3D was a fad that died a well-deserved death during the 90s. Of course, the flame was kept alive by evil, evil hipsters who swapped between polarized lenses and shutter shades for a while, but only recently has it come back in a big way (thanks to new glasses, new technology, and the ability for us as a culture to forgive transgressions for existing as fads before being properly implemented.)

Sony is apparently on board with the 3D revival, and they had a bunch of games and TVs showing off their 3D technology at the GDC. Hit the jump for our hands-on impressions.

Unfortunately, the reps around the station were busy cleaning off the lenses that everyone was using (eewwwwww) or fielding too many other questions while I was by, so the name of the game we got to play evades me (I’m an AWESOME journalist.) We got to play a top-down spaceship SHMUP that had you scrolling around the earth to move (like walking around a planet in Mario Galaxy.) And it was in THREE DEE!!! What more do I need to say? (I also discovered that taking a photo through the lenses does not, in fact, a 3D photo make. I am an idiot.) There were some very cool 3D depth effects in the game, as well as in some of the other demos. Particles fly around and out of the screen, planets float within backdrops, and the bump mapping on in-game assets seems all the more realistic.

But were there caveats, you ask?

Hey, does anybody remember the Virtual Boy? No?

My god, the headache I got after using this thing for a few minutes. I don’t know if it has to do with the game, the lenses, or simply the technology, but focusing on that little bitty spaceship for more than a minute at a time meant blurry vision and an uncomfortable throbbing. This feeling would repeat every time I tried to use the thing, and also the next night at the Valve party, though I suspect that had something to do with the bartender giving me the hairy eyeball. There were other games on display that didn’t give me the same sensation when I checked them out, so whether this is implementation-specific has yet to be seen. It likely had to do with all the squinting to catch the smaller assets in the game.

We weren’t able to get a concrete release on when this is all supposed to roll out. We do know that Arkham Asylum’s Game of the Year edition will be in 3D, so we know the tech is coming/here, but there weren’t many specifics on the games and TVs. If you enjoyed any other 3D efforts in games (like select PC games such as Left 4 Dead), you might want to demo these when they arrive at a Best Buy near you.