CES isn’t sometimes the place we see the 12 months’s greatest gaming bulletins, with main upcoming video games normally being saved for summer time and winter, and new console bulletins now typically coming in the spring or fall. But after spending per week in Vegas, I’m now leaving feeling like the gaming business is about to undergo a giant shift. Some of it’s for the higher, with small creators getting an opportunity to vary how we work together with our favourite video games, whereas the remainder of it displays the tech business’s incessant must stuff ineffective AI into our lives. With that in thoughts, listed below are my 4 favourite (and three least favourite) gaming bulletins from CES 2025.
Favorite: MCON Magsafe cellphone controller
Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt
There’s no motive we shouldn’t all be gaming on our telephones extra—and I don’t imply Candy Crush. (Not that there is something incorrect with Candy Crush, after all.) These issues have gotten highly effective sufficient to run video games launched for the PS5, however due to their lack of bodily controls, most builders are nonetheless making heavy compromises for his or her cellular titles.
That’s the place 20-year-old Josh King comes into play. The YouTuber made waves late final 12 months when he launched a video showcasing his prototype MCON controller, which makes use of MagSafe to offer your cellphone an identical type issue to, say, a Nintendo DS. While different cellphone controllers normally require you to take away your case and may be annoying to tackle and off your cellphone, utilizing the MCON is meant to be so simple as utilizing a MagSafe energy financial institution.
I’m in love with the end result. It has a full suite of controls, the magnetic connection is powerful, and utilizing it’s as straightforward as snapping it onto my system and flipping out the hidden controls. Plus, in the event you don’t have an iPhone, it really works with MagSafe adapters.
King is presently working with peripheral firm Ohsnap to finalize the design, however in the event you’re offered already, there’s a Kickstarter the place you possibly can pre-order your individual MCON beginning at $99. I can’t wait to get mine and truly begin treating my iPhone like the correct handheld it clearly has the chops to be.
Least Favorite: Razer Project Ava AI esports coach
Credit: Razer
Razer’s Project Ava is one in all two ideas the firm’s bringing to CES this 12 months, and of the two, I hope it’s the one the firm leaves behind.
Have you ever heard of backseating? It’s the phenomenon the place a streamer will get caught whereas taking part in a sport and their viewers preserve piping in by way of the chat operate to inform them progress. Most streamers I’ve seen explicitly ask their viewers to keep away from it, normally contemplating it extra annoying than useful.
Ava, in the meantime, guarantees to convey a bespoke AI backseater to everybody with a pc.
Essentially, the manner it really works is that Ava will watch you play and provide suggestions based mostly on what it sees, loudly talking over the in-game audio to take action. Razer insists it’s not dishonest, since Ava can’t entry data not obtainable to you, however I feel that also misses the level.
First, it’s unclear the place Ava’s getting its suggestions, and second, it may find yourself being fairly distracting if it talks over your gameplay. But actually, it’s the entire recommendation angle I’ve a problem with.
If I’m taking part in Dark Souls, the builders have normally labored out a extra elegant method to cue me into once I ought to dodge than an AI yelling in my ear. If I depend on Ava, I’m coaching myself to disregard these hints, robbing myself of a few of the expertise at the least and making myself worse at the sport at the most.
Even in multiplayer, a part of the enjoyable for me is determining the finest builds and most optimum routes. If Ava is simply telling me what I ought to do, then am I actually taking part in or studying the sport, or am I simply urgent buttons whereas the robotic makes all the actual choices?
There is a spot for guides—far be it from me to gatekeep. But this type of real-time interruption appears extra prone to spoil my enjoyable than improve it.
Favorite: Lenovo Legion Go S brings SteamOS exterior the Steam Deck
Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt
Valve’s Steam Deck is one in all my favourite gaming purchases I’ve made in a very long time, making my sport library moveable with much more flexibility than the Nintendo Switch. A giant a part of that’s the firm’s SteamOS working system, which makes it handy to vary the handheld’s settings and entry your Steam video games on the fly.
Attempts to repeat the Steam Deck with out SteamOS, like the Asus ROG Ally or the Lenovo Legion Go, simply haven’t finished it for me, as they depend on Windows, which is a a lot clunkier expertise when utilizing a controller. These gadgets are technically extra highly effective, however the efficiency enhance isn’t price it to me.
That’s why I’m so excited for the Lenovo Legion Go S. Announced throughout CES, this will likely be the first gaming handheld not from Valve to make use of SteamOS. It’ll have Windows variations, too, however beginning in May, you’ll be capable to get it with the working system I like a lot. Even higher, it does look to supply specs with a slight-to-moderate enchancment on the Steam Deck, and its beginning worth of $500 is definitely cheaper than the entry degree Steam Deck OLED. I’m excited to see extra partnerships observe swimsuit.
Least Favorite: The PUBG Ally brings the lifeless web idea to video games
Graphics card and now AI firm Nvidia is about to fill your sport lobbies with bots, however like, in a futuristic manner. Announced throughout CES, Nvidia is working with PUBG developer Krafton to convey “co-playable characters” to the well-known battle royale title.
Essentially, the expertise groups you up with a bot, however you can provide it instructions to inform it to seek out armor or weapons for you or coordinate with you in a struggle.
I may really see this being actually cool in a single-player sport, being the subsequent evolution of the kind of gameplay seen in titles like Star Wars: Republic Commando. But in multiplayer, it simply raises too many questions.
Is the bot going to be extra conscious of the map than people? How good ought to it’s at capturing, earlier than it begins to really feel both like a cheater or a legal responsibility? And maybe most significantly, will it really feel satisfying to win if an AI guided you to victory? Or will it’s the gaming equal of a wealthy individual hiring an skilled hunter to take them on a curated expedition and do all the work besides pulling the set off?
There’s lots of robust balancing acts to determine right here, however even assuming all the things performs out as desired, I’m nonetheless undecided what the level is. Part of the enjoyable of taking part in a shooter on-line is realizing that once I take down the enemy, I’ve ruined some 11-year-old’s day. If half the folks I’m going to be capturing at are robots, why not simply play a single-player sport as a substitute?
Favorite: The Razer Project Arielle has offered me on heated and cooling gaming chairs
Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt
Razer’s Project Arielle is the firm’s second idea system for CES, and the one I’m undoubtedly extra enthusiastic about. Essentially, it takes the Razer’s present Fujin Pro gaming chair and straps some heaters and a bladeless fan onto it, with surprisingly efficient outcomes.
What I initially thought was going to be a gimmick turned out to be a pleasant little oasis on the CES present ground, both warming me up after an hour in the freezing media room or blowing chilly air on my again and neck after I spent a while wandering round the sweaty present ground.
Sure, you might get an identical expertise with an area heater or a fan, however having the local weather management built-in immediately into your chair permits it fast entry to your again and neck, and I discovered it felt simpler and cozy than my desk fan at house.
Las Vegas is a nightmare in terms of constant temperature, and after per week right here, I’m nearly able to stage a heist on this factor and take it house. I’m hoping Razer offers this the identical remedy it gave its haptic gaming cushion idea from final 12 months and truly brings it to market.
Least Favorite: Nvidia RTX Neural Faces is an AI yassification filter
The tradition battle spares nobody, particularly in terms of gaming. If you’ve seemed up The Last of Us Part II or Horizon Zero Dawn on social media, little question you’ve seen photoshops of their feminine leads that try to make them appear to be they simply walked out of a Sephora, regardless of them spending their video games deep in the coronary heart of the apocalypse. Critics have began to name these edits “yassification,” and it looks like Nvidia’s taking a facet right here: its new RTX Neural Faces function would possibly as properly be an AI yassification filter.
The thought is to assist sport NPCs cross the uncanny valley through the use of AI to assist with extra pure lighting, pores and skin, and hair, particularly when gamers are taking a look at that NPC from an uncommon angle. The end result simply type of appears prefer it’s trampling over the artists’ rigorously made choices with no matter Nvidia thinks “natural” means.
In an instance video posted by Nvidia, an NPC with Neural Faces utilized appears to have completely completely different bone construction, a recent layer of basis, some new mascara, neater brows, and greater however a lot deader eyes. Cool in the event you’re into that, I suppose, nevertheless it’s clearly not the look the modelers or lighting artists have been going for, and it undoubtedly wouldn’t be acceptable for loads of gaming’s most well-known characters…except you’re curious what a Solid Snake make-up tutorial would appear to be?
Favorite: Acer Nitro Blaze 11
Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt
If the Lenovo Legion Go S stands out from different gaming handhelds due to its software program, then the Acer Nitro Blaze 11 is the reverse. Frankly, it’s the greatest gaming “handheld” I’ve ever used, and whereas which means it’s not essentially the most handy, there’s a sure maximal pleasure to be taken from carrying it round.
With a lot room, it’s packing some fairly spectacular specs, however what actually takes the cake is its 11-inch, 2560 by 1600 show. It will get brilliant, it comes with a sturdy kickstand, and it will probably show as much as 120 frames per second. It’s additionally surprisingly light-weight at 2.3 kilos. That’s a pound heavier than the Steam Deck, however in comparison with a laptop computer, it’s nonetheless cheap.
Granted, in the event you get uninterested in holding it to play it, the Nitro Blaze 11 does have one trick. Like the Nintendo Switch and the authentic Lenovo Legion Go, it’s received removable controllers. But not like these gadgets, its display screen is large enough to make kickstand mode really feel price it to me (I normally simply maintain the competitors).
To be sincere, at this level in my life, I’m not prone to go for the Nitro Blaze 11. I’m older, I’m busier, and comfort trumps efficiency for me. But a youthful, extra explicitly gamer-y model of me would have been throughout this.
