CES Day 2 also Escape From CES

CES Day 2 (plus "Escape from CES")

So Tuesday seemed like it was going to be mellower than Sunday and Monday were, and that was almost the case. We started out at a slightly more human hour and went off to do clean up of the odds and ends we'd noticed on Monday but didn't get to. When we got to the show folks were all talking about the iPhone which sounds very Star Trek-y and cool. I just don't know if it's "spend tons of cash" cool. I took some time and faced off against technology and won (woohoo!) so my blogs finally posted. Once that was done I waded into the masses to have a look around the Las Vegas Convention Center. To everyone that asked if there were a lot of people and do I ever get claustrophobic the answers are 1) yes lots of people and 2) sometimes. CES is just thick with people and it can drive you crazy sometimes if you let it get to you. The key is to take a deep breath, which can admittedly be a chore in the smoky air but so it goes.

I did a pass through all the key TV booths, Sharp, LG, Panasonic, Sony, and Toshiba for research purposes. I'm trying to hold out for the perfect TV since I figure I'll charge my way into the stratosphere with my next one. I'm way overdue for an upgrade of my now seven year old 34" ProScan. It's just a chore to figure out when the right time to jump into the HDTV club since new hotness keeps getting announced and I want bleeding edge goodness. When I was at the Sony booth I checked out the Pro Duos they had on display and drooled over the 8gb one due next month and the 32gb one due in 2009. Even though the PSP hasn't exactly delivered on its promise, I still do dig it.

I ended my tour of the LVCC with a stop at the Microsoft booth to check out the Live Arcade stuff which was pretty fricking cool thanks to the presence of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Alien Hominid HD. I loved Symphony of the Night back in the day so it's cool to see it on Arcade and looking sharp. Same's true of Alien Hominid which I'm glad is getting another chance to win people over with its crazy shooting and goofy sense of humor. The game's developer, The Behemoth is a great bunch of talented guys who deserve some spotlight time. The rest of the arcade stuff was good business too. Ms. Pac-Man rocks as hard as her husband. Heavy Weapon is a cool shooter and I can never get enough of those. Worms is a classic that's an acquired taste but it'll grow on you if you give it a chance. Catan is actually a lot like worms in its appeal since it's essentially a board game that takes some time to warm up to.

Once that was all done I headed over to help out Mac and the Live guys get ready for our shows. Oh let me apologize for the start times of the show. Technical difficulties get magnified a few hundred times when you're away from home so the boys had all kinds of fun making technology and the Internet behave. Hopefully Crysis, Gods & Heroes, and the Live Arcade stuff made for some interesting viewing. The games all look cool- Crysis in DX10 is especially sexy.

After the show we tore stuff down, packed our gear and went back to write and post since we flew out Wednesday morning. I had big plans for the team for our last night there but Las Vegas let me down in a big way. How? So get this: for a city that's supposed to be all about moving and shaking to all hours of the night, Las Vegas sure does shut down pretty fast. Mac and I wanted to do something with the team to thank everyone for the hard work so we planned on a nerdilicious evening that was going to include dinner at Quark's Bar at the Star Trek Experience followed by going to the actual Experience tour and Borg 4-D. (What? We're all nerds.) We were all ready to go a little after 9 and then Jason pinged me from the Hilton with the bad news: the Experience was flat out closed that day and Quark's was closing at 10 (too soon for us to get there). So our "big night" wound up being a fried chicken and French toast dinner at 11pm. Not exactly the awesomeness I was hoping to thank the team with but so it goes. The food was good and the company was better.

Escape from CES

So this morning, still full of chicken and French toast (pro tip: don't throw down a plateful of the stuff then go to bed), we headed out to the airport and flew home. The game stuff at CES was pretty much covered like a blanket (a very small blanket) and we were all so ready to get out of there. Vegas is a cool town on the whole (well except for when the Star Trek Experience shuts down on you anyway) but it's a chore when there's a convention in town. The sheer mass of people is just insane. It also makes the airports super fun too. As far as the show goes, CES didn't exactly throw down and attempt to reclaim gaming in an E3 kind of way. It was a thin showing but what was on hand was all good. Guitar Hero II, Cooking Mama and Bust-a-Move for the Wii, the PS3 classic titles, the 360 and Live Arcade stuff, and all the PC stuff was cool. Not sure about you guys but I'm fine with CES being low key on gaming. Everyone needs time to get their 07 goods polished up anyway and we'll see how this new E3 pans out. Hopefully you all dug the coverage.