Finally got around to getting some killzone on in 3D. And not that this should surprise anyone, but its a sub-par experience...the PS3 does not have the horsepower to output these graphics in 3D. The 3D effect itself is impressive and generally well done, and adds a lot to the experience, but you give up so much. We've got a number of issues here.
The most obvious is the drastic drop in resolution. It feels like its dropped down to SD, perhaps even lower. And its the really ugly kind of low resolution, where everything shimmers and just looks a mess. Couple that with the chaotic and destroyed environments, and its difficult to tell wtf is going on and where the enemies are most of the time. Its in 3D for sure, but it aint pretty.
Also, the game defaults to jacking the 3D effect to the max. There's an impressive sense of depth, but this brings with it a few more problems. Even on my good plasma, let alone Sony's own 3D LCDs, theres going to be some crosstalk. But by default, there is SO MUCH crosstalk, and it blurs the scene even more. Especially the really dark nature of the game makes the crosstalk really stand out. Lowering the 3D depth helps a bit, but it more effected by crosstalk than nearly any other game I've played yet.
Also, they commit the mortal sin of putting HUD elements and tooltips on the plane of the screen. This might sound odd if you're not used to playing FPSes in 3D, but you get a sort of tunnel vision, where you are literally looking far out in front of you, and the plane of the screen is relatively much closer to you. So when youre looking what feels like 100 yards down sights at an enemy and a reload text pops up 5 feet from your face every 20 seconds, its incredibly annoying. Your eyes automatically focus on it, you lose sight of what you were aiming at, and it slowly leads to eyestrain city. Thankfully the crosshair itself is fairly in the distance, but I honestly dont know what they were thinking when tooltips and hints keep popping up in your face. This was a solvable problem.
Performance seems ok, probably not too far off from 2D mode, but this is a 30 and under game, and I'm not impressed by that to begin with.
So about 5 years from now, when the killzone collection comes out on the PS4, and it can push 30+ FPS in 4xAA 720p 3D, we're using autostereo TVs or glasses with zero crosstalk, and designers learn how to properly place UI elements in 3D space, it will probably be amazing in 3D. In its current state, its half baked and disappointing.
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