CES isn’t all about games, but there was plenty of gaming on display in Vegas.

Project Leonardo is Sony’s customizable controller designed for accessibility

Sony had a presence at CES last week, and Playstation was part of the splashy affair. In addition to providing an update on Playstation VR2, Playstation president and CEO Jim Ryan revealed the company’s fully customizable controller, Project Leonardo.

The goal with Leonardo is allow for people with different physical abilities to play games by giving them the chance to configure the switches, buttons, and sticks in a way that works for them.

No pricing or release date was announced. Project Leonardo is another way that Playstation is prioritizing accessibility and finding ways to enable more people to play video games.

Razer updates Blade laptops and announces Edge, a new handheld game system

Premium game hardware brand Razer showed off two new Blade laptops at CES.

The Razer Blade 16 is a 16-inch laptop with phenomenal graphics processing power thanks to the Nvidia Geforce RTX 4090 card and an Intel i9 HX processor. You can also got a version with a dual-mode display, delivering either 4K at 120 Hz or 2K at 240 Hz.

Razer also revealed a larger version, the Razer Blade 18 which the company recommends as a desktop replacement. With an 18-inch screen and up to 64 GB of RAM and 8 TB of storage, the Blade 18 is a beast.

The Edge, meanwhile, is a phablet with touchscreen functionality that can be plugged into Razer’s Kishi V2 Pro controller, which adds the standard button and joystick controls used by many video games and with haptic feedback. You can play Android games on the Edge as well as Xbox games through the cloud or from your home Xbox console with an Xbox Game Pass subscription.

Acer has two Predator monitors that will take your breath away

Almost more important than the computer you use is the monitors you hook up to it, and at CES this year, Acer revealed two new Predator monitors that make me swoon. No longer do PC gamers need to get a television set because these monitors are better.

The Predator X45 is a 45-inch OLED curved monitor with a 240 Hz refresh rate and the Predator X27U is equally capable, but in a smaller form factor. Both monitors will hit shelves in the spring.

CES has it all. Watches, keyboards, docks, desks, laptops, TVs, and more.

Citizen’s smart watches have retro looks but future functionality

Watchmaker Citizen has been around for more than 100 years, and the new CZ Smart watches that were unveiled at CES show some of that history.

These watches look like classic watches of old, but have the tech that other smart wearables have, like sleep and activity tracking, music streaming, and spatial sensing.

The new watches are being released in Canada in March and range in price from Cdn$399 to $499.

Kensington’s peripherals enhance your office experience

Kensington keeps making my office space better. Among the new products announced at CES were a bunch of new new docking stations, including two portable versions.

The MD120U4 (US$150) expands the number of ports on your laptop.

The SD1700P (US$140), meanwhile, has a wireless charging pad built in so you can charge your mobile too.

And there’s the larger, more feature-filled SD5780T Thunderbolt 4 (US$400), a great docking station for your desktop.

And after spending a day in an open office environment recently, for the first time in more than three years, I can’t wait to get my hands on the MK7500F QuietType Pro keyboard which promises to deliver silence even though it’s a mechanical keyboard.

Acer’s got a desk you can pedal at

Forget the standing desk. Acer’s new eKinekt BD 3 is a bike desk, and you can use the energy generated by your pedalling to power your computer and other devices.

Lenovo’s unique dual screen laptop

Lenovo’s Yoga Book 9i has two OLED screens that are hinged and can be arranged in a number of configurations. It comes with a detachable keyboard, stylus, and stand.

LG’s OLED TVs get better and so does the operating system

This year is the tenth anniversary of LG’s OLED televisions and they keep improving on the technology.

This year’s lineup includes the C3, G3, and Z3 OLED Evo screens with a new Alpha 9 processor and a brightness booster technology on the G3 model.

A significant update to the webOS operating system that drives the TVs allows for individual profiles, so you can personalize the screen with the channels and apps you want. If you use your screen as part of your home office, you can gather related apps into a folder.

There’s also the ability to set your own side-by-side multi screen, and because there’s two inputs on the back, you could plug in two PS5s or two Xbox Series consoles and pretend you’re playing couch co-op.

There’s also a dual audio output with the TV having one level and the Bluetooth output with a separate level, so you can have the TV on at a moderate level, and if someone finds it difficult to hear, they can connect a Bluetooth headset and have a louder volume just for them.

Samsung brings QLED tech to OLED screens

Samsung’s always got next-level televisions, and this year they’ve injected OLED sets with the Quantum Dot technology that was developed for the LED line years ago.

What this means is that Samsung’s OLED televisions can deliver a much brighter picture, which can dramatically improve colours.

The QLED line from Samsung also gets improvements, with Auto HDR Remastering, which converts standard dynamic range images to high dynamic range so you get better shadows and highlights in your picture.

Is Hyperloop a joke?

Dumbest people on the planet pic.twitter.com/ORP0583LoW

— Heshmat Alavi's Trenchcoat (@UrOrientalist) January 7, 2023

This week on The Shift, Shane Hewitt and I talked about the Star Wars experience at DisneyWorld, my fave games of 2022, what Canadian gamers are like, and the new release, High on Life.

My fave games from 2022 listed, the ESAC has new info on gamers in Canada, and High on Life is truly a trip of a video game.

Blaine’s personal best games of 2022

In chronological order of release, this list of 15 titles only includes new games – not ports to new systems – that I actually played, which are in most cases games that were provided to me by the developer or publisher.

• Sifu
• Horizon Forbidden West
• Destiny 2: The Witch Queen
• Elden Ring
• Tunic
• Kirby and the Forgotten Land
• Hardspace: Shipbreaker
• Stray
• Immortality
• Splatoon 3
• Return to Monkey Island
• Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
• God of War Ragnarok
• Pokemon Scarlet/Violet

Entertainment Software Association of Canada’s latest data on Canadian gamers

Every year, the Entertainment Software Association of Canada conducts a survey of gamers to get a snapshot about the industry.

Last year’s report shows that 53% of Canadians played video games regularly (during the last four weeks), for an average of 7.9 hours per week.

And the gender split is even: 51% women and 49% men.

Gaming is a social activity

The way games have connected people was obvious, with 67% of video game players saying that games introduced them to new friends and relationships.

The survey results demonstrated that 49% of adult video game players and 70% of kids play video games most often with other people.

Gaming as a Family

74% of parents who play video games reported playing with their children, and 69% said that video games helped them spend more time with their children.

Why we play

In the survey, the ESAC found that people played video games to relieve stress (85%), to improve cognitive skills (81%), and because playing brought them joy (84%).

High On Life proves to be as hilarious and weird as expected

High on Life is a new, first-person shooter from Squanch Games available for Windows and Xbox Series X/S and through Xbox Game Pass.

Mechanically, it’s a fairly standard shooter. You’re a recent high school graduate with parents who think you’ll amount to nothing who becomes the saviour of humanity when an alien crime syndicate invades Earth because people happen to be a really great drug.

You’ll move around the maps, jumping and shooting and exploring nooks and crannies.

But there are a few things that set High on Life apart from other standard shooters, and it starts with the weapons you’ll be wielding, because in this game, the guns are sentient beings. You’ll collect an entire arsenal of these creatures as you play through the game, and each has its own unique characteristics and personality.

The creative force behind this is Justin Roiland, CEO of Squanch and the co-creator of Rick and Morty, and High on Life overflows with the kind of raunchy adult humour that series is known for.

The creature design is equally audacious and the actors here, including Roiland, imbue their characters with incredible hilarity.

High on Life’s unique humour will not appeal to everyone, but the game is so committed to its schtick that it will be more than enough for people who appreciate what it has to offer.

Over the winter break, my family visited DisneyWorld where we spent a day and an evening at the Hollywood Studios park and Black Spire Outpost from the Star Wars universe.

We focused our time exploring the compelling and convincing environment and appreciating the three rides:

• Star Tours
• Smuggler’s Run
• Rise of the Resistance

Other opportunities at Galaxy’s Edge include creating your own lightsaber and building your own droid.