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Go Back   Cheap Ass Gamer > Blogs > dubbfoolio's Blog > Motion Sickness from Games
dubbfoolio's Avatar

Motion Sickness from Games

By dubbfoolio 12-23-2008 03:28 PM
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I really wish there was some sort of motion sickness review of video games. A small percentage of shooters just kill me when I try to play them. A bobbing camera is usually the culprit. I can't imagine this adding much for anyone and certainly ruins the game for me. Condemned 2 is added to this list of games I've encountered that induce headache and/or nausea. The funny thing is I don't remember having this problem with the first installment. Sure there are tricks that I can do to muscle through a game like chewing on a ginger root or playing in short bouts in a well lit room, sit across from my tv or monitor, I suppose I could turn up the brightness until it breaks the game, but I'd really like to avoid these games altogether and I don't seem to know how to.

Some games are generous enough to provide a stationary target or the ability to remove head bob, but why not make this the default in all games? I know this doesn't affect everyone and even when it does the effects vary but it's hard for me to imagine how this enhances the experience for anyone.

Wouldn't it be great if a site compiled a list of the worst offenders? Anyone know of one? Is anyone else here affected by this, and had to quit playing a game because of this problem? Maybe we should start a list.

 Comments (Total Comments: 17)  

Tengaport's Avatar
That's an interesting thought you've got there dubbfoolio. There have been quite a few games that made me really ill over the years. Half Life 2 is one of the first to come to mind. I did manage to stick with it though and overcome my motion sickness. Same with the original Halo - that one not only made me sick as a dog at first, but also gave me pretty awful nightmares.

I've heard Mirrors Edge is another one to stay away from if you suffer from motion sickness. I didn't have a problem with the demo, but it was really short so we'll have to see how the full game hits me.

There was also the Roadie Run in Gears that initially twisted my stomach into knots.

I would imagine at the end of the day you're going to have a pretty big starter list here
dubbfoolio's Avatar
haha maybe I'll start a thread somewhere if there's interest. Games I remember killing me were No One Lives Forever 2 (PC) and King Kong (360). There have many many games though that have given me minor issues that I struggled through. Half Life games being among them! I didn't have any trouble with the Mirror's Edge Demo, and I heard the solution from the original E3 demo was simply putting a little red dot in the center of the screen why can't all games include an option like that?.
InFlames215's Avatar
Actually, Road Rash for the Sega Genesis gave me motion sickness a couple times, when I used to play it a long time ago.
UltimoRey's Avatar
Ive gotten motion sickness form the simpsons game due to the bad camera, HL2 when bobbing a lot and esp portal when i keep changing orientation. Im sure theres more, but cant think of them now.
I'd never heard of this before, until a few days ago when a guy working at Blockbuster told me he couldn't play Prey.

He said there were too many objects and characters popping up out of nowhere. That, combined with the camera angles, made him nauseous.

This is interesting OP, as Prey is a FPS game.
TexCub's Avatar
Stay away from Marathon Durandel on XBLA. The motion sickness issue was supposedly addressed via a subsequent update, but I don't know how successful they were in combating it.
WhipSmartBanky's Avatar
It's "unofficially" called DIMS - Doom Induced Motion Sickness. Only game to ever really do it to me was Timesplitters 2 on the OG Xbox.
Monsta Mack's Avatar
I get it in real "dark" games. The Darkness, despite being a ing awesome game imho, made me give it to my friend because I violently threw up after playing it for a few hours.

Doom gave me so bad motion sickness I would have to take an hour break for every 15 minutes of play.

Oblivion and Fallout gave me some but they went away pretty fast.

Can't these ers give us a option to remove head bob? I know some games did awhile back but haven't saw it in any recent games.
Schmackledorf's Avatar
Avoid Battlefield: Bad Company if you haven't player that yet. Any sprinting you do in the game causes the camera to bob. I also think whenever an explosion goes off near you (grenade, tank shell, etc.), it causes the camera to shake, but I'm not terribly positive on that. Sucks that you have that though...
dubbfoolio's Avatar
now I remember. doom 3 was the worst haha.
sokmaster's Avatar
HL2 really made me feel sick. It gave me headaches everytime playing for over an hour or so. Portal did the same thing, but that's probably because I all too often made infinite loops to jump through for extended periods of time...
phear3d's Avatar
this is the exact reason why i dont play first person shooters. i am missing so many games because i hate the feeling of being sick after about an hour of gameplay.

my first experience of this is quake 3. it made me sick to my stomach. i did play soldier of fortune and it was ok. but then halo for the xbox was the one that drove me away from it completely. i did endure it while i can. but i wish i would have finished that awesome game.
woodcan's Avatar
The only game that gave me motion sickness to the extent that I couldn't play it anymore was Solder of Fortune 2 on the PC. I swear the way you moved in that game was like the guy was on a boat as much as he swayed....it was just unnatural from what I remember. I also remember being very taken back that this would happen to me. Luckily the game came free with my video card but I really wanted to play it but just couldn't stomach it.

There are some other current and previous gen games that give me a headache but SOF2 was the worst offender for me that made the game unplayable.
woodcan's Avatar
Schmackledorf, I agree about BFBC. The bob in that game reminds of the same rediculous boaty feel from SOF2.
I don't know anything about the science behind game motion sickness, but I wonder if each game has a different effect on different people, which would make it hard to rate it objectively.

For example, almost every fps makes me sick within minutes, but I was able to play Descent for awhile, while one of my friends could play most games but not Descent. Even Twilight Princess made me sick sometimes when I was tired.
f4t4lfury's Avatar
I agree! FPS's often make me nauseous. Elebits gave me a migraine. Recently, one shooter I've been able to handle w/o nausea is 007: Rouge Agent (maybe not the greatest but you take what you can get sometimes!).
dubbfoolio's Avatar
add the original half life to the list :( at least I only spent 98 cents on it.

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