It's a rather funny fact, considering the size of this international show. The three main halls, in fact, require at least five minutes of walking at a steady pace to be crossed. And, in addition to the Convention Center, there are other places of exhibition located in the LVH Hotel and in almost every luxury hotel scattered around the famous Las Vegas Strip.
As I wrote in the previous episodes of this blog, this year is all about Ultra High Definition. As a result, today we had the opportunity to see some new TVs, including an impressive OLED 4K screen by Sony and the world's first 8K TV by Sharp.
But today was also the day of our appointment with Crystal Dynamics and their game Tomb Raider, and our visit to see the new Project Shield by Nvidia.
With regard to the re-launch of Lara Croft, the big news announced at CES 2013 is the first multiplayer mode in a Tomb Raider game. In truth, as the producers of the game rightly pointed out, Lara has already experienced multiplayer in Guardians of Light, but this is the first multiplayer mode in one of the main games of the series.
What we have seen today can be described as a team deathmatch mode, where some players play the role of scavengers (the bad boys of the single player mode), while other players take on the role of the survivors. Players can choose different weapon loadouts that can be modified at every respawn. You can also set traps and perform assassinations through what appeared to be a great melee combat system.
Regarding the new product from Nvidia, we can confirm that this is a very interesting project. For those who missed one of the most important announcements of this week, Nvidia has unveiled at the CES a new handheld console based on Android, that is able to play all the games available on Google Play on a small HD screen.
The most interesting feature, however, is the possibility to receive a video signal via Wi-Fi, directly from a computer with an Nvidia card, and play it on your TV at home. In other words, Nvidia is going in the direction of the coveted Steam Box, allowing players to play PC games in any room.
Once again, therefore, we were surprised by the presence of so many products dedicated to gaming in an event which, usually, prefers to delegate them to E3. If CES is giving us so many surprises, I expect some serious fireworks from the next E3.