3D Gaming: Interesting or Unnecessary?
It seems we are moving back into a 3D fad. First we had 3D Super Bowl commercials that were the talk of the town, forcing people to pick up silly paper glasses for an epic minute of halftime advertising wizardry. The cinema world gave us “Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D” and the God forsaken “Jonas Brothers 3D” movies that both totally sucked jimmy sticks. Now video games are trying their hand at being 3D, developing titles that some see as thrilling and new, while others see as superfluous and silly. It’s been tiptoed around in the past, and now it’s back for another swing of the bat.
Today it was announced that Resident Evil 5 will launch for the PC this summer. Not only that, but it will do so supporting NVIDIA’s new GeForce 3D vision technology, a 3D video capability requiring you to actually own a pair of those snappy spectacles and wear them while you play. While a 3D Jill Valentine does sound intriguing… is it really?
From what I’ve gleaned while perusing video game websites and forums, there seems to be a very polarized reaction to 3D gaming. One one hand, it’s a new experience. It’s something different, something that could be cool if used effectively, and therefore worth trying out to see how things go. It could, in all honesty, end up looking and playing fantastic thanks to modern technology.
On the other side, some people see it as a gimmick – and a gimmick that will require them to buy a PC that can handle 3D as well as a 120hz monitor that can display it. Then people will buy games they wouldn’t normally buy only to play with the 3D; a technology we’ve had around for decades that has yet to really catch on. Perhaps there is a reason…? The games will obviously have an entirely different graphical presentation, which may just look downright weird and not feel right.
I don’t mind coloring this debate by saying it should be given a chance. We really haven’t yet seen what truly well developed 3D from today’s hardware can do for our games. It might be an expensive investment, it might require you to sit in your house wearing yellow plastic Lady GaGa specs, but it might actually be worth it. It’ll be nice if it’s tooled as an added bonus to gaming as we know it.
What do you think? Will you buy into this technology? Does 3D gaming excite you? Does Resident Evil 5 3D excite you? Does Jennifer Love Hewitt excite you?
Really? Nobody has any thoughts about this? I may weep.