Metroid Prime Motion Sickness

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Voor
Posts: 1555
Joined: April 14th, 2015, 8:08 pm

Re: Metroid Prime Motion Sickness

Postby Voor » January 6th, 2021, 5:24 am

Atariboy wrote:Assuming you've been playing on a tv, try playing it in handheld mode if you haven't already. I suspect the results could be quite different than when playing on a much larger display.

I've only encountered this issue once. I couldn't play Marathon 2: Durandal on Xbox 360 without feeling sick. It later got patched with a FOV adjustment since so many buyers complained of motion sickness, but I haven't had any desire to go back and test it.


I did, and it was slightly better, but still made me feel sick. I also messed with camera sensitivity settings a lot. Sucks, because I was having fun with it, but it put me down for like 3 hours.

It is what it is. Anyone want to trade something for a basically new copy of Strangers Wrath HD? Lol.

goldenband
Posts: 766
Joined: April 8th, 2015, 10:29 pm

Re: Metroid Prime Motion Sickness

Postby goldenband » January 6th, 2021, 12:03 pm

I get this from some games too, and when I bought Metroid Prime I pretty much bailed on it within 10 minutes because I could tell it was going to have the same effect.

It's technically called "simulation sickness", and can happen to you even if you don't get motion sickness from actual moving vehicles at all -- they may be unrelated. One theory is that your brain thinks it's being poisoned, and wants to get the toxin out.

The big risk factors for me seem to be:

  • high speed
  • cameras that whip around a lot
  • movement on three axes
  • dropped frames/low frame rate
  • lots of blur
When you look at this list, unsurprisingly, the biggest culprit is the N64 -- a lot of its 3D games I can only play in moderation, and some I can't play at all.

I remember playing GoldenEye and Banjo-Kazooie and wondering why I always felt feverish, nauseated, and headachy after 30-45 minutes. Only years later did I figure it out, and I tried to power through it, but no dice. The worst was Monster Truck Madness, which gave me a wicked migraine and made me feel like crap for at least an hour.

OTOH the PS1 almost never causes a problem for me. I only recall one Dreamcast game giving me trouble, Draconus: Cult of the Wyrm; same with the 3DO, I got a bit queasy once or twice from Escape from Monster Manor but have otherwise been OK. GameCube usually hasn't been an issue, I can play Super Monkey Ball all day long. I don't play much XBox but I never had an issue with Halo/Halo 2.

Gameplay duration is also a factor, as the likelihood seems to go up with time. But it's really hard to predict sometimes: FPS games seem likely to cause problems, but I played South Park a ton and had no trouble; lots of 3D movement can be an issue, but I beat Pilotwings 64 with little to no issue.

Voor
Posts: 1555
Joined: April 14th, 2015, 8:08 pm

Re: Metroid Prime Motion Sickness

Postby Voor » January 6th, 2021, 12:32 pm

I played a ton of Goldeneye and Halo 1 and never had an issue. Of course, I was a bit younger then.

It’s the next day and I’m STILL a little woozy. I think my time playing any FPS has passed. That’s OK. Thins out the backlog a bit. Lol.

Herschie
Posts: 1183
Joined: April 7th, 2015, 11:44 pm

Re: Metroid Prime Motion Sickness

Postby Herschie » January 6th, 2021, 4:05 pm

Turn of HUD lag in the display settings. That helped tremendously. I remember a long time ago a friend was over playing this and all the sudden he keeled over sick as hell. What's worse is that I lived at home at the time, he reeked like bud, and my mom was going to be home in fifteen minutes. I somehow got him out just in time and told my mom the air freshener was sprayed because he farted.


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