Paradise has some troubles

With Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise now out (I'll be getting it tomorrow due to Canada getting games a day after they launch) I thought I would share my thoughts on the whole vision camera and card stuff that Microsoft is doing with it's game.

The Xbox Live vision camera didn't get huge praise probably because it just seemed like another way Microsoft was getting some money out of you. Which can be a valid argument since it goes for $50 new here and there's only a few games that actually utilize it. Besides being able to video chat with a friend and seeing the actual person instead of a gamerpic in some games, it hasn't really done anything ground breaking. Though thinking that it's only a camera, there isn't much it can do besides Eyetoy like games such as Totemball.

One of the more note worthy tasks the camera was put up to recently was back with Burnout Paradise. Each time you got a take down on someone (destroying their car) the camera would take a quick photo of them. This was a good idea because you got to see your friend's expression at the moment his car got mangled. Other than that, I haven't run into anything exceptional from this.

What VP2 is doing seems like a really interesting idea that if done properly, could really be a cool thing to be able to play around with. What Microsoft wants you to do is print out Cards or put them on a image viewing device (like a PSP or iPod). Once done getting your card(s) you can hold them up to the camera and it will scan them and plunk whatever the card is for down into your garden. This way you can share cards with your friends and unlock content that wouldn't normally be in the game for you without owning the camera.

Strangely enough VP2 was now the selling point I needed to get a vision camera. So if your on my friends list, look forward to crazy stupid pictures of me.

This fact seems like it could open up new forms of uses for the vision camera. Being able to scan certain things could really get people into buying more out of game content. For example, you could be using this instead of having to type in a code to get MS points or even game content like Rock Band songs. For people owning the camera, they wouldn't need to type in those 25 character codes anymore, but people without the camera are stuck doing that.

Hopefully Microsoft has some good ideas for the camera to get more people into buying them. With that, only more vision camera services can come.