Every January, after our bacchanal of gadget-buying, well over a hundred thousand techies gather in Las Vegas to show off their new toys for the next year (it’s no coincidence the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo happens in Vegas the same weekend).

But this winter was not so much with the money-making and this year's Consumer Electronics Show is a much downsized affair. But that doesn’t mean tech news wasn't announced. So here are some of the more interesting videogame bits.

3D is the new HD:
Cinemas have been upgrading to 3D to try and convince folks to leave their home theatres, but that might not be a draw for much longer since several manufacturers (Sony, Samsung, Panasonic and others) were showing off their 3D wares. Sony showed off PS3 games MotorStorm, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue and Wipeout HD on a 3D Bravia set and word from the floor is that it was pretty rad. But they’re currently concept-only—and still require special glasses, albeit not of the old-school red-blue variety—and won’t likely hit stores until next year at the earliest, and will be way expansive when they do (Wired mag estimates $20,000).

But in the meantime, NVIDIA's GeForce 3D Vision package should do—drop $400 for monitor and another couple hundred for the glasses and you’re gaming in depth, at least on compatible games like World of Warcraft or Left 4 Dead.

SimCraft is the new Couch:
But all that stuff is still just stereoscopic eye trickery. If you want real three-dimensional gaming, SimCraft was showing off its Apex SC 830, a full-on, sit-in racing rig. It looks something like a naked dune buggy and features 40 degrees of roll, 25 degrees of pitch, and 40 degrees of yaw (no, I’m not sure what that means, either, but it sure looks like it shakes you around a lot. Bad news is that it’s $40 grand. But word is a cheaper, collapsible version will eventually be released.  

Fab Four is the new Rock Band 3
Harmonix announced at CES' Billboard Digital Music Live keynote that they’d be pushing back RB3 to focus their energies on an all-Beatles game. But unlike, say, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, this new franchise looks set to rule the rhythm-game scene, especially if it goes beyond button-pressing to follow the Beatles trajectory from Liverpool hoodlums to family-friendly pop stars to hippie revolutionaries.

Building is the new Playing:
Following in the footsteps of Sony’s Little Big Planet is Microft’s Kodu, an upcoming “game” that’s really more a toolbox. Also, what it makes is butt-ugly compared to LBP’s stylized adorability. But that didn't stop Kodu from taking center-stage at Microsoft’s CES keynote when an “actual 12-year-old girl” Sparrow showed-off how easy it is to build with this new title. Designed by Microsoft Research as a “learning tool for young kids” it could help train the next generation of game designers.