A great time to be a PC gamer

I’ve never been a fan of gaming consoles, what with their joypads that work effectively at getting Mario to jump around but otherwise hopeless at sim racing and first-person shooters. Then the Nintendo Wii came along and breathed fresh air into the whole console market with its innovative input system. Even then, I didn’t give in to the temptation of buying one since I believed in the ability of a PC to be the better platform for gaming.

Recent news has vindicated my belief and it looks like 2008 is going to be an amazing year for PC gamers. There are two aspects that show promise of great changes – the GPU and the Input system. The two biggies in the GPU (graphics card) market – nvidia and ATI (AMD) are both entering a new battle with their latest generation products, the GX 280 series and the RV770 respectively.

Contrary to the nvidia product, which seems to be an upgrade of the last-generation technology, AMD seems to have a technological breakthrough on their hands, which they are calling the Cinema 2.0 experience. Showcased in this video, the RV770 is expected to deliver performance over and above all the other graphics console systems available today combined. Let’s hope they can both live up to the hype.

The other area of interest is the input system. OCZ, a well-known manufacturer of memory modules, recently started shipping their NIA product which aims to augment the keyboard and mouse as a third input system. NIA, which stands for Neural Impulse Actuator, uses brain signals and facial expressions to provide input to the PC. For instance, to move your character forward you can relax your facial muscles and tense them to move the character back or stop. Similarly, you can think about glancing and it is supposed to actually move the on-screen camera. As you may imagine, training the system to recognize your inputs is a very difficult task. The Overclock3D guys have been at it for some time and have a running review about their experiences with the product.

But the most interesting technology is potentially also the simplest for the user. A new startup named Camspace aims to enable users to use basic household objects as input devices, requiring a bog standard webcam! The demo is just mind-blowing and the best part is that they are planning to give away the software for free! If it actually works like the demo shows PC gaming will never be the same again. The entry barrier for games that require complicated hardware for correct inputs, like flight simulators and racing games, will no longer apply for the casual gamer. Of course, the enthusiast will still stick to his G25 and more exotic hardware, but Camspace promises to be a massive breakthrough nonetheless. Don’t miss the video -

Are we living in interesting times? You bet!