First Person Shooters

[LuckyClover]

Has anyone else had a problem with 1st person making them queezy? I want to play Halo but every time I get sick. Is there a way I could get over this?

[Random Nerd]

Has anyone else had a problem with 1st person making them queezy? I want to play Halo but every time I get sick. Is there a way I could get over this?

Fiddle with raising your graphics settings until the framerate gets down to 30 fps or so. If that still makes you queasy, try 20 fps. It'll be choppier, but it'll also not trigger the motion-spotting parts of your brain quite so much.

[PMAvers]

Sounds like motion sickness.

There's the old Descent-standby

http://www.drugtalk.org/templates/dtalk2/images/drugalert/dramamine.jpg

[LuckyClover]

Those are both great ideas. I will try both of them together:) I have read all the halo books now I want to play dangit.

[Xombie]

I've never felt sick but for some reason Halo 2's color range and visuals always gave me a headache. My eyes just didn't like the look of it.

[Tenacious B]

Sounds like motion sickness.

There's the old Descent-standby

http://www.drugtalk.org/templates/dtalk2/images/drugalert/dramamine.jpg

It's as good a solution as any! A good friend of mine suffers from motion sickness with FPSes, and popping a few of these beforehand really helps him.

[JdRavnos]

It's weird because certain games will set off motion sickness for me and other ones I can play all day and be fine. Both Half-Life games, especially the first one, were really bad for me. But Deus Ex? Vampire: Bloodlines? Perfectly fine. Heck and Bloodlines uses the Half-Life 2 game engine. And I've never had a problem with a console FPS. Like I said, it's kinda weird.

[Pyr]

I reckon this is pretty funny, people getting sick when they play FPS, not one of the dangers of videogames most people think of. Still i feel your pain.

I don't get sick when i play games. though i can certainly see why you would, and i've certainly felt a bit sea sick when i've played games that have very shakey sections or with missions overlooking the sea (though it can't remeber which games in particular).

[SPrintF]

I experienced this for the first time playing Ratchet and Clank (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratchet_&_Clank_(series)) (not exactly a FPS, but close). In the second and third games, when using the Gravity Boots to walk up walls and across ceilings, the rotation of perspective can be very disorienting, even sickening. When running through the Sewers in the third game, the background sways alarmingly as you move up and down the cylindrical tunnel walls.

Descent (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descent_(computer_game)), one of the first full-3D motion PC games, was famous for causing motion sickness in some players, but it never affected me as much as R&C.

[PyroGod]

The suggestions above are good, and for many people it does seem to be on a game by game basis.

Interestingly enough, I imagine Crysis is worse than being on tea cups at see based on one movie I saw of the multiplayer. It has an absolutely stunningly badass dash where time slows around you, and then snaps back, but seeing the effect over and over again was disconcerting as fuck.

[Professor Phobos]

Try turning off head-bob.

FPS games don't do it to me (or, at least, none ever have) but ye gods did the first Silent Hill do it. I think it must have been the fog.

[Jorjowsky]

My wife has the exact same problem, and it's no laughing matter. It prevents her from playing a lot of games she really wants to play, mostly first and third-person RPGs (from Morrowind to Fable to Zelda, and anything in between) -- any 3D game where things move towards the camera has that effect on her: uneasiness, feeling of being sick, strong headaches, etc.

Of late she has tried taking motion sickness tablets before playing, and while not a 100% perfect solution, they seem to "mostly" work: she can play for a few hours before having to stop, while before she could only play for minutes. She's happy that she can finally give Zelda a go, after watching me play a little bit here and there. :)

[daHob]

Strangely, this happened to me for the first time last night. I was watching my roomie play through the opening scenes of 'Darkness' and literally had to leave the room before I lost my lunch. I think it had to do with the fact that a) I wasn't running the controller, so the motion was basically random and b) that is was a 60" wide screen, so it took up a lot of my periphreal vision as well.

Not pleasant.

[Count_Zero]

I've found it depends on the game, graphics, controls, and screen size, among other things.

Half-Life, Castle Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, among other things, left me really queasy.

On the other hand, I can play Unreal Tournament or Battlefield 2 much longer than the previously mentioned games without problems.

[Jay]

Descent (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descent_(computer_game)), one of the first full-3D motion PC games, was famous for causing motion sickness in some players, but it never affected me as much as R&C.

I was hungover the first time I played that game... and that's where I end my story. :)

[shodan]

I've found it depends on the game, graphics, controls, and screen size, among other things.

Half-Life, Castle Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, among other things, left me really queasy.

The "trigger" doesn't seem to be something that can easily be pinned down. I mean, if it were, game developers would find a way to make their game stop doing... whatever it's doing that makes people sick. :)

Interesting you'd mention Half-Life, though. When Half-Life 1 was first released, long ago, I played the bajeezus out of it with no ill effects.

Many years (and computer upgrades) later, I can't play it anymore. I'm running at a much higher resolution and refresh rate these days, and the game apparently doesn't want to vsync properly, which tends to result in a lot of image-tearing. It's as if the game is running too fast, which sounds a little odd.

I suspect that if I had my old, original system (300MHz celeron, TNT2 videocard, 15" monitor) I'd be just fine with it.

A friend of mine was as excited about Half-Life 2 as I am about Bioshock (which is pretty damned excited). But he got all the way up to the motorboat level, and nausea hit him like a sledgehammer. He's tried any number of things to no avail. I do remember the controls being a little wonky, and there being much more of a disconnect (for lack of a better words) between the hoverboat controls, and actually controlling Gordon Freeman on foot. I had /difficulties/ with controlling the boat, making it go in the way I was looking - it didn't make me ill, but it did make me frustrated. I wonder if /that/ was his problem - your brain and your hands are saying "move my point of view this way", while the boat just kind of slides around and does its own thing like it's got a mind of its own.

[LuckyClover]

I am happy to know that I am not the only one with this problem. Tomorrow I am going to load the old Halo. I am going to try the refresh rate in combo with dramamine. I will let everyone know how it goes.

[StumpyDave]

Whatever you do, don't look at the screen if you're legging it in Gears of War. If a normal FPS makes you feel queasy, the roadie run will have you projectile vomiting.

[Geza Echs]

The only time I've heard of this problem in years was with a friend of mine playing PREY... But that also involved a handful of magic mushrooms and a fifth of whiskey. ;)

Hope your FPS experience improves toute de suite!