You may already have Killzone 3 for the PS3, but have you tried it yet in 3D? We fired up the new first person shooter on our 3D TV (an LG 47LX9900) to find out whether you should bother and if you haven’t already got a 3D TV whether you should rush out and buy one.

Turn on the PS3, slam in the disk, load up the game, and you’ll wonder where the 3D is. That’s because it’s actually buried within the options menu rather than singing from the roof tops on the home menu system. Once you’ve found that part of the menu you can then select whether or not you turn on 3D or not.

Changing the entire experience from 2D to 3D is simple, but it turns out not that easy to do on a programming side of things and so you can’t just do it in the middle of a campaign when you fancy.

Instead you’ve got to decide that you want to do it and then stick to it. That’s not to say you can’t change your mind at a later date, just that you have make sure you're at a save point otherwise you’ll lose everything up to that point.

Once you’ve decided to go 3D you then get to decide by how much at 5 per cent increments.

At 100 per cent 3D the first thing you’ll notice in-game and in cutscenes is that the experience is very dark, and that there is unfortunately stacks of ghosting as the game struggles to give you a decent 3D experience.

This isn’t helped by the opening level were you are wearing a Helghast helmet. For us parts of the heads-up display appeared double and that only makes for a more confusing experience. The seeing double is witnessed again later on in the game when you’re controlling one of the mechanised robot walkers and we can’t work out whether it's a fault, or whether its some arty reflection going on. Either way it’s not a good experience.

Drat, we hear you say, disappointed that we are telling you to steer clear. Fret not. Remember we said that you could change the strength of the 3D that the game delivers? Well after some tweaking and tinkering we found that 55 per cent 3D gave the results that solved the ghosting problems.

Yes, it still makes the game incredibly dark (in colour not mood), and there is no getting around that really, but it did remove all traceable signs of ghosting on the screen and the seeing double that we had experienced at 100 per cent strength.

So what’s the 3D gameplay like?

Well the biggest difference that 3D adds is a sense of depth to everything. Now objects, the enemy, vehicles and buildings are all on a three-dimensional plane rather than just flat cartoon caricatures.

There is debris floating around messing with your sense of vision for example. Take one of the levels where you’re tasked with taking out sniper Helghast in a collection of bombed buildings. You really do get the sense that they are far away and that some buildings are closer than others.

It's a similar experience when you’re in vehicles: you get the sense you are actually travelling down a road, or about to take a leap off a freeway. It just adds depth to the whole experience.

One of the biggest affects of 3D however is that we found that we couldn’t physically play for as long as you can play the 2D version. Whether it's the extra strain on your eyes taking in all that extra information or that you are considerably more “zoned in” on the action, it’s tiring stuff.

So does the 3D experience make this a better game? Yes. It does immerse you in the action, but at the cost that you won’t be able to play it for as long as you would a 2D gaming session.

Given the choice, and we know because we have had, we’ve picked the 3D experience every time since as it’s just more immersive.

Should you go out and buy a 3D TV just for Killzone 3? Probably not. If you haven’t got a 3D television it is not the end of the world. It is still a cracking game and a must have for PS3 FPS fans. If you are however debating whether to get one or not, this will only help nudge you into that final buying decision. 

- Killzone 3 review