CES 2008

(Credit: Nyko)

CES 2008 wasn't a very big show for gamers. Sure, there were plenty of controllers and accessories on display, but actual game developers were conspicuously absent. It's not surprising; CES is always oriented more towards general consumer electronics, and game-heavy companies usually wait until spring or summer shows like E3 to make their big announcements.

We were surprised by a major announcement from Namco at CES, though. According to the game company, its upcoming Soul Calibur 4 will feature Darth Vader and Yoda as playable bonus characters. Soul Calibur 2 saw Zelda's Link, Tekken's Heihachi, and Todd MacFarlane's Spawn as playable characters, but they aren't as big as Vader. Let's see the lightsabers fly.

Nyko unveiled its Wireless Nunchuck for the Wii, one of the first actual third-party controllers (and not simply a clip-on accessory) for the Nintendo Wii. When it ships in early February, it'll cut the cord between the Wiimote and the Nunchuk for about $30.

Gateway and Dell showed off some new gaming desktops, with Gateway's offering packing a quad-core AMD Phenom processor into a system that starts at $1,100. Alienware wowed spectators with a massive 22:9 curved wide-screen display. Unfortunately, the company hasn't announced any release date or pricing (though you can expect the price tag to be around "a lot."). Finally, Saitek showed off its new Cyborg Keyboard, a gaming keyboard that lets you customize the lighting of different banks of keys. You can have the WASD keys glow red, the number pad glow green, and so on. It's not exactly a revolutionary change in game control, but it certainly looks cool.

After the holiday season, gaming has hit a bit of a lull. Besides a few big titles coming out next month, don't expect much major news until spring or summer, when E3, PAX, and other shows bring out the developers.

At first glance, Re-Mission comes across as a stylishly produced, anime-influenced video game. But the targets in question are cancer cells, which the character Roxxi the nanobot blasts with the Chemoblaster, the Radiation Gun, and the Antibiotic Rocket.

Re-Mission is specifically designed as a health improvement intervention for teens and young adults who have cancer. Game producers at HopeLab start with a desired health outcome, and then reverse engineer a game that encourages positive behaviors, adding motivation and fun into something as scary as a kid's battle against cancer.

Re-Mission helps teens fight cancer

HopeLab Vice President Ellen LaPointe spoke at the Sandbox Summit conference on Tuesday, and I was amazed to learn that the game producers actually test the effectiveness of their games through controlled clinical research studies. HopeLab followed 374 kids with cancer, at 34 hospitals in several countries, playing the game in English, Spanish, and French. The kids who played Re-Mission showed measurable improvements in their attitude (sense of self-efficacy) and healthy behavior (taking medications as prescribed).

It's interesting to see a nonprofit with a health-improvement mission embrace video games in this new way. It is crucial that Re-Mission looks as well-designed as any game out there on the market. Deborah Manchester of the kids' science Web site Zula, another panelist at the Sandbox Summit, said that one pitfall of educational media is that we can get stuck in a rut trying to put the same boring content into a digital format. Re-Mission shows what can be accomplished when designers break out of that box to create a product based on what kids and teens really enjoy playing.

What's next for HopeLab? Ruckus Nation, whose underlying goal is to look for new solutions to childhood obesity. Students from all over the world entered Ruckus Nation's online competition for new product designs that are cool and fun enough to get kids moving.

HopeLabs will support the development and testing of winning products, providing a real opportunity for kids to not only win a contest, but to see their innovative ideas come to life.

The HS-1200 in the flesh

(Credit: CNET)

Are you a hardcore PC online gamer who's constantly restricted by the always-too-short-or-in-the-way cable on your headset? If so, Creative's new HS-1200 may be just the ticket. It's a fully wireless headset--the first such full duplex stereo model (according to the company), which means it can simultaneously send and receive audio. The PC headset will work with any VoIP or voice application, but Creative is aiming straight at the PC gaming market. The HS-1200 communicates with your PC via a USB transceiver that's about the size of a hockey puck--which also includes a separate umbilical cable used for recharging when the headphones are not in action. (It just plugs in--no cradle required.) Unfortunately, the battery is locked in and not replaceable, so charge degradation over time may become an issue.

On the design side, the microphone extension on the HS-1200 is such that flipping it up will turn it off--just bring it back down and the microphone is ready for use. The headset itself has four buttons: volume up/down, power, and call pickup (for using the HS-1200 for VoIP and communication applications when you're away from the desktop). The USB connectivity is designed to guarantee plug-and-play Windows connectivity--no software installation required.

Look for the Creative Labs HS-1200 to retail for $150 when it becomes available this spring.

A group of video game giants that changed the way people play in the '80s, '90s, and 2000s were honored with technology and engineering Emmy Awards during a ceremony Monday night in Las Vegas amid the Consumer Electronics Show, according to Sony Online Entertainment.

The awards were handed out in two categories. The first was development of massively multiplayer online role-playing games. The winners were Sony Online Entertainment, Blizzard Entertainment, and AOL/Time Warner for EverQuest, World of Warcraft, and Neverwinter Nights, respectively.

In the user-generated content and game modification category, Electronic Arts, Id Software, and Linden Lab were honored for Pinball Construction Set, Quake, and Second Life, respectively.

(Credit: Gateway)

In addition to two new gaming desktops, today Gateway announced its first FX-branded gaming laptop. The 17-inch wide-screen P-170 FX will be available in three configurations, all with Nvidia GeForce Go 8800M graphics. The lowest-cost version will include an Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 CPU, 3GB of 667MHz RAM, and a 250GB, 5,400rpm hard drive for $1,599. The awesomely named P-170FX MAX, meanwhile, includes a top-of-the-line Intel Core 2 Extreme X7900 processor, a massive 400GB of 7,200rpm hard drive space, and an HD DVD drive for $2,999. The costlier model also gives you a slight bump in screen resolution, from WXGA+ to WUXGA.

A third model, priced at $1,999, occupies the middle ground with a Core 2 Duo T8300 CPU and a 200GB, 7,200rpm hard drive.

Made from aircraft-grade aluminum with a high-impact finish, the P-170FX's lid includes a large copper "FX" on the cover, which Gateway hopes will appeal to gaming enthusiasts who tend to like a bit of brand bling. Other key features around the case include an HDMI connection, a multimedia panel with precision-cut keys on the keyboard deck, and a touch-sensitive volume slide.

The laptops should be available for purchase soon at Gateway's Web site, but the most interesting model may be the retail model coming soon to Best Buy retail stores. That version of the Gateway P-Series FX Edition knocks down the CPU a few notches, but keeps the Nvidia GeForce Go 8800M graphics for only $1,350.

Excited to see all the latest and greatest video game products at the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show? Don't be. New and noteworthy gaming products will be few and far between.

Unfortunately, CES just isn't a big show for gamers. You might think the world's largest consumer electronics expo would have plenty of stuff for remote-waggling, button-mashing misfits like myself, but that simply isn't the case. Virtually every games-only company from Nintendo to Electronic Arts steers clear of Las Vegas in early January, saving their news for GDC, E3, and the various other shows and events that come in the spring and summer.

Best of CES: Alienware Area-51 m9750

(Credit: CNET Networks)

If PC gaming is your thing, the news is a bit better. New graphics cards and faster CPUs are often CES mainstays, and there's always the chance that a fearsome gaming desktop or supercharged laptop may make the rounds.

Even if there won't be much new information about the games themselves, CES should at least show off a ton of the equipment with which you play games. From mainstream accessory makers like Logitech and Nyko, to niche players offering specialty rigs such as full-on flight simulator cockpits and Wii-style motion control cameras for PCs, there will be plenty of accessories and peripherals on display.

Peripherals notwithstanding, gamers will be better served at CES by investigating upgrades to their home theater setups. With a ton of HDTVs, surround-sound systems, and other equipment for hooking up a sweet gamer's pad, it'll be a good show for scoping out into what exactly you'll be connecting your Wii, PS3, or Xbox 360 next year.

Where are they now?
The prototype wowed us at CES, and when the Alienware Area 51 m9750 hit the CNET Labs almost eight months later, it didn't disappoint. With a 17-inch screen, twin Nvidia GeForce Go 7950GTX SLI video cards, and an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, the m9750 was a gamer's dream--all for a base price that wasn't much more than the competing Dell XPS model.