James Cameron’s Avatar the game to be in 3D

James Cameron’s Avatar is a highly anticipated sci-fi film coming out this December, and unlike almost every other movie-game partnership ever, the game is also highly anticipated. First of all, like the movie, the game will also support 3d glasses, as it was shown off at this year’s E3, though there is of course an option to turn it off. The game also follows a different story than the film, which is always welcome to avoid spoilers and get a better taste of the film’s universe at the same time. The game is also being developed and published by Ubisoft, probably their third-biggest title this year behind Assassin’s Creed 2 and Splinter Cell: Conviction.

Not to spoil too much, but the movie involves a moon called Pandora, with a highly rare mineral in it called Unobtanium (heh). The humans are trying to get to that mineral, but they can’t breathe the air. Therefore, they need to genetically engineer Avatars, which are a hybrid between humans and the native Na’vi (not Link’s fairy, I assume). Na’vi are ten-foot-tall blue humanoids, and they understandably aren’t too happy with the human presence on their moon. The main character in the film volunteers to become an avatar and falls in love with a Na’vi princess, but the game doesn’t follow this storyline.

In the game, you play as both a human soldier protecting the Avatar miners, and a Na’vi tribesman, with some clearly different gameplay between the gun-toting humans and the, well, bow-toting Na’vi. The game has been described as a mixture between Lost Planet and Gears of War, with some really pretty jungle terrain to look at instead of the bleak environments from those two titles. The game is coming out this Winter, and on the off-chance that you actually own the right TV by then, you can enjoy the game in full stereoscopic 3d. As for the rest of us, we’ll have to see what the gameplay is like whenever James Cameron publically releases a trailer.