The player

Vegas was the setting for a display of future gaming apps, writes CIARA O'BRIEN

THE RECENT Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was mostly awash with accessories for iPhones and iPads, new mobile phones and smart TVs, but a trawl through the halls provided a preview of where the game industry is going next.

Nintendo showed off its 3DS console and Sony used its massive booth to demonstrate 3D gaming with Move controllers. Killzone 3, some 3D glasses and a fake gun controller for the Move made for a good combination.

Rival Microsoft previewed new Kinect functions at its press conference, with Avatar Kinect. Not only can you use Kinect to play games, but should you start a chat session online, your Kinect will read your facial expressions and movements, and have your on-screen avatar mimic them. A nice addition to the system.

More impressive was Intel's new generation of processors that integrate visual and 3D graphics technology with microprocessors on a single chip. This means faster speeds and better performance. The i5 and i7 chips apparently received the thumbs up from games developers, with teams behind titles such as Civilization Vand Lost Planet 2praising their capabilities. Valve co-founder Gabe Newell joined Intel on stage for the announcement, calling the chips a "game-changer".

Gaming laptops built around the new chips should show off the best of the i5 and i7’s abilities for gamers.

Among the games developers talking up their wares on the floor, one of the more unusual was Orbotix. The US-based start-up was showcasing its Sphero. This is a remote-controlled ball, where your smartphone is the controller.

Besides being more fun than it sounds (try making it jump ramps and navigate a home-made obstacle course), the device has an open API, which Orbotix says will allow developers to add a real-life component to their apps. For example, you could use the ball in a game of virtual golf with a friend, simply by downloading an app from an online store.

Sifteo, meanwhile, showed off a new interactive gaming tool: cubes. The 1.5-inch digital blocks are linked together wirelessly, are motion sensitive and will interact with each other when moved. New apps for the cubes can be downloaded to a PC from Sifteos online library and transferred to the cubes wirelessly. The games range from games for adults to learning puzzles for kids.