Sharp hosted their annual CES press event today and introduced a ton of new products, innovations and initiatives. From our standpoint, the most important announcement was that of the latest gaming LCD Television. The LC-32E67U is the new gaming model (following last years GP3). This unit will include the Sharp Vyper Drive technology, four HDMI inputs with 24p input capability, full 1080p and two Component inputs. The LC-32E67U should be available in February with and MSRP of $899.99.

Sharp also introduced two new sound bar products with the HT-SB300 and HT-SB200. The models both have adjustable bass, treble and sup output. We should have a much better impression of the new 32E67U and other products when we hit the Sharp booth during our media tour on Saturday. [READ MORE]

It's CES 2009 and as with every CES I've been to the first day saw the GN group at Digital Experience. For those that don't know, it's really a gathering of vendors in a large ballroom and you can quickly hit them in a small environment compared to CES. I had a plan of stopping by three booths from the list as there weren't as many game specific ones at the event.

I'll let Dan and Sean talk about Nyko but they had on hand Wii accessories. Dan and Sean have an appointment with them later on in the week so they will have a greater detailed account of their products. I did hold the new wireless Kama design in my hand and even with my small hands I found it to be a little smaller than I liked. The lower front button had a plastic lip to rest your finger on but I found it to be a little in the way. In all honesty it was a quick look so maybe Dan and Sean will have a better feel of it when they look at the product more closely later on in the week.

There were two products at Logitech's setup I really wanted to get my hands on. First up was the Harmony 1100 remote control. The successor to the Harmony 1000, the Harmony 1100 has some nice improvements. For starters the Logitech rep was really touting the customizability of the screen. Setup the buttons to your liking and make the remote display what you want and when. I was rather impressed with the responsiveness of the capacitive touch screen and the picture was nice and bright. On each side of the screen are some small plastic ridges that correspond with a sidebar button on the screen. They aren't real buttons but they are very helpful in giving a tactile feel of where the LCD button was just by sliding your finger over from the ridge to the screen. The Harmony 1100 felt great in the hand and I think I might have my replacement for my Harmony One.

The other big product was the G19 keyboard. The new gaming keyboard from Logitech has 12 programmable keys and lets you record macros on the fly. Like the G13, you can alter the color of the backlit keys as the product features the same multi-color LED as the G13. In fact you can combine this with the G13 and the new G9x mouse and have an entire setup with matching colors that are to your specification. The major feature though is the 320x240 color LCD display on the top. It's a vivid LCD panel that was displaying a YouTube video when I was looking at it. The video looked mostly smooth but I can't tell if it's because of the video or the panel that didn't make it completely smooth. I'll be able to run some tests once we get it in though to see how well it really performs. I have to say the LCD is quite impressive up close and it will be an open source API to develop plug-ins for it. Due out in March, the G19 looks like it has the chops to become THE gaming keyboard to pick up.

NVIDIA was a quick stop for me as I will be meeting them Saturday but they were on hand to show off their 3D glasses technology. Now the system is like those 3D movies you view in the theater with powered polarized glasses and they were running it off the up and coming Samsung 22" LCD monitor that had a 120Hz refresh rate. Dan can offer up more details on the monitor but the powered NVIDIA glasses would produce an impressive 3D effect on videos and games. They had my current favorite, Left 4 Dead as the demo. I'll have more details on it after Saturday but this might be a good seller for those wanting a new experience in gaming. It does need specialized hardware in the form of the monitor to work though and I heard the way they are going to sell it was in a bundle. Look for more after Saturday.

On an unrelated gaming note, I did stop by the HTC booth which makes my Touch Pro phone. Scanning the table, I told one of the reps it's too bad he didn't have the Touch HD out to look at. With that said, he pulled one out of his pocket saying that they did for those that asked for it. The phone felt really nice in my hand and it's certainly an appeal for those who want an iPhone physical format but want the flexibility of Windows Mobile. I don't know if I could do without a hard keyboard though but the Touch HD had me drooling. [READ MORE]

• Just because you can fit it on a DS doesn't necessarily mean that you should.  Case in point, Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades.
• In choosing the right netbook, the only thing those machines have in common is an ideal.
• Fwd: Review of Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories.
• In Ghostbusters for the Wii, do not cross the nunchuks.
• Step into the shoes of President-Elect Barack Obama on Inauguration Day.
• The Razer Moray Noise Isolating Earbuds won't convince you to toss away your over-the-ear headphones.
• Techgage takes a look at proper CD ripping practices.

Thanks to Defunct Games, TheTechLounge, AtomicGamer, Commander-in-Chief.net, Tweaknews, and Techgage for today's news roundup.

Right now I'm toiling around with the G13 Advanced Gameboard but at CES there are going to be a few more new items to the G lineup. First up is surround sound headset that also includes a mic for voice communication. The big thing though is a brand new keyboard dubbed the G19 offering a color LCD. I'm a big fan of their original LCD keyboard so I'm anxious to see how the new one holds up. Finally, a G9x Laser Mouse will offer higher DPI for your gaming pleasure. Look for some information on the products during CES this week when I get up close and personal with them

BFG Technologies is leaping into the full system arena with their announcement of the Phobos line of computers. If you're a gamer who wants a high end machine but doesn't want to spend the time to build one, this one might be up your alley. The Phobos will be using all the latest technologies such as then Intel i7 965 Extreme Edition 3.2GHz Processor, 2 (yes TWO) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 cards, and a CoolIt liquid cooling solution. For media, they are including a TV tuner and a slot loading Blu-ray drive as well as an integrated iPod/iPhone dock. The systems will range from $3,000 all the way up to $8,000 for the best of the best. You'll get to know what options are available after January 8th and I'm sure I'll see them in action when I visit with BFG at CES in a few days. Expect some pics and hands on impressions then. [READ MORE]

• Defunct Games draws a startling parallel between Dead Space, Prince of Persia, and Left 4 Dead.  We gotta hand it to 'em.
• It's time I shed my fear of the frighteningly deep strategery in Europa Universalis III.
• The CoolIT Systems Domino A.L.C. Water Cooler fills in the sub-$80 price point.
• Star Trek Online published a timeline updated to the year 2384.
• The current flagship for the ECS Elitegroup is the ECS X58B-A Black Edition Motherboard.
• Spire Torq Laptop Backpacks are practical, roomy, and with "infinite" numbers of pockets.
• It may be time to draw new conclusions on products from this mid-level motherboard roundup.
• If you want groundbreaking aesthetics and design, you want the Thermaltake SpinQ Heatpipe CPU Cooler.
• GameRanger added matchmaking for the Global Crisis expansion for Supreme Ruler 2020.
• AtomicGamer probably doesn't have any surprises in their Top 10 Games of 2008.

Thanks to Defunct Games, Legit Reviews, Star Trek Online, APH Networks, iXBT Labs, Tweaknews.net, GameRanger, and AtomicGamer for today's news roundup.

Welcome to 2009, hopefully you had a good time last night and are having a nice relaxing day today.  Posting will be very, very light today but we'll be getting back onto our regular schedule tomorrow.  We've got a lot of things planned for 2009 and we hope you'll stick around for them. 

Did you do anything game related as part of your New Years Eve celebration?  If so leave a comment and let us know what you did.  Personally I had a small gathering of folks over and we played Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour most of the night. 

• Looks like videogames aren't so recession proof after all.  Xbox America discusses.
• Transformers Animated: The Game for the Nintendo DS is apparently ... less than meets the eye.
• Our own Ben Berry is suited up, Lippi Selk'Bag 1-style, ready for sub-arctic temperatures or Best Buy all-nighters.
• The In Win Matrix Chassis (case) is equipped with an 80-plus 300-watt power supply, and is intended for home theater use.
• In Win has another eye-catching creation with the NA USB/ESATA HDD Enclosure.
• Aluminum construction and serious features for cooling, the Cooler Master ATCS 840 case is one of the newest.

Thanks to Xbox America, Defunct Games, BurnOutPC, Legit Reviews, and Tweaknews.net for today's news roundup.

Here's a game that I had a lot of fun with. It's a classic platformer but you always had to be on the watch out for that dinosaur foot. Think I might fire this one up on the emulator this weekend.

• You could do worse with a Mario Party/RPG mash-up.  Defunct Games reviews Dokapon Kingdom.
• Entering into the increasingly-popular netbook market, it's the MSI Wind Netbook Laptop.
• AtomicGamer hits up Grand Theft Auto IV on the PC with a C+.  Ouch.
• The Foxconn A7VA Motherboard is assembled with a successful, classic design.
• Incredible overclocking headroom from the $80 Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200.

Thanks to Defunct Games, TechwareLabs, AtomicGamer, iXBT Labs, and Techgage for today's news roundup.

Wired has published their list of Vaporware for 2008 and the list has some interesting selections. Game wise, Starcraft II and Home made the list. I probably don't have to tell you what #1 is though. As if there was any surprise what it was going to be.

A few days ago I had a conference call with AMD about their new Dragon initiative and how the Phenom II processor is a big part of it. Specs were kept secret but it looks like the secret might be out now because the one of the parts in the Phenom II line is showing up for sale. Computers4Sure is selling the AMD Phenom II X4 940 processor for $304. Specs are a Quad-Core AM2+ socket CPU running at 3GHz built on a 45nm process.L2 cache consists of 4x512KB and then there's 6MB of L3 cache on the CPU.We'll see if this stays up but for now there's one of the new processors for AMD.

Thanks Engadget.