Well, E3 has undeniably come and gone.  There isn’t much to say about it that you haven’t already heard.  The key words are still echoing in the hearts and minds of the gaming republic.

Halo 3.

GTA4.

MGS4.

Spore.

PS3.

Ridge Racer.

Riiiiiiiiidddddge Racerrrrr.

You’ve all been beaten over the head with the big titles a thousand times, and I’m not keen on being one thousand one.  There is nothing new to tell you about the PS3.  Halo 3 is just as enigmatic today as it was yesterday, and likely will be tomorrow.  As for Ridge Racer, well, it’s Ridge Racer.  Ridge… yes.  Racer.  Yes.  It is.  Still.

Quite simply, the big names are flooding the netwaves and there are lots of cool developments and notions from E3 that people simply Aren’t Talking Enough About.  Big, small, tangible or intangible, there are some groovy things that you probably only heard about if you were on the show floor yourself.

It is with this in mind that I give you part one of a brief series I’ve concisely titled ‘Things You Should Be More Excited About.’  Other suitable names are ‘Stuff You Should Be Interested In,’ ‘In E3’s Shadow,’ and ‘My Use Of The Shift Key Is Questionable.’

Today I’ll start simple and stay simple.  Kentia Hall is an infamous bastion of accessories, doohickeys, and doodads that are clearly borne of shrewd thinking and clever inspiration.  Furthermore, a vast majority of it seems to be watered down and rendered dysfunctional by the time it hits the Hall.

What people overlook, though, is that LOTS of cool little things come out of cool little companies and some of them are worth hitting it big.  Today I want to show you three small companies that are taking traditionally hit-or-miss accessories and doing them RIGHT.

PRODUCT CONCEPT:  Console artwork adhesives!

CONCEPT GONE WRONG:  Gamer Graffix

CONCEPT DONE RIGHT:  Defcon Skins

For as long as I can remember, I have been jealous of the soul-crushing weight of aesthetics options that PC gamers have at their disposal.  My computermachine, high-powered as it may be, is simple yet infinitely cooler than my consoles, what with its slick red case and LED windows and twin-phalange gurgleprocessors and whatever other crap I bought in a student-loan fueled stupor.  Far from the glowing monoliths of those back-lit pine-scented polygon-jockeys out there, us console gamers have to settle for dull, monochrome plastic boxes.

Well, plastic boxes, and consistently better and more innovative gameplay experiences.  Cough cough.

Nonetheless, I like tweaked and customized gaming rigs.  In the same way that I love the “Guns Don’t Kill People, Kids Who Play Video Games Kill People” bumper sticker on the back of my poorly-ventilated ’93 Toyota Celica, I loved the smoke-clear replacement cases for the Dreamcast and appreciate the menagerie of faceplates for the 360.

I was excited when I first saw simple adhesive skins for current-gen consoles available in stores.  Affordable, non-permanent artsy stuff for consoles?  That’s simple, that’s cool, oh wait, it wasn’t.  The company that pioneered this notion was the stunning paragon of nomenclature that is Gamer Graffix. 

Oh, oh, an X to replace the consecutive C and S!  I see what you did there.

Make no mistake, Gamer Graffix panders to the ‘bling’ clique of gamer culture.  Following one click onto their website, the gentle melodies of 50 Cent caress your ears into buying an ugly, raised-plastic visage of him to paste to your Xbox.  Their catalogue of products affixes uninspired displays of licensed characters on swollen pieces of plastic that will complete the baby-proofing of all sharp corners on your PS2. 

Sorry, but I don’t like being reminded of the thousands of Madden-loving alcoholic fratboys that’ll occasionally fork up perfectly good beer money for the console equivalent of dollar-sign-shaped spinners.

This explosive rant aside, a cool little company along the edge of Kentia called Defcon Skins was showing off simple, slick, artsy wares. 

Stylish original artwork is printed on perfectly-measured vinyl sheets.  They’re just neat.  They’re slightly grooved on the adhesive side so air pockets can be pressed out easily.  They’re smooth, thin skins that look like they could have been factory-installed and printed on.  I've taken mine off once and it went back on just fine; the adhesive remains just as effective without leaving a mess.

They do more than just consoles, too.  Hell, you can turn an iPod shuffle into a freaking ice cream sandwich.

BRUTAL HONESTY:  Actually, I don’t have anything bad to say about this product other than the fact that it has made a total hypocritical ass out of me.  They were kind enough to send me a random skin for review and happened to send out the one design that really went against my judgement- the dollar-laden ‘Benjamins’ skin.  The fact is, I loved the thing.  It went on great and looks glossy …and oddly professional.  I eventually want to get the ‘Inside’ skin (pictured above) but I’ve grown fairly attached to my bling at the moment.  Anyhow.  My previous rant is hypocrisy.  I’m a horrible person. 

...yeah, these skins are pretty nice.




PRODUCT CONCEPT:  Body-activated fighting games!

CONCEPT GONE WRONG:  That stupid motion-controlled Tekken 3 at Gameworks that never works right (damn it,) Sega Genesis Activator Pad. 

CONCEPT THAT WASN’T THAT GREAT BUT PEOPLE CLING TO IT PURELY OUT OF NOSTALGIA:  The Power Glove.  That’s right.  I said it.

CONCEPT DONE RIGHT:  BodyPad

Physically immersive gaming has never been at the top of many developers' to-do lists.  The biggest reason for the aversion is simply because we don’t have affordable technology that can do the job, much less do it well. 

Come on.  We’ve all played that damned Tekken modification at Gameworks at least once.  The one where waving your arm in some random direction might make your character punch?  The one where there is no physical way to influence any directional controls?  The one in which a participant, nay, a victim is reduced to a destroyed shell of a human being, flailing haphazardly in a desperate attempt to make their digital counterpart somehow not get kicked in the face? 

Yeah. 

That one.

That pitiful attempt, not unlike the mysterious electric octagon that was the Sega Activator, drove home the point that motion-controlled gaming sucked.  Despite this being accepted as scientific law, some bold-headed crazies took it upon themselves to reject our reality and substitute their own.  The result was the BodyPad, an unusually affordable (approx 40-50 dollars) and user-friendly home-console motion-control hyphenate-heavy setup. 

It’s really got a lot of great ideas in it.  Sensors on the elbows and knees give you four points of action that you can set on the receiver to any of the four face buttons.  Throwing an arm forward triggers that arm’s button.  Kicking a leg out activates that leg button.  Simple stuff.  Now, set the right arm to circle, the left to triangle, and such, and such… honestly, this pad is MADE for Tekken.  As Tekken has a right-punch-left-punch and right-kick-left-kick four-button setup, it’s ideal. 

Combinations therein can be made by moving two limbs at once.  Of course, some (such as both legs) are impossible… thus we bring in the handles.  The left hand holds a handle with a D-pad and the L triggers.  The right hand has face buttons and R triggers.  Effectively, and utterly unlike previous attempts at these controls, you can actually execute all actions in the average game. 

As stated, this is automatically a great adaptation for Tekken.  Similar titles like Soul Calibur can be configured rather easily as well; one arm for the A-attacks, the other arm for B-attacks, and both legs assign to kick.  Loosely emulating the actual movements of the character, though silly-looking, will help you time actions and combos appropriately.

All things considered, this little item is a breath of fresh air in what I thought was a very stale nook of the accessories industry. 

BRUTAL HONESTY:  The biggest fact to admit to ourselves is whether or not we’d really use it.  This thing is really neat, but the guy demonstrating it was in much better shape to do those moves than any of US were, let me tell you.  Will the average gamer want this in their home, or will this be better-suited to develop further in arcades?  Personally, I think I could get into it; it’s not too far removed from DDR, and we all look stupid playing THAT, don’t we?  Be honest.  I could go for some DDR… it beats real exercise, that it does…




PRODUCT CONCEPT:  3-D visors and VR-style motion control

CONCEPT GONE WRONG:  The Virtual Boy, every single product that has ever tried to bring these things to a home market

CONCEPT DONE RIGHT:  eMagin 3Dvisor

Ahem. 

Virtual Boy.

Now that we’ve all had a good laugh, I can properly segue to my last tale of interest. 

When the year 2000 finally came around, we all accepted that VR goggles were an undelivered promise of the glorious future, like flying cars, moon colonies, and the return of slap bracelets. 

Well, don’t get out the bracelets or New Kids cassettes yet, but there is a company making a simple, non-clunky 3D-image visor that works.  The eMagin 3Dvisor was on display in Kentia hall this past E3 with a couple demos to show off its prowess; there was a modified Blazing Angels playable that output a bizarre stereoscopic image to the monitor.  When put through to the visor, it split the two images properly and allowed your brain to assimilate in into height, width, and the mythical depth.  Watching your physically three-dimensional plane wave back and forth, firing shots that flew off into some imaginary distance was excellent. 



Stereoscopic illusions are such a basic concept yet we don’t see it attempted very often.  Though it was a bit tricky to get a good focus with my eyes (mainly because I’m just not used to things so close to me,) the image was actually VERY clear.  The principle is not unlike the Magic Eye.  Wasn’t Magic Eye great?  Wasn’t it?  Well, whether you’re too young to have seen it or too old to remember, either way, it’s new to you.  The same principle was less-effectively applied in that ill-fated Virtual Boy, which for no added cost gave you the bonus feature of a damn migraine after half an hour of playing.

The 3Dvisor displays high-quality images on twin OLED screens.  The technology is effective yet incredibly lightweight.  This helps in its second feature, the motion-sensing aspect.  Seemingly simple gyroscopic tricks were used with surprising effectiveness in their playable Ghost Recon demonstration.  Quite simply, I turned my head and it turned the view.  In proper FPS fashion, the crosshairs remained aiming at the center of my view, and wherever I turned my head, the view went.  It was almost unnervingly responsive.  Though it was susceptible to twitches here and there like you’d expect, the whole thing was shockingly stable. 

Stereoscopic 3D display… motion-activated control… if you could put this and the Novint Falcon together somehow, well… as Emmett Brown put it, "you’re gonna see some serious shit."

BRUTAL HONESTY:  This isn’t really that 'brutal,' seeing as it’s a simple fact; this thing is still pricey.  At over $500, it is only ‘affordable’ in comparison to bigger-scale past attempts at the technology.  At the same time, it is excellent technology and easily requires that price.  I think this is something we might see in more commercial or ‘professional’ outlets in the future.  As a small personal gripe, I have to say that all the space-age tech in it makes it too light; for something that’s going to be swinging around with my rapidly-turning head, it needs a little heft to keep it from being some rattling forehead-appendage.


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I hope you've enjoyed this verbose glance at a few overlooked bits from this past E3!

In the next installment of Things You Should Be More Excited About: Is PC gaming due for a paradigm shift?  Microsoft has some interesting plans for that market.  Who’s to say if they’re just blowing steam or not?