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After you’ve walked a bit, the best piece of tech is a chair – especially when it can change from plain to stand-alone floor rocker. The Trey’s base even turns into a stool that doubles as a footrest or extra seat. But for those who want some extras in the trunk, the Winxen Game Chair rocks with built in vibration and stereo speaker and woofers, while the Boomchair has a double rocker Rumbleseat for “bonding” with a friend as your butt gets a workout from the subwoofers and speakers. Or go with the single seater WI-FX that needs no wires to get its audio working.
Now that you’re comfy, grab a controller – like the FragFX that is specifically made for Playstation 3 use and goes crazy with shooting, driving, action and sports games – thanks to programmable features, motion axis, Frag button and sensitivity dial. Or maybe the Tabula Rasa Limited Edition Keyset for Zboard so you can win the intergalactic war with dedicated chat and “emote” keys. Or the PC-based virtual touch 3D axis Falcon that lets you “feel” what you’re doing in the virtual world. Or even the simple little KontrolFreek speedfreek controller that protects your thumb and lets you rock the analog thumb-stick of an Xbox 360 controller without getting all calloused.
Later we run across the Darklite PS3 DVD remote, which is so much cooler than Sony’s – the keypad slides out like a cell phone, works off of infra-red and has a charging station for power. Plus it glows a cool blue as does the companion Lightbar on a PS3 console using six bright LEDs for the best looking night light we’ve ever seen.
And because you gotta save some bucks if you’re going to get all this stuff, the ArtDio Digital Sound Bar does the same job of bouncing audio off the walls to give you 5.1 surround from a single source as one of those high-end soundbars – but costs mucho less while looking tart and perky and even has an included subwoofer. You’ll have enough left over to get a Super Mario Go-kart R/C or one of those USB flash drives that come shaped like Halo 3 characters.
But if sharing ain’t your thing, then the Audio Xtreme 360 Dolby Digital headset is – ‘cause it doesn’t just keep the sounds to yourself but makes them multichannel 5.1 by adding in Dolby 5.1 digital sound separation. There’s even an integrated rumble effect and a detachable mike.
But the best part of a smaller show is that you can get up close and personal with new tech without having to shovel your way through: good luck my joining in on any of the Tournaments, even if I do have a good handle on using Belkin’s backlit n52te SpeedPad, but it’s a snap to sneak up to TN Games and try out their 3rd Space Gaming Vest for some PC gaming. The vest has 8 contact points built-in that are kept inflated by a miniature compressor and which simulates the impact of being hit. You play a shooting game programmed by TN with the vest plugged into the PC, and when shot by one of the opponents in the game – that means front, back or sides – a contact point activates and it’s like getting punched all of a sudden in that spot. Not that it really hurts, but it sure does get your attention. And while we’re not that violent by nature, after this horn-headed Devil type kept pummeling us from behind, we couldn’t wait to swing around and double barrel blow his head off with a shotgun. The two games it will come with are OK but including discs for Call to Duty with the code built in is solid. And let’s get the other game companies to include code so their titles will rock with this too, OK?
So will next year bring a bigger show? We don’t know about that but we sure do know that there will be even more great games to play next year.
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