CES 2009: Gaming wrap-up
It's no secret that gaming's presence at CES can barely be felt, but we were lucky enough to find some diamonds in the rough, including a few that made us want to phone a lawyer.
While there was no new gaming software to be found, there was a respectable amount of gaming hardware and accessories that stole our attention. Nyko stood out with the company's Wand and Kama Charge Kit and Mad Catz showed off Street Fighter IV-branded FightPads and FightSticks. We were wowed by the Nvidia GeForce 3D Vision, but unfortunately getting it all set up requires a few expensive add-ons.
We were upset to see a lack of products devoted solely to game consoles like we had originally anticipated. So where does this leave gaming's future at CES? Believe it or not, gaming actually had more of a showing at this year than it did in '08, so we'd imagine to see an incremental increase next year. Keep in mind, a lot of third-party hardware and accessories are a result of the Wii, a console that lends itself very well to the production of such items.
Check out these other notable CES gaming stories and slide shows:
- How are these console emulators legal?
- Saitek showed us a flight stick for the home console
- Does this Sixense remote improve on the Wiimote?
- The thought-controlled Mindflex game
- DreamGear WarBeast gaming guitar: An exact replica of the B.C. Rich WarBeast guitar
- The Psyko 5.1 headset puts a new spin on surround-sound gaming
- Mad Catz lets you program 11 buttons with the Cyborg X
Before covering games and gear for CNET Reviews, Jeff Bakalar dabbled in film and video production. An avid writer, reader, and gamer, Jeff is also an obsessive New Jersey Devils hockey fan. Catch him live every day as the co-host of CNET's infamous podcast, The 404. 
Anyway, I don't think those emulators (not even the cool, portable ones) nor the other things (except for the Sixsense controller, now that was cool!) you mentioned in the article are even close to being worthy of being the highlights of CES's gaming show. Did you not see the force feedback vest by TN Games? Now that was awesome! An air powered vest that looks like a bulletproof vest that makes you feel the impact of bullets fired at you from the front, side or back very accurately is so great. I tried it out and plan on getting one. It will make paying FPS games so much more immersive and intuitive. It works on any computer and has drivers for over 20 games already.
Also, did you see the improved Novint Falcon? Sure it made it's debut at CES 2008, but with the pistol grip and the new line-up of compatible games, it's an even cooler PC controller than before. It's still unique and years ahead of anything else you'll find to control PC games in terms of actually feeling what you are doing in the game.
Then, there was the Guitar Hero and Rock Band compatible, multi console compatible guitar controller that even had a telescoping fret bar. I tried that and it worked well too. Much more portable and idiot proof than any guitar controller I've seen. No more "will this controller work with that game?" questions if this controller, or ones similar to it, becomes widely available.
The driving/flying simulator chair by Simcraft is the closest thing I've seen yet to a full featured motion control simulator that is actually affordable. Sure it's not cheap, but it's also much less than ones I've seen before. More compactly built too.
Gyration was there too with their cool wireless mice that you can wave in the air to move the cursor. They had ones that are even smaller yet with more buttons than the previous models. I tried them out and they were even more accurate at tracking my movements than ones I've tried from them in the past. The new models are accurate and fast enough to even use for 3D games. I used one like a gun in a FPS game they were demonstrating and it worked well.
Another cool thing I saw that wasn't in the Gaming Showcase, but was still at CES 2009, was the Firefly cell phone for kids. It had built in games (I love playing games on my own Verizon cell phone, so I'm sure the kids do too), speakerphone, custom ring tones etc. like most phones have these days. But on top of that, it let parents program in the phone numbers the kids can call and block all others. That way, the kid can still call home or certain friends and relatives (and emergency numbers) but can't run up a bill texting (no texting on the phone) or calling just anyone they please without the password holder's permission. Some kind of phone like this is the only way in the world I would let my own kid (if I ever have any) have a cell phone.
See you at CES 2010 which I predict wil have even more cool gaming stuff.
Not everything was hardware either. Play Jam is a really cool service that makes games for internet, digital TV networks like Dish Network and Sky, cell phones and airlines.