The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is in full swing and The Game Reviews is here in Las Vegas to bring you our initial impressions of the games and gaming hardware featured at the show. TGR was lucky enough to spend an hour in Microsoft’s limousine rubbing elbows with none other than Corporate Vice President of Global Marketing Jeff Bell, Xbox Live’s Director of Programming Major Nelson, Gamerscoreblog.com’s Online Community Manager Chris Paladino, and several others.

Among the topics discussed with Jeff Bell were the future of Xbox 360 interface devices, Microsoft’s commitment to incorporating the human element across all of their platforms, and how gamers shouldn’t worry about being monitored by Microsoft in an Orwellian sense. Major Nelson also stated that Microsoft would come to a decision regarding compensation for the Holiday downtime by early next week. All in all, it was an exciting first day, and you should definitely check back at TGR for our transcript of the conversation with Jeff Bell for all the juicy tidbits.

Although the focus at CES is definitely more on high tech AV gear and gadgetry, there still are a handful of games on display, and TGR will be bringing you previews of practically every game on display. Nintendo is lamentably absent from the convention, and Sony only brought Little Big Planet and an old build of Metal Gear Solid 4, but Microsoft did bring playable versions of as-of-yet-unreleased games such as Frontlines: Fuel of War, Space Siege, Age of Conan, and Conflict: Denied Ops. We also got some hands-on time with Aegis, makers of affordable physics cards which greatly increase games like Unreal Tournament 3’s ability to handle PhysX in hardware intensive games, and got a chance to see some of the incredible effects made possible by the technology. Keep checking back with TGR for more in depth coverage of the show including video previews, interviews with industry insiders, and all the upcoming high tech gaming gear for 2008.