Frankly speaking PC gaming needs some serious innovation.
Not in terms of graphic processing capabilities, or enhancing the physics or AI, as that's pretty much happening at a pretty fast pace. The kind of innovation I'm talking about is more hands-on. While console gamers are constantly blessed with new and innovative control systems and add-ons that make the games feel more immersing, PC gamers are limited to better keyboards and mice.
It's not a bad thing of course, a keyboard and a mouse may arguably be the best way to control PC-centric genres like shooters, real-time strategy and RPGs but still is that where PC gamers hit the wall? Not according to Philips they don't.
I recently had a chance to visit the 'Simplicity Expo' help by Philips in Hong Kong, where they demonstrated some of their new and upcoming technologies. While the focus of the event was primarily on lifestyle and health-care products, my attention was quickly grabbed by this gaming PC on display that looked a bit out of the ordinary. That was my introduction to amBX.
Philips amBX is a game enhancing technology rather than a revolutionary new gaming control system. It basically consists of:
- 2.1 speaker system: A standard sound system with the only difference being that the speakers have tiny ambilight units on top.
- Ambilights: These change colors according to the game environment.
- Miniature fans: They blow air at you to mimic the events of the game, like a windy environment, or simply moving at a high speed.
- Rumble keyboard wrist-support pad: The rumble effect you're used to, in console games now implemented inside a wrist support pad.
The first game I got to try out was TOCA Race Driver 3, and I think that game was the best implementation of the amBX technology at that display. The ambilights take up the color of the sky when racing in bright daylight, with a little dim out when passing under a shadowy area. It works exactly how the ambilight technology works on the Philips TVs, so if you've seen one of those, you know exactly how well these things work.
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