Computer Gaming World: CES 2005 Report

The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas is great for a couple reasons, namely roaming three gigantic halls filled with gadgets by day and relentlessly gambling and leeching from friends’ expense accounts by night. Ahem. Anyhow, what should you be looking forward to in 2005?

First stop: the games. CES isn’t necessarily a gaming showcase, although there seems to be more gamerelated stuff every year. Microsoft stuffed some PC games into the far corner of its mega-pavilion. Nvidia and ATI were also on the scene. Heck, even Fatal1ty was pimping a branded graphics card. But we also found some crazy gadgets. Fatties, rejoice! The NeXfit BK-R3 is an exercise bike/controller for the PC ($1,800, www.nexfit.com). It’s not the first exercise-type game on the market, but it looks cooler than the other options. Too bad riding a bike in front of a PC doesn’t look cooler than, well, anything. And as if that wasn’t enough virtual-gaming-whatsits, the creators of QMotions-Golf were talking up their next project—due out in March—the QMotions-Baseball Active Game Controller (www.qmotions.com). Slip the sensor over your bat and try not to hit anything while you swing away.

For those less willing to get up, we also came across some quality rumpshakers. Offering way-over-the-top home-theater action is the D-Box Quest (starts at a mere $5,500, www.d-box.com). This expensive La-Z-Boy from hell is a plush leather chair with hydraulic actuators that actually vibrates and jostles you around as you watch movies and play games! More in tune with the gaming lifestyle is the slick new Pyramat rocking chair ($800, www.pyramat.com), which rocks, thanks to the 2.1 speaker system built in to the chair, both figuratively and literally. Plus, it’s actually comfortable and well suited for lounging. Spherex, on the other hand, touted its RX2 chair, which houses a 5.1 sound system ($1,600, www.spherexinc.com). Any chair with a center channel aimed at the crotch is OK by us. The quirkiest and most affordable of this bunch, though, has to be the ButtKicker Gamer ($149, www.thebuttkicker.com). Attach this subwoofer to the center post of your desk chair and your posterior gets the workout of a lifetime, thumping with every explosion and gunshot. And speaking of sound, Dolby was busy touting its Dolby Digital Plus technology. It can support 13.1 channels, which means your home-entertainment center will require 13 speakers and a subwoofer to take full advantage of it. Next up: a speaker you can actually sit in.

Handouts

A big gaming device on display was Sony’s PSP, the PlayStation Portable. We doubt its UMD disc format will become a standard for movies (imagine having to buy the same movie twice so you can view it in your home theater and on the road), but the device still made believers of us. The potency of a PlayStation 2 in your hands is hard to argue against. Plus, the sturdy, sexy design could conceivably make it the next Walkman. On the other hand, you have the multifunctional Gizmondo. This game- and video-playing, picture-taking, message-sending GPS device will feature games like Conflict: Vietnam, OutRun, and the vaguely interesting GPS-based Colors. On its own, it’s a decent piece of technology, but come late March when the PSP ships, you’ll likely never hear about the Gizmondo—or any other handheld gaming device—again.

Other big trends at CES were on the digital entertainment front. PC and consumer electronics manufacturers are creating home media servers and client devices for watching your content while on the go. Archos’ fourth-generation recorder, the AV430 ($800, www.arch-os.com), works like a portable TiVo and MP3 player. Not only can it play back shows and music, it can also record high-quality clips straight from a television, no computer required. It’s even a wireless Web surfer! Want to leave the gadgets at home? Check out the Slingbox Personal Broadcaster ($250, www.sling-media.com). Plug one end in to your AV source (TiVo, DVD player, whatever), then hook up to the Internet. With a broadband connection, you can remotely control v xand view your shows from anywhere in the world.

Other faves: Samsung’s 102-inch plasma TV that can actually replace a wall in your house, and one hopeful guy passing out flyers about his Smell-O-Vision product for computers. By far the most high-tech gadgets, though, were spotted by two crack reporters who wandered into the Star Trek Experience. After downing a Warp Core Breach cocktail from hell, we found the Datapad. It’s only an early prototype, but it promises to let you do things such as take digital notes and store all your important information. This handy device should be ready by the 23rd century.