The nVidia glasses come with a small receiver and on the back is a wheel you can use to adjust the 3D effect. Essentially, it adjusts the perceived depth of field by taking the two images that are rendered on top of each other—one for the left eye, one for the right—and pushing them further apart (more depth) or closer together (less). At the default 35 percent, the effect was pretty impressive at first. After a while, once I adjusted to the image, I decided to increase the depth. Dialing it up about halfway to 100% ended up being the most comfortable, so I locked it in. Later, I ran into an issue.

During an early mission in the game's campaign, I came to a point where I had to grab a rocket launcher and take out three tanks. I found that my comfort zone would not align the sights of the weapon at all, in either eye. Because of this perspective shift, I started to see a ton of ghosting everywhere as my eyes tried to focus on the image. The only way to center the aim was to knock back the depth setting to its absolute minimum setting.

Eventually, my eyes started to get a little sore. I believe the issue is tied more to the game's constant handling of the camera to showcase specific moments. Things shake your perspective a lot, leading to some blurry vision—and my eyesight is perfect (at least clinically). Compared to other FPS titles, the single-player of Black Ops is a little like a bad MTV Music Video in the way the camera is constantly on the move, worried I'd get distracted by something else.

To compare, I played Battlefield: Bad Company 2, which is rated as 3D Vision Ready. With the depth set to a comfortable level—again, about half of 100 percent—I had very little issue and my eyes didn't hurt over time. There's still plenty of action on the screen, but it's all framed in a manageable (non-sugar rush) way.