space!

While Xbox 360 owners may not be able to help out with the Folding@Home project just yet, another similar program may come to Microsoft's next gen videogame console.

Gizmodo's Adam Frucci has raised a very legitimate idea that the Rosetta@Home project - which works like Folding@Home and may ultimately help in the fight against HIV/AIDS, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, malaria and many other diseases - may be coming to the XBox 360 in the future. All of Frucci's arguments so far are not yet based on hard evidence, but they do carry a bit of weight. Let's list them down:

• Bill Gates, Microsoft's founder, is a staunch supporter in the fight against AIDS. He has also publicly stated that he believes the AIDS vaccine will be found in his lifetime, so unless he's got some immortality serum stashed away, he's all for helping speed up the process - something that Rosetta@Home can help make a reality
  
• Rosetta@Home received over US$ 10 million from the Gates Foundation last year for HIV research
  
• Last year, Rosetta@Home head scientist and developer David Baker said on the project's message boards that they "have been discussing [using Xbox 360 consoles to help with the project] with Microsoft quite a bit over the past several weeks."
  

That last bullet's a bit old, though, as the quote is taking from an October 2006 posting. The current status of the project is unknown, but it is indeed looking pretty interesting. There are still people who are concerned about screwing up their consoles if they leave them on 24/7, but overall, it seems that Xbox 360 owners are really gung-ho about helping out with some protein folding.

What do you guys think? Leave a comment below and let us know.

We know you had a blast (from the past) when we ran a feature about turning classic 80s cartoons into next-gen videogames, so we thought "why not do a 180 and focus on what lies ahead this time?" So this time we'll try to go crazy (in the process, be as absurd as possible) and try to peek into the kind of videogames our grand, grand, grandchildren would play in the far future.

We know that videogaming evolves depending on the kind of technology the current generation has. Whether it's a top of the line cell, motion-sensing technology, or an oober rich gameplay, current crop of consoles and games will try to equip themselves with the most technologically advanced weapons (yeah, kinda like "real" wars).

Since our list is supposed to be played during the future, don't be surprised with its absurdity. Even Edison and Einstein were laughed at by their peers during their time. We can't play videogames without platforms, so we've pulled out some out of this world (or time) ideas and created our own versions of future consoles. We'll stick with the big three this time - Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony. Here they are:

Xbox Revolution: Nope, they did not rip off Wii's former name. It's 50+ years into the future and I doubt if anybody would still remember that Nintendo used it as a WIP name for one of their consoles. Why "Revolution"? Well Microsoft followed 360 with 720, then 1440, and then...let's just say they got tired with spinning figures they christened their console of the future with a name that "revolutionizes" rotation (and an excuse to get rid of all those numbers). Main feature: Nerve sensitive controllers enabling the owner to make commands with the power of thought. Bonus perk: Comes with complementary infobot/condom dispenser (part of Bill Gates mission to stop AIDS).

PlayStation 3: Yeah, Sony will stick to the name PS3 because it is the future. In the far future they've stopped relaunching completely new consoles and have just resorted to periodical hardware and system updates. Main Feature: Interactive Body Teleporter: Technology immersing the player to actual in-game participation (gamer gets warped inside the game). Bonus perk: 20% off the next hardware or system update, which should be in a month.

Nintendo YeePee: It turns out the "Wii" is Nintendo's sublime way of sending the "our console is fun" message (hence the name's "weee!" sound). And their most recent console's name, descendant of Nintendo "Yey" and "Hura", follows the same trend. Main feature: Strap-on technology, the console works like a mobile suit, giving the gamer the ultimate motion sensing experience. Bonus perk: Party hats and balloons, and a couple of pots and pans.

Getting trippy already? Get a load of titles for the future by clicking on the "full article" link below.