Strange New World: Picks of the Week

Jan. 31, 2008 — -- Being the tech nerds that we are, all the hype surrounding the just-wrapped Sundance Film Festival did little more than make us hunker down with our "Madden 08" and get ready for the Super Bowl.

But we turned our glazed eyes toward two trade shows we could get excited about: the Independent Games Festival, where fresh ideas still reign, and the Photo Marketing Association International Convention and Trade Show, which is touting the latest in cameras and image processing.

We're not actually going to either, of course, because we're too busy texting so we share the growing outrage over the high cost of text messaging.

Here are our picks of the week.

Remember when the Sundance Film Festival was actually a festival for independent films? Now it has become just another Hollywood get-together, where so-called "independent" films are shown to the Hollywood players whom the original show attendees would have avoided. So if you are looking for a high-quality multimedia festival and indie vibe, check out the 10th annual Independent Games Festival in San Francisco, Feb. 18-22.

The festival showcases fresh new video game ideas that have yet to be watered down or corrupted by mainstream publishers. Past festival winners have gone on to get widespread distribution, and it's always fun to be able to say, "I played that game way back."

Head to the festival Web site and check out the games of tomorrow. We like "Goo," a cool game in which you are a lump of mercurylike goo that moves around the screen capturing other goo. It's cooler than it sounds: You use a webcam to put your face in the goo.

Hot on the heels of this month's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the Photo Marketing Association show, or PMA, kicks off this week.

Already we are hearing great things in the world of digital photography. We conservatively estimate that about 70 percent of the digital pics taken these days are terrible. It's the nature of the beast — with a digital camera you don't worry about setting up a good shot, you just fire away and hope you got a good one. Now there may be a way to save some of the clunkers.