If you need to justify a pricey 3D TV, you can give Activision a pat on the back for adding 3D support to Call of Duty: Black Ops when it ships early next month. For those keeping score, it’ll be included in all three versions, PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.
It’s no big surprise given the industry-manufactured hype about 3D, but it’s kind of a shoulder-shrug for me. I’m just not sold on the effect, whether the TV requires I wear a pair of goofy-looking glasses–as most do–or not. I’m sure it has something to do with the price. Probably also my reluctance to bloody myself with first-generation tech. But mostly I just find it distracting, eye-straining, effectually gimmicky, and to be perfectly frank, not that three-dimensional.
But then I’m picky about stuff like this. Talk to me about holographic video gaming, and I’ll start to perk up. For thousands of dollars, I want full wraparound, not a window-box with fluctuating planes of 3D-ness.
But if you’ve already given up your retirement contribution for a mammoth 3D flatscreen, and you’re confident the guys who did Call of Duty’s 3 and 5 can maintain the pedigree established by the altogether different team that handled Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and it’s sequel, Black Ops is your game. As far as I know, its competition–EA’s controversial Medal of Honor, shipping next week–doesn’t support 3D. Not yet, anyway.
The one spot of bright news: PC gamers can get in on the ground floor for relatively cheap. Nvidia’s 3d Vision glasses are a couple hundred bucks, and a 20 to 22 inch 120Hz LCD goes for another couple hundred.
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