3DS Impressions

[The_Doom-ed_one]

Gathered friends... listen again to our legend... of the 3DS...

Anyway, I got to a try out station today and I can now report my opinion. Before I jump into what the 3D is like, I'll get some other, smaller things out of the way. The new control on the 3DS is actually more comfortable than it looks, and is a lot easier to get adjusted to than the PSP (unless you are native to Sony products in which case it's backwards). The console is slim, but that's all I can really tell you comfort-wise because it was bolted to a stand. I am still impressed with the general graphics.

Now for the 3D. It's freaky. If it works for you (like it did for me) here are some things I noticed. When in 3D mode, especially set on high, your eyes tend to wander throughout the scenery like they do in real life... the downside to this is that when your eyes wander from closer to farther away objects, your brain is programmed to change the position of your eyes to see farther or closer and the 3D tricks your brain into thinking it is physically farther away... so rather than scanning ACROSS a screen, like you would in a 2D game, you try to look THROUGH the system, resulting in double images or distortion in your vision for moments of game play in 3D, which can affect your playing performance. For best results, try to keep your vision focused on ONE field of depth, preferably directly on the screen, otherwise your vision will become distorted for moments as your eyes wander. For me, the best place on the depth slider was near the middle. The depth slider response rate is delayed by about 1/4 of a second. You can see the 2 images slide into each other if you do it fast enough. When turned off, the screen flickers for about 1/32 of a second and then the image is 2D. What's cool is that even if you move it from off to just barely on, you can tell it's switched to 3D.
Now, unless you are a gamer that likes to have the screen AT your eyeball or across the room, finding a comfortable, but usable distance to hold your system shouldn't be too difficult... other than having to slouch over (that kiosk is small) I found the distance very comfortable. Distortion when moving the system side to side? Yes, but it's not as bad as it sounds. You have a little room to move the screen around and still get a good image. Not many people I know like to play games out of the corner of their vision anyhow.
So why wouldn't 3D work for everyone? Well not everyone's eyes are the same distance apart. Some peoples eyes are about half an inch apart, while others (I've seen) can have 2 inches between their eyes, so their eyes have to cross at a different distance to get the same depth field. That's what I believe at least. I think you can figure out why 3D wouldn't work for someone who can only see out of 1 eye. People who have to wear glasses shouldn't make a difference either as I brought my mother (nearsighted, wears glasses), and she could see it just fine, too. The experience of 3D is more immerse, but not more helpful, though.

Now for me, the biggest problem appears to be price. I realize that 3D without glasses is revolutionary and everything, as well as being packed with a powerful portable console with great graphical capability, but in this economy, I'd suggest either a lower price, or a more useful feature packed in, like a 3D modelling program compatible with a 3D program on the computer. Or 3D movie editing software. Or some kind of application...

But those are my current thoughts on the 3DS after using it.