Battlefield: Bad Company 2 popped out of screens all over PAX East last weekend. On the expo floor, you could don a pair of fancy Nvidia 3D glasses (LCD shutter glasses, not the cheap throwaway versions given out at movie theaters) and experience Bad Company 2 stretched out over three monitors. And upstairs in the PC gaming section, Nvidia set up what they called the first-ever 3D multiplayer tournament, with Bad Company 2 the star of the show.

In between rounds of the tournament, I got to try out the 3D-enabled Bad Company 2 for myself. Here are three notes I jotted down during my play session:

"First-person shooters make sense in 3D."

I've seen a few games in 3D now -- Super Stardust HD, MLB 10: The Show, and Motorstorm at GDC, Bad Company 2 at PAX East -- and of them, Bad Company 2 lends itself best to the technology. First-person shooters already display the world through your character's own eyes; the third dimension only amplifies the effect. The hands and weapons jutting from the bottom of the screen feel like an extension of your own body, and the ability to freely look around the environment is an unprecedented experience -- something not even movies like Avatar can match. The lush jungle setting had weight to it, a tangibility that I haven't felt with other 3D games and movies I've seen. It entranced me so much that I hardly bothered to shoot things.

Can you imagine playing a game less focused on combat -- Portal, perhaps -- this way? I'd end up completely sucked into the world.

"These HUD overlays look really damn cool."

This is a minor thing, but it struck me again and again: HUD overlays look incredibly cool in 3D. While in a tank, the frame of the turret appeared on one plane, the map on another, and the crosshairs on yet one more. It reminded me of the HUD displays of the video recordings in Avatar -- subtle, but something that thrilled me nonetheless. Not one element escaped the 3D treatment.

"I could get used to this."

Every 3D movie that I've gone to has left me with a minor headache walking out of the theater. This isn't the case with everyone, but judging from informal polls I've conducted with people, it happens often enough to be a significant hurdle for gaming in 3D. If I can't stand two hours in a theater, how am I going to last through an epic Rush session of Bad Company 2?

One way that Nvidia hopes to alleviate the problem is with a dial that allows you to change the amount of depth present on the fly, from something barely perceptible from 2D to something that extends far beyond reality. Everyone should be able to find a comfort zone somewhere along that continuum. With the dial down lower for me, marathon matches should be pain-free.

Yeah, I could definitely get used to this.