The 2009 Game Developers’ Conference has yet to close up and already I’ve come down to one conclusion; the future of gaming is blindingly bright. With telekinetic technologies on the near horizon, virtual reality being improved upon daily, motion based controls finally getting into the swing of things, and systems looking to change the way we buy and play games forever, it’s anyone’s guess who’s going to coming out on top in the next generation. We at TWG got a chance to hit the show floor, trying our hands at anything we could manage to wrap our over-excited fingers (or otherwise) around. Imagination abounds at this year’s event and it was a blast getting to tinker with the dreams.

The event from ground zero is an entirely different show than what’s seen on the screen. Clips of press events and news slip back and forth amongst the crowded walkways and bits of gameplay recycle on huge big screen TVs all day long. It’s hard to follow what exactly is going on in the small area that surrounds you, let alone the entire event sprawled out in multiple buildings. Patrons can find something different around every turn just about and you can’t look in one direction without seeing something ridiculously awesome.

There was a big presence of game development software and tools as you might have guessed, as it was a developers’ conference and everything. The event was comprised more of demonstrations and information on the presenters’ tools than anything else. There were a lot of kiosks for hands-on time, especially at more buzz worthy booths, but most of the entertainment was spent conversing about specs and possibilities… oh, and wondering how in the hell the booth babes could get into their extremely tight jumpsuits. In other words, it was a delightful day of day dreaming.

Breaking from the usual path, I found myself more impressed with upcoming technologies than with anything else at the show. Sure, Nintendo finally opened up the Wii’s SD slot and Sony finally reduced the PlayStation 3’s price, but I was more hypnotized by the idea of mind control. Coincidence? I think not! The NeuroSky MindSet may not be the first product to push the envelopes of mind wave gaming, but it will be coming out for public use fairly quickly. As you may imagine, you use your melon’s mental prowess to manipulate objects in a game. By concentrating on a specific point, such as a barrel or a car, you can move and maim them by thinking of ideas such as push, turn, or burn.

I didn’t get any minds-on time with the device as the gathering around the booth stayed pretty packed the entire time I was able to attend but most people had a pretty easy time with it. In a couple minutes of concentrating, players were able to hurl barrels around and make cars fly through the air. I don’t think I saw one person walk away from their booth without a smile on their face.

NeuroSky isn’t looking to make the MindSet a new stand alone system; they’d rather add mental dynamics to the experience of systems already available. Though they plan on making a DS game with a custom headset later this year, they don’t intend to make applications themselves and are looking to third party developers to extend their mind control to the masses.