The GamingNexus crew has a full schedule today, as Sean, John and I have no less than 18 different appointments/events scheduled. Some of the companies we will be meeting with today include Capcom, Sony Online Entertainment, THX, Mitsubishi Projectors, ezGear, Viewsonic, Vizio and Tritton Tech. Keep an eye out for updates on these and more.

We will also be wrapping up the day with a visit to the annual Showstoppers event (similar to Digital Experience) and then try our luck at the SOE Annual Poker Tournament, where we will also expected to get some hands on with Free Realms.  I imagine we may have more fun here in Vegas than Chuck, who is hanging out at his own convention back in Sandusky, OH.

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.

• Defunct Games is going to "Let 'Em Dangle."  When I asked who, they simply pointed to Comic Mod Johnny Turbo.
• Slider isn't the most innovative puzzle game, but it's got 99 levels a b*tch ain't one.
• Axl Rose once said, "We don't need no 'civil' war."  Our own Ben Berry begs to differ.
• Jan. 7 - 14 marks the open beta for side-scrolling 2D MMOG, Wind Slayer.
• Halo Wars heads back to the RTS roots of Halo that were never realized until now.
• AtomicGamer's 10 games to look for in 2009--with the caveat that Diablo III might not wrap up production this year.
• The Corsair Dominator 1600MHz 6GB Triple-Channel Memory Kit is specially designed to work with Intel's new i7 platform.
• Techgage EIC Rob Williams gets into his first netbook experience, apologizing profusely like he's the last on his block.

Thanks to Defunct Games, AtomicGamer, Outspark, Legit Reviews, and Techgage for today's news roundup.

New Year's Eve 2008.  My wife Grace and I paid fellow GamingNexus writer Sean Nack and his wife Stephanie an overnight visit.  We brought over Monopoly, but we weren't feeling very cutthroat.  We brought over Balderdash, but weren't feeling definitive.  Nothing at the theater piqued our attention.  And so my mind wandered back over the year, as minds are wont to do when another 365 days have come and gone.  And I'd resolved to pay more attention to indie developers for the upcoming year, 2009--but it didn't feel like it was too early to start.

Jonathan Blow's Braid was a game that I'd continually skipped past.  My Xbox 360 red ringed a week before it hit XBLA.  By the time my 360 came back, Spore hit.  Then Warhammer Online hit.  Then Civilization IV: Colonization hit.  Then Fracture (wince).  Then Dead Space.  Fable II, Far Cry 2, Fallout 3, Need For Speed Undercover (wince again), Prince of Persia...then a revisit to Pirates of the Burning Sea and the new-to-me Europa Universalis III.

And through it all Braid has been taunting me, calling me a spineless, lilly-livered coward for (predominantly) sticking with this holiday season's no-brainers.  Jonathan Blow is a man that, as far as I can tell from photographs and videos, has never smiled in his life; and he wasn't smiling at me now either. So it was time to take my cowardice and crutch myself on Sean Nack and his wife.  One hour before an incredibly slow-moving ball was to drop in Times Square, I convinced everyone to participate in what's been heralded in certain circles as the Most Pretentious Moment in Gaming for 2008:  Braid.  Plus it's been showing up--rather conspicuously--as the media darling on more than one Top 10 of 2008 list.

All four of us took up strategic positions on the couch, and it took all four of our minds put together to make it through the infernally-puzzling Braid.  We played, we laughed, we scoffed, we scolded, we shook our heads in defeat, we threw our heads back in victory, we pumped our fists with elation then alternately wished we could punch Jonathan Blow in the face.  It'd been several years since I'd been on a roller coaster ride, but traversing Braid certainly counted.  And just because we made it through doesn't mean the entire journey made complete sense. 

Here's what Braid's aftertaste was like to Sean and I--the following is copied and pasted from a back-and-forth email between the two of us--plus Sean divulges his sentiments on the endings of Far Cry 2 and Fallout 3 as well.  We figured it was high time the discussion of Braid be taken beyond the "It's the greatest ending ever!" platitudes.

* * * * * SPOILER ALERT * * * * *

...And if you haven't played Braid, then none of this will make sense out of context anyway.  [Continue reading "Adventures in Braid and the overwrought metaphor."] [READ MORE]

I know Dan reported on it earlier but Harmonix has officially announced the Roy Orbison back for Rock Band 2. The pack will include the following six songs which will cost you $1.99/160 points each or $9.99/800 for the full pack:

1. “Claudette”
2. “In Dreams”
3. “Mean Woman Blues”
4. “Oh, Pretty Woman”
5. “Ooby Dooby”
6. “You Got It”

The songs will be available on January 6th on Xbox Live and on January 15th on the PlayStation Network. [READ MORE]

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. 

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.

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.

Happy Holidays from everyone at GamingNexus.  Things will be a bit slow here as we spend time with out families and check out the fat loot we got over the last week or so. 

We want to know what you got though, post your best gift in the comments.

Here are a few things I missed while realizing I don't own nearly enough LEGO blocks:

• Capcom offers some l33t tips for Lost Planet
• Sony offering holiday themed levels for LittleBigPlanet
• Ars looks at the top 5 happiest moments in gaming from 2008
• GamePolitics offers their 15 moments from 2008
• Edge Looks at the top 25 heroes from the game industry as well as the top 20 defining moments
• Not to be out done, GameSetWatch posts the top 50 press releases of the year
• Game On! looks at the top games of 2008
• Read this if you suck at Motorstorm: Pacific Ridge

I've always liked the Wallace and Gromit series even though I've never really had the chance to sit down and watch more than one or two episodes at a time.  The series should make a fantastic game though and it looks like the folks at Telltale Games have done a good job of translating the duo to the gaming world.  The series will be called Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures and will be making it's formal appearance later in 2009.  I'm guessing it's going to be on the Wii and PC but nothing formal has been announced.
[READ MORE]

Rock Band is getting into the holiday spirit with the "Rockin' the Holidays 2008 Pack" which features:

• "Hanukkah Blessings" by Barenaked Ladies
• "Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You" by Billy Squier
• "Blue Christmas" as covered by The Pretenders [I have no idea]

Plus, the Foo Fighters are adding to their already thick lineup of songs in the Rock Band Music Catalog:

• "DOA" from 2005's In Your Honor album
• "Times Like These" from 2003's One By One
• "This Is A Call" from 1995's self-titled debut

These new tracks will all be available on December 23rd (Xbox LIVE Marketplace and PlayStation Store).  I never got into the Foo, but no self-respecting Gen Xer would deprive themselves of "This Is A Call."
[READ MORE]