Greg Spyridis of 'All About Games.com'

The final controller(s) that caught my eye is actually hot on its way to getting my vote for best-all-around-spiffy-thing of show. It was at a little booth towards the back of the little hall in the "downstairs" of E3 that I came across Miacomet and the "Real Feel" sports controllers. This little company that has been -hard- at work for the last three years has finally decided to come out and show the world what it is they have been slaving away on in their quiet little caves for so long.

"It was really simple," said Chris Meredith, one of the head brains behind this obscure development firm, "I was board to !@$# with what games had become. I knew there had to be something more."

That something more is a new line or controllers that is designed to emulate, as best modern technology can, actual sport environments with your PC.

The first is a pool cue that uses a modified mouse and a real cue stick to let you set up shots that are accurate to the real thing almost to the point that it's ridiculous. You use the mouse to set up shot angle, to zoom in and out on the ball, and to set up sweet spots for shooting English. The speed and power of your ball hit is done by actually running a cue stick through a specially designed sensor notch.

The final game play is just about as accurate as anything I can imagine. It only took about three minutes to get the hang of it and once I did I may as well have been playing in a real bloody pool hall. The only thing missing was the cigar smoke and drunk in the corner. The only draw back at all was that it couldn't actually plot my strike angle from the stick movement, but Chris assures me that's coming.

The second controller is a rod and reel set that is designed to emulate ocean shore fishing up and down the east coast. Still in its earlier alpha stages, there isn't quite as much to say about the rod except that it is sort of a monster version of the "pocket fishermen" that have become so popular with kids.

It is a life sized rod and reel that incorporates a wide variety of motors and counter weights to provide the appropriate feel for line strikes, line tension, fish fight, and bait drag. Coupled with it is an small series of electronic sensors built into the rod that lets the computer decipher exactly how hard, to what direction, and at what speed you cast and fight.

It is all brought together with one of the most realistic game environments fishing has ever seen that leaves little out: line strength (and thus breakage), tides, weather, topography, natural bait, and hundreds of other factors are all tied in. It is even set against a live video ocean to help give it that authentic feel. The goal is to "make it so realistic someone who has never set foot near an ocean can play this game and develop enough skills to head to a coast and catch fish on his own."

Indeed, that is the goal of the entire line, as shortly after the fishing and pool releases mid this year there will be dozens of future versions; including a wide variety of racket sports, bowling, football, baseball, golf, snowboarding, and possibly even some fantasy oriented items.

All in all, definitely the most innovative thing I've even heard of so far, and definitely something that I am incredibly excited about hitting the market. Keep your eyes open for it.

--Greg Spyridis