At GDC overnight Avatar Reality announced Blue Mars, a strange one this it uses Crytek CryENGINE 2 to create a fully 3D environment set on a terraformed Mars in 2177 but is in itself simply a world for your avatars to interact, a massively multiplayer virtual world (MMVW) to use it's official description. Bit like Second Life perhaps in some ways. It is however Avatar Reality's intention to populate the world with many 3D games by the sounds of things.

At GDC, Avatar Reality will conduct an interactive tour of Blue Mars attractions which highlight breathtaking graphics through the utilization of CryTek’s game middleware CryENGINETM2. Additionally, they will preview their scripting game development environment which enables third party developers to easily build rich 3D casual games, and their proprietary Avatar Technology, which enables realistic character appearance and animation.

Here's a few Blue Mars screenshots.