Call of Duty: Black Ops to boast 3D visuals

A complete gimmick engineered by a panicking movie industry they might be, but the games industry seems happy to leap atop the 3D bandwagon. Activision and developer Treyarch have jointly announced that Call of Duty: Black Ops will feature stereoscopic 3D visuals in all versions of the game – PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC.

Of course, you’ll also need to own a costly 3D-ready TV or NVIDIA 3D Vision-ready PC, and you’ll still need to wear the daft active shutter glasses. But it’s there, if you’re rich enough and fancy the idea of virtual bullets flying past your ears in a mildly unconvincing fashion.

Treyarch is hoping the lifespan of Black Ops will mean more and more people get to try the technology as 3D TVs become more popular, but so far the critics aren’t completely bowled over. Kotaku got an exclusive hands-on with the 3D mode, and ending up feeling not-amazed.

Call of Duty: Black Ops hits a store near you on November 9. Something tells me you might hear more about this little-known game before then.

[Via press release]