Digital Chumps

Well, if you know anything about CES, you should know that there are a lot of television companies present (more than I could name to be honest). And with all of the new ideas being tossed around from booth to booth, I figured I'd recap a few hot topics that piqued my interest (in case you missed a few of these earlier in the blog).

1. 3D TV: First of all, everyone knew that this was the year of more widespread 3D entertainment. After seing small teasers at last year's CES and now a slew of 3D movies and sporting events in the last year, this CES capped the first show where 3D was one of the top priorities of all television companies. Though we're still a little skeptical as to whether it will be received as well as recent staples to the industry such as "High Definition" or Blu-rays, there is no doubt that just about everyone is tapping into the market. From 3D games at Capcom's and Sony's booths to multiple 3D televisions, projectors, and setups, I am still no more convinced of a widespread home theater phenomenon nor further enlightened by the idea than I was from the small showing of 3D at CES 2009. Having to wear a pair of glasses will always feel limiting to me and buying a new television just a few years after purchasing my 46" Samsung seems unlikely.

2. Cell TV: Last year at CES, I remember visiting Toshiba and hearing about their Cell TV (that uses the Cell Processor from the PS3 to enhance its viewing) but I really didn't know what to think about it. I mean, there wasn't really anything spectacular that I took out from it other than having an immense amount of power to perform image enhancing software to optimize viewing. At CES 2010, however, I started to understand why this could be a huge leap for televisions. Seeing so many different ideas hit the table every year for what might make the next best thing, I realized how having a powerful processor within the TV itself could help to make it versatile enough to withstand some technological breakthroughs without becoming obsolete. For instance, the introduction of 3D viewing is no big deal as the processor can supposedly perform real time 2D-3D conversion on the fly. Having a built in Blu-ray player and terabyte hard drive seems a little overkill to me (just let me use the Cell Processor of my actual PS3 for this) but features such as 480Hz and a promised 4000x2000 resolution screen certainly whet my appetite.

3. QuadPixels: When Steve and I first got off the monorail at the convention center, we kind of chuckled at a sign by Sharp featuring a "fourth" pixel in their new QuadPixel televisions. Every geek knows that the Red, Blue, and Green are the primary additive colors used to produce all sorts of colors of light. Thus, Sharp would have us think that them adding in a new yellow pixel might help to give better natural colors to the yellow portion of the spectrum. After visiting the booth, we were quite surprised that the televisions looked absolutely beautiful and almost ashamed to have questioned the idea in the first place. This could be due to the ever increasing improvement of contrast schemes (and the televisions were indeed highly saturated) but nonetheless, these TVs were absouletely gorgeous. Unfortunately, they were a bit pricey as well.

4. OLEDs: This is another one of the technologies that blossomed this year after having a small, conceptual showing at last year's CES. Now, every major television company boasted one but it was interesting to see the different uses for the technology. For one, the big screens had beautiful screens but were equally fun and amazing to look at from the side due to their sub centimeter thickness). The AMOLED (active matrix organic light emitting diode) televisions were absolutely beautiful and due to their lower power consumption, were used to create extremely small (something around 6" diagonal and a few millimeters thick), high resolution, portable screens. Heck LG even had a water proof one (though we sarcastically kidded that everybody wants to bring their TV with them when they go swimming). If they can ever drop the price of these sleek, flexible, works of art, this could certainly revolutionize all aspects of technology (televisions, computing, mobile phones, etc, etc, etc).

There probably isn't much I can tell you that you don't already know about the game at this point (or couldn't find on Wikipedia). After playing with a few different characters against Seth Killian (a typical affair at a Capcom game/tech conference), I was put in my place as usual as the fighting master calmly showed me multiple arsenals of new supers, combos, and the like.

However, I will say that my excitement for the homage the game has given to the glory days of gaming past is just another great direction that every gamer's favorite 3rd Publisher, Capcom, has taken with their current string of games. Just the idea of a remastered version of the original is great but additions like a Final Fight themed level really catered to my classic gaming needs. Oh, and the addition of Guy and Cody to the lineup of fighters is enough for me to purchase this second rendition of the game (probably my favorite unique characters from Street Fighter Alpha 3 from the Final Fight universe).

Needless to say, if you're a fighting fan and are serious enough to buy a better controller or stick (a necessity for either the 360 or PS3), this should be a must have once it's released later this year.

Another developer walkthrough video just released today; this one covers ground combat options and techniques specifically.

Also, can I just say that this game is gorgeous?  We had a great time with it at CES playing in 3D thanks to the use of nVidia's specialized technology.  I'm really looking forward to both this and the DSiWare companion title we'll be seeing this month.

Another developer walkthrough video just released today; this one covers ground combat options and techniques specifically.

Also, can I just say that this game is gorgeous?  We had a great time with it at CES playing in 3D thanks to the use of nVidia's specialized technology.  I'm really looking forward to both this and the DSiWare companion title we'll be seeing this month.

Capcom has released a ton of Dark Void Zero footage featuring practically the entire first level, direct-feed.  You may recall our footage from CES; well, this is better.

We've taken the liberty of combining all of the released footage into one high-quality video for your viewing pleasure.  Please enjoy! :)

Ever gamed with a triple monitor setup?  We have (cue Nelson HA HA soundbite).  This was all made possible by Alienware's quite ridiculous Area 51 ALX desktop--which just so happens to be the most powerful one they offer--coupled with ATI's Eyefinity technology.  If that doesn't tell the story, check out our video.

Also, here's a quick blurb about Dell's Design Studio partnership with famous chick company OPI:

One of the best parts of attending a massive convention is getting to meet like minded individuals. For example, Steve and I can have endless conversations about whether or not Chrono Trigger is the greatest game ever made (note to Steve, it's not), but having this same debate with random people at normal parties isn't a naturally occurring phenomenon.  With CES, you're almost always guaranteed to have something in common with anyone on the show floor or at a sponsored party. This year we ran into Ricardo Trejo-Castro of up and coming (though from the looks of it, I'd say "already there") blog T3ch H3lp, and we had an elongated conversation about the state of the industry that I wish we would have recorded and podcasterized. Also there was SCEA's Alex Armour, who somehow found time for me to exhaust every question I had about Heavy Rain. Kindly asking Steve to stop chatting up the bartender at the Lenovo party lead me to meeting Ubergizmo co-founder Eliane Fiolet, a highly charming and widely knowledgeable individual who shares an appreciation for Hideo Kojima's work.

All of these awesome people had one thing in common; Facebook and/or Twitter on their business cards. It appears Digital Chumps is slightly behind the curve on this one!

PS - Special mention goes out to our new friend Tim, whose last name I can't recall (because it was extremely late and we might have been consuming brain fogging beverages) but was responsible for leading us on an adventure that I don't think we'll ever forget...well, the parts that we remember, anyway.

If you hate missing the ball game as much as we do, maybe this product has caught your eye.  We stopped and asked a few questions about specifics.

And here's the second interview we did with the WCG guys at this year's show.  In case you don't know him, this is Jamal, the smack-talking, pro-gaming contestant who took third in the first season of the hit gaming life reality TV show.  If you missed any (or all) of the episodes in season one, you can check them out at your leisure at hulu.com.  But watch our interview first!

Among the smorgasbord of Dell and Alienware products we were treated to during our visit to their swanky CES press suite was this awesome monitor, running in 3D at the time (hence the nVidia glasses you see there in the video).  It works well, too--about as well as any of the 3D televisions we demoed at the show.  Hit up the video below for the full product demo.

More Alienware coming shortly.