Attack of the Movies 3D is a game with a gimmick. Up to four players take on six different movie-themed worlds, battling zombies, space aliens, underwater creatures, and even taking up arms as a resistance fighter in order to rage against the oppressive machines. Each of the six scenes features unique weapons, and with changing enemy attack patterns, no two play-throughs should be the same, aside from wearing silly glasses.

"We all dream about being the hero in our favorite action movies," said Gui Karyo, Executive Vice President of Operations for Majesco. "Attack of the Movies 3D lets you live that experience out with a realism and dimensionality previously only found in movie theaters."

Or PC games. Or Disney's G-Force. Let's face it, 3D is one of the oldest gimmicks in the books. Hopefully developer Panic Button Games will deliver a title that holds up once the thrill of red and blue headaches wears off.

The action-shooter Avatar: The Game hits on December 1, tying in to the upcoming movie of the same name from James Cameron. The film and the Xbox 360 / PS3 versions of the game will support 3D visuals, utilizing the more advanced digital 3D techniques that are intended to supplant the old cardboard-glasses anaglyph approach that worked with any old display.

To experience Avatar in 3D through the video games, users will need to have 3D-compatible TVs. Otherwise they'll be playing the game in its non-3D mode.

But 3D TVs are not something many folks have. Some day, if Ubisoft is right, we'll wonder how we coped without them.

Here is Yannis Mallat, head of Ubisoft Montreal, where the Avatar games are being made, from an interview with the Financial Post:

"3D is to pictures what Dolby Stereo was to sound," he said. "No one wants to go back to mono."

Sony, as we reported recently, is also pushing 3D TVs and 3D games as a big thing for the near future.

Back in the summer, I wore 3D glasses while watching Avatar being played, maybe for five minutes. And I've played a side-scroller from Blitz Games using similar digital 3D technology. Both required 3D TVs. AndbBoth were impressive, moreso for how much depth into the TV they presented, rather than for what you often expect 3D to get you: Stuff flying out toward your face. But I don't feel that I've had enough time with 3D set-ups or the games built for them to say whether Mallat is just providing hype or if he's on to something.

And without owning a 3D-compatible TV, I don't think I can assess what he's talking about any time soon.

Ubisoft counting on future of 3D gaming [Financial Post]

The news supports previous reports on Sony's 3D PlayStation 3 strategy, suggesting that a firmware upgrade would introduce the capability to existing consoles. Not only does Sony plan on upgrading the console to support 3D, but release games in 3D as well in order to take advantage of the enhanced capabilities.

Of course, 3D games and 3D televisions would go hand-in-hand, so adding the capability to the PlayStation 3 would definitely help drive at least a few television sales.

Would you purchase a new television to support 3D gaming, or is Sony seeing things?

Granted, Russia would probably be a whole lot less interesting to gamers if it were portrayed as an idyllic fantasy land with happy pink bunnies and stuff. So it's a good thing that Metro 2033 sticks to the post-apocalyptic wasteland guns and kicks them up a notch.

Let's back up a bit and convince you that this isn't some fancy rip-off of Fallout 3. Metro 2033 is based on a book, first of all, written by Russian blogger-turned-novelist Dmitry Glukhovsky. In Glukhovsky's bleak vision of the future, the known world has been visited by a nuclear holocaust that killed and irradiated everything on the surface of the planet. The only known survivors are those that happened to be in underground places when the whole thing went down (hence the name "Metro"). In Glukhovsky's novel (which was originally published for free on the Internet), the story follows a boy named Artyom whose only vision of the world the way it used to be come from postcards he collects throughout the dystopian network of Metro societies.

The biggest difference that I can stress between Fallout 3 and Metro 2033 is the fact that Metro 2033 picks up only 20 years after the nuclear Holocaust. People haven't quite adjusted to the changes in the environment and weird, upsetting things are still happening on a daily basis in the Metro colonies. Strange "anomalies" occur deep underground that cause hallucinations and some ominous force known as the Dark Ones keep making off with or mentally corrupting what's left of humanity.

The story of the video game picks up at the point in the novel where Artyom leaves the safety of his Metro station, Exhibition, to go on a mission to Polis in order to stop the Dark Ones. Our first look at the game spans both a flashback to the early days of safety in Exhibition and a midpoint level where Artyom's almost reached his goal while traveling across the ruined surface of Russia.

The first thing you notice about Metro 2033 is the minimal interface. To keep track of health, weapon ammo and whether or not the air in your immediate area is safe to breathe, you've got to pay total attention to Artyom's first person view. You can see individual rounds of ammo in your cobbled-together gun and know that he's in danger of dying if his vision begins to go red or he starts coughing and choking.

Slapping on the gas mask in contaminated areas affords you a little more in the way of a HUD (though you also have to put up with condensation on this inside of your mask). For one thing, you know your mask isn't doing its job if cracks begin to appear in the faceplate or the glass shatters altogether. For another, you get a nifty watch that keeps track of how much air is left in the mask. But other than that, there's very little in the way of "game-y" stuff we're used to from other shooters – even your map is a physical thing that Artyom pulls out to look at in a first person view.

The minimalist HUD drives home how tough life in post-apocalyptic Russia is. Everything around you is broken or rotting, so scavenging for replacement supplies like spare gas masks is particularly stressful but completely necessary since there's not much that humanity can make down in the Metro to survive on. For example, weapons made down in the Metro system are crappy and break easily, while the old school weapons from the surface world are so rare and awesome that their ammo serves as currency. So this puts the player in a constant tradeoff between having the best ammo in the game that will actually kill stuff in a few hits, or having enough "money" to upgrade the crappy guns you can buy underground.

The second major thing you notice about Metro 2033 (and the second major thing I can stress as completely different from Fallout 3) is how expressive all the non-playable characters' faces are. In the early Exhibition level, Artyom encounters a whole host of dirty, disheartened Russians living underground in their little city from mothers with young children to feed to injured, bitter men who like to gamble. Faces are completely animated with no paralyzed chins or cheekbones or dead, vacant eyes that move right when you talk to them and bodies move in the ways you expect them to as NPCs open doors, talk to one another or climb aboard underground handcarts.

The only thing that you might not notice right away about Metro 2033 is the combat. This is either because you're too used to first person shooters or because you're not playing the PC version with its spiffy (and optional) NVIDIA 3D glasses. Indeed, when we first saw a shootout on the Xbox 360 version with some weird looking werewolf/rat things, we were sort of indifferent. But later, in an enclosed tunnel with 3D glasses on, those werewolf/rat things suddenly looked a whole lot more upsetting as they swarmed our handcart and made off with the limp bodies of other passengers.

Combat seemed even more visceral in 3D after entering a stealth section where we had to creep along with night vision goggles past enemy NPCs. An NPC would suddenly round a corner where we happened to be crouching and his 3D rifle butt suddenly seemed way too close to our actual face – never mind poor Artyom's. This compounded the stress level we were already feeling from having a cracked gas mask and knowing we had to go down into a contaminated tunnel to get past the rest of the NPCs.

However, it might relieve some of you to know that you don't have to stealth your way through Metro 2033. Apparently, there's enough ammo and combat leeway in the game to support Artyom going through an area with guns blazing. That's not the route our demo master went with, hence our sudden spike in stress when that NPC turned up too close for comfort. But it's nice to know there's a choice, there, since the linear game gives you very few others.

Metro 2033 is being developed by 4A Games which has among its number some developers from the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games (which are also set in post-apocalyptic Russia) and will be out for the PC and Xbox 360 in 2010. A PlayStation 3 version isn't planned largely because the developer doesn't have much experience programming for it – so that could change with time if Metro 2033 the game is as much a cult hit as the novel turned out to be. Expect about 10 hours of solid gameplay and maybe look into getting yourself a PC rig that can support PhysX and NVIDIA DirectX 10 (maybe even DirectX 11, if NVIDIA feels like letting the developer go for it).

P.S. Yes, they're working on an English translation of Metro 2033 the novel – it might even beat the game to US stores next year.

Now, before we go any further, this information was supplied to Cnet by a Sony rep at the recent IAF consumer electronics show in Berlin. The same IAF where Sony reps haven't exactly had the best track record for accurate statements. So this may turn out to be total bullshit.

But just in case it's not, here's the deal: next year, Sony will release a line of 3D-capable Bravia TVs designed to be compatible with the PlayStation 3. Which means, in theory, all PS3 games could run in 3D, provided you have that TV.

Sounds great, but remember, it's the same claim Sony later backed down from.

More interesting is the report that in 2011-12, similar technology will be installed inside the PlayStation 3 itself, meaning - in theory, at least - you could get games running in stereoscopic on other TV sets, not just specially-equipped Bravias.

Which would be awesome, but seeing as previous reports from IAF were so loose on facts, we've pinged Sony for comment, and will update if/when we hear back.

Sony's 3D PlayStation 3: Hands-on photos [Cnet, via GameSpot]

Sony corporate quickly reached out to clarify the rep's statements, saying that when it comes to 3D and the PS3, at the moment all that's going on is "a technological investigation", with "no plan for the market launch of this at this time".

Now that sounds a lot more plausible.

Sony hedges on plans for PS3 update to enable 3D gaming on old titles [Engadget]

Ubisoft reminds us that James Cameron's Avatar: The Video Game will need 1080p resolution from an HDMI cable if you're grabbing up that game with the expectation of having your mind blown. So if you're an early adopter of technology, and that early adopted technology includes the Xbox 360, you're SOL. You'll be experiencing normal video game graphics like the rest of us.

I realize, of the potential population to be disappointed by this realization, I've described maybe 12 people. But it is a useful caution to keep checking the console requirements as technology gets more sophisticated.

3D TV Doesn't Guarantee a 3D Avatar, Says Ubisoft [UGO Games Blog]

New costumes, an improved Mercenaries mode, and support for NVIDIA's new GeForce 3D Vision tech will have PC gamers lording their superior versions of Resident Evil 5 over console players come September 15th, as long as their rigs are packing the juice needed to get the job done. To that end, NVIDIA is offering up a benchmark tool at its Resident Evil 5 downloads area, along with a 3D Vision technology demo for those interested in seeing the game's cut scenes in full 3D.

Capcom will be showing off the PC version of the game to the public for the first time at the San Diego Comic-Con next week, so if you're planning on attending, drop by the Capcom booth to check it out in the flesh.

It took me a moment to get my bearings while watching this first in the Wolfenstein animated graphic novel series. I had assumed that it was simply a tie in to the upcoming Wolfenstein game for the Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3, but then Mecha Hitler showed up. It looks like they'll be doing one of these for each game leading up to the latest, so expect many more black, white, and red all-over Nazi soldiers in the weeks ahead.

You can turn the mode on and off on the fly. I'm told that if you happen to have a pair of red and blue 3D glasses lying around the house and you put them on to watch this video it will look 3Dish. Of course I recorded this with a little handheld camera, so it doesn't really do the effect justice. But maybe you can get a taste of 3D guinea pig.

While at first I was a little skeptical, seeing it in motion was really stunning. The stereoscopic 3D technology doesn't just add a new dimension to the visuals, it requires developers to think out of the box when creating assets.

Unfortunately, this video doesn't do it justice because you don't have the glasses to see the full effect.

Who needs screen shots when you have 3D SCREENSHOTS! X-Men Origins: Wolverine, is apparently so cool it can't fit into just two Ds, so Activision dropped this interactive screenshot on us. Super-cool 3D effect aside, this really doesn't give me much to see in the way of the game.

All of the monitors use special software drivers and viewing glasses to add 3D to standard PC, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 games.

Most PC games released in the last five years, including many of the most popular multiplayer online, first person shooter, and role-playing games, have already been designed for 3D displays. iZ3D's optimized driver unlocks the third (depth) dimension of these 3D-ready games to allow gamers to finally play them as they were written - in 3D.

The monitors can also be used in standard 2D mode and run for $4oo to $550.

iZ3D Previews Three New 2009 3D Display Prototypes at CES

New 2009 3D Product Prototypes include a Flight Simulator, 26-inch Monitor, a Console Game Compatible Monitor plus new retail, demo/displays and more!

San Diego, Calif. (December 23, 2008) - iZ3D LLC, designer, marketer and enabler of advanced 3D visualization systems, will be featuring a hands on demonstration of three of it's upcoming product prototypes for 2009. iZ3D is located in meeting room #25118M in the Gaming Showcase downstairs in South Hall 2 of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

"We are continually pioneering new areas of 3D display for consumers with new display products, stereoscopic 3D software drivers, 3D player groups, events, and networking, 3D content certification and enablement, and system solution partnerships," stated Thomas Striegler, CEO of iZ3D LLC. Introducing three cutting-edge 3D prototypes at CES is once again proving iZ3D is the defacto industry leader in 3D solutions," he added.

The new prototypes include:
New iZ3D Immersion Series that gives users an incredible total 3D effect. It is a Triple iZ3D monitor setup with a flight or racing game simulator that really puts players in the experience!

26" iZ3D Prototype - Thought the 22-inch widescreen was awesome?
Wait until you see the 26-inch version!

22" Widescreen Console Game Compatible Prototype - Now play many
popular Xbox®, PS3® and Wii® games in 3D on the new iZ3D 22-inch game compatible monitor.

In addition the company will be showcasing a demo retail box and system setup displayed at iZ3D retail locations with self-running software demo and signage. A Far Cry 2 themed, custom painted iZ3D monitor and matching system from Intel®. Attendees will be able to take an up-close look at the incredible limited edition Smooth Creations painted iZ3D monitors.

The new iZ3D 22-inch monitor price of $399, roughly the price of 5-10 games, includes:
… 22-inch widescreen switchable 3D/2D monitor
… iZ3D output and anaglyph output drivers
… 3 pairs of passive linear polarized glasses
… All power and video cables
… Quick start guide
… 1 Year warranty
… Technical Support
… Free membership in iZ3D's upcoming 3D gaming league

iZ3D also offers the 22-inch monitor in six special edition custom-painted models created by Smooth Creations. These models, available only at www.iz3d.com, were commissioned at the request of customers that wanted their 3D monitors to stand out at LAN parties and grab attention. The custom-painted monitor price has also been reduced to $549.00

The iZ3D Solution
The iZ3D solution includes a widescreen monitor, viewing glasses, and software drivers. iZ3D developed this unique technology to create an adjustable viewing environment that delivers 3D without the eyestrain, spatial disorientation, or headaches commonly associated with other 3D approaches.

The 22-inch monitor, which is optimized for 3D viewing, can also be easily toggled into a 2D mode when required for productivity applications or email. In 3D mode, viewers see bright, sharp 3D images or video simply by installing the software driver and wearing any of eight iZ3D passive polarized glasses. New or existing PCs equipped with a dual-output video card easily power the display.

Monitor Specifications include:
- 1680 x 1050 resolution
- Up to 170-degree 3D viewing angle
- 5ms response time
- 700:1 contrast ratio
- 16.7-million colors
- 300 nits

Most PC games released in the last five years, including many of the most popular multiplayer online, first person shooter, and role-playing games, have already been designed for 3D displays. iZ3D's optimized driver unlocks the third (depth) dimension of these 3D-ready games to allow gamers to finally play them as they were written - in 3D.

Neil Schneider, President and CEO of Meant to be Seen, the "world's first and only stereoscopic 3D certification and advocacy group," was told by Blitz Games Studios, the company creating and licensing the 3D engine, that Sony "fully intends" on using stereoscopic 3D for their games and blu-ray movies starting in 2009.

“The best part is console support will only need a bios upgrade to work,” Schneider writes. “We are told that the ability to add this capability via bios may be unique to Sony PS3 versus the other console solutions.”

I've been seeing a lot of 3D stuff creep up as of late, particularly in movies. When did this happen? Is anyone really excited by having to wear glasses when you watch anything on TV?

My only question is: When is 4D coming?

Companys Says Sony To Support 3D Gaming In 2009 (GI)

BlitzTech, however, are pretty confident that their new 3D Engine - unveiled today at the 3D Entertainment Summit in Los Angeles - will definitely be a winner, despite requiring displays that follow the 3DTV standard. BlitzTech claim the engine will allow current-gen consoles to display IMAX-quality 3D imagery.

"Our BlitzTech technology will prove beyond all doubt that we are already doing what some industry experts have said is impossible on today's game consoles," said Blitz CEO Andrew Oliver, in a manner not unlike a soliloquising supervillain, "Our highly tuned engine is capable of producing real-time interactive graphics that are close to offline rendered CG movie quality."

Also, his army of robot water voles is invincible and cannot be stopped.

Fernlightniing has rolled his own iPhone port of Cube - an open source 3D FPS engine - and sent it off to Apple for their approval. Cube might look a little elderly on today's PCs (the sequel, Sauerbraten is being developed at the moment) but its does look quite impressive

This video clip will give you an idea of how impressive, but be warned - the person speaking (the developer, one assumes) sounds as though he is trying not to let anyone else in the room hear that he is recording a demo video and mumbles all the way through it. It is quite annoying.

Cube [Fernlightning]

Plain Sight is a multiplayer action title for PC and Xbox 360. Players control cute little robot skeletons that fly around a stylized environment and hit each other with swords to amass points. To 'bank' your points, you must blow yourself up - taking out as many of your rivals as possible.

Yes, it is essentially a game about suicide bombing robots. But it's ok - they are cute! And the background looks a bit like Tron, which can't be bad.

[Plain Sight]

Microsoft has experimented with 3D games, reveals Satchell [GI.biz]

James Cameron: 3D heading beyond movies [Cnet]

Now Futuremark has founded Futuremark Games Studio, a company that will create original IPs running their own engines. The whole setup reminds us of those comics when Superman and Lex Luthor have to team up, and then eventually it gets steamy.

Futuremark Enters Gaming Space with New Studio [gamedaily]