Freeverse to offer advice on Marathon: Durandal motion sickness
by Jared Rea 
{ Aug 4th 2007 at 5:30PM }
Perhaps noticing a few of his soldiers dropping like flies, Microsoft's Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb spoke with Freeverse regarding the fits of motion sickness caused by their latest release, Marathon: Durandal. While they're not offering a technical solution just yet, they do plan on giving folks fair warning and a bit of advice. Within the next few days, Freeverse will "implement a [dashboard] message on the download screen to advise users on steps they can take if this affects them and are investigating other options to address the issue."
When we spoke to Marathon:Durandal's project lead, Bruce Morrison, he suggested a simple flip of the "camera bob" option and that seemed to work wonders. With so many folks -- many with no prior history of motion sickness -- getting ill from playing, it may still require an alteration of the game itself.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Darkiewonder @ Aug 4th 2007 5:39PM
I'm going to come out and say it, I didn't suffer from Motion Sickness. The only known game that has was for the ps2, Twisted Metal Black.
polly @ Aug 4th 2007 5:49PM
Two minutes into the trial game I had to quit. It was just nauseating. I wonder why this FPS does that and not others.
hvnlysoldr @ Aug 4th 2007 5:55PM
First-person is touted as putting the player into their perspective. Designers fail to realize their characters act inhuman or super-human. So for regular folks it's incredibly jarring and nauseating to perform these feats that normally couldn't be achieved by them. Thrown into those situations regular folks can't handle it and wouldn't be able to perform. Which is why they puke as if were them trying.
Neebs @ Aug 4th 2007 5:59PM
I strongly doubt this is occurring because you can do abnormal things in the game. Halo would have died years ago.
Evan @ Aug 4th 2007 8:32PM
That is exactly what happened to me. I read an earlier article and figured I would try it out myself. Two minutes (or less) later I was having a horrid headache. I will have to try that camera trick they are talking about.
I just end up feeling like I am staring at one of those pop out 3D prints where you end up crossing your eyes to see it. It was definitely a sickening experience.
Neebs @ Aug 4th 2007 5:55PM
Perhaps some gamers are just not used to the old style FPS view or something.
rdj75 @ Aug 4th 2007 6:10PM
I don't think this has anything to do with old school first person shooters. I have played many shooters back in the day and have never suffered from anything like this at all. I didn't feel like I wanted to through up but it made me feel weird though. At first I thought it was bad chinese food I ate at first but then I started hearing similar complaints, but yeah, after a few minutes I couldn't take it anymore either.
Fatass of Kickassness @ Aug 4th 2007 6:17PM
I gotta get this game just to see what all the hubbub is about.
megapenguinx @ Aug 4th 2007 6:20PM
Oh great I can see JT using this in some way
rom @ Aug 4th 2007 6:08PM
I hope my 360 comes back from the repair center soon. This is something I really want to check out before it gets patched.
Alex @ Aug 4th 2007 6:15PM
Also, as a little side note. I'm playing on 65 inch TV on 1080i.
Leo-Jay @ Aug 4th 2007 6:17PM
Marathon is smooth, almost unnaturally so, in its motion. The eyes and brain don't deal with "unnatural motion" very well and often try to compensate, causing nausea, headaches, eye pain, and dizziness.
I found that, in fact, the Gun Bob -does- help quite a bit, as does disabling HD Textures if you're not in fact on an HDTV. I managed to finish the demo level with only a twinge of eye pain. Which is one twinge too much, but c'est la vie.
rdj75 @ Aug 4th 2007 6:20PM
Believe me, I aint no puss^ at all. I have done all sorts of adventurous activities in my life and never have I felt the way this game made me feel. Again it really wasn't that bad but I had to stop playing it. It was more of an annoying feeling to me than anything else.
Imadogg @ Aug 4th 2007 6:34PM
Am I just lucky? The first time I played (trial) it was with camera bob on, maybe that helped me. Then I read about all this so I played that one level again with no camera bob and ran around like crazy and I didn't feel ill at all.
I might be superhuman who knows.
Evan @ Aug 4th 2007 8:31PM
You're sure you didn't feel ill, because you look a little green!
darthbob @ Aug 4th 2007 6:36PM
In my opinion, the main problem is the fact that the game runs at 60 frames per second. It's too fast, knock it down to 30 and I'm hypothesizing that it would be a vast improvement.
Blizz4l9 @ Aug 4th 2007 6:41PM
Nice a game that makes you sick lol. Warning: do not play drunk lol
Knoxximus @ Aug 4th 2007 7:23PM
Didn't bother me none....got lost as hell tho lol.
Imadogg @ Aug 4th 2007 7:37PM
Lmao at all the mario variations I'm seeing for avs
Moofree @ Aug 4th 2007 8:12PM
I've played this game for a few hours and have had no problems.
And no problems with Aleph One either, which I've been playing for a few years...
My suggestion is... take some dramamine.
Cause if it puts you to sleep, you'll be easier for me to kill on xbox live :)
JRB @ Aug 4th 2007 8:17PM
I played Marathon way back in the day on the PC monitor and didn't have problems. Haven't tried this version yet. Honestly, my guess (I'm not qualified to make this besides being someone who has played First Person Shooters) would be that it's a change in distance from the screen. Some older games had some weird parallax things happening with the way the 3D was rendered and it's possible that the issues are amplified by the fact that you're seeing it from further away taking up a smaller portion of your field of view.
Klink @ Aug 4th 2007 9:22PM
I only have the demo (Circuit city was sold out of points- you all took advantage of that sale, right?)
I didn't get sick, but I did notice how stunningly smooth it is- Clean, old-school graphics plus new-school smoothness= motion sickness.
I did get a little headache, but that may be from staying up so late playing XBLA demos. How come no one told me Catan was so fun?
Bloo @ Aug 4th 2007 8:33PM
Downloaded the demo today just to see if I could get myself ill. Finished the demo. No sickness...
Lunaclown @ Aug 4th 2007 8:42PM
Funny that this is on here today as I checked out the demo last night and was suprised to feel ill after starting up the demo of the game. I won't be buying it because of it. I've never had an issue with motion sickness either...so it came as quite a suprise. Too bad because I was excited about the release since I had never had the opportunity to check it out.
Knoxximus @ Aug 4th 2007 8:58PM
I think the problem may stem from how the game is so smooth and yet the enemies (and allies) are so static, choppy, and pixelated. I mean, there is such a stark contrast between the silky smooth Hi-Res backgrounds/environs and the flipbook animation style NPC's. It's actually quite jarring if you take a step back and look at it.
Justin B @ Aug 4th 2007 9:22PM
What are the odds this is some bullshit stunt to get more people to buy the game just to see if they get sick?
Jared Rea @ Aug 4th 2007 9:47PM
Slim to none. Most annoying trolls such as yourself are smart enough to realize that every XBLA also has a free demo.
Thank you for this meaningful contribution to the discussion.
SGT Grumbles @ Aug 4th 2007 10:04PM
Huh. I used to download maps for Garry's Mod and check them out in single player. But after awhile, I'd get really overheated and feel sick to the stomach. Soon I wasn't able to look for even a few minutes in an unknown map alone. I thought I was crazy.
Heh, but I guess not. Although I'm completely fine in multiplayer.
roger stafford @ Aug 4th 2007 10:29PM
I tried the demo last night, and I felt nauseous within 10 minutes of playing. I then tried with the gun-bob on, but that did not help.
A few of my friends in the past said they could not play an FPS because they felt sick when they tried, but it never has happened to me before.
I would have to agree that it has something to so with the viewing distance now compared to playing on a pc monitor up close. Also, the size of the screen may have something to do with it as well, I am playing on a 50" HD set.
I thought it was just me until I read this headline and saw that it was newsworthy.
Doom on XBLA does not have this issue for me at all.
Sad, I was really looking forward to this release. I was planning on purchasing it, but after the demo, I think I will pass.
J-Guy @ Aug 4th 2007 10:37PM
Motion sickness from an FPS? Sounds terrible.
horngreen @ Aug 4th 2007 11:25PM
Try playing an FPS standing up. It doesn't make me sick but it makes me sway and lose my balance.
Just_a_guy @ Aug 5th 2007 12:06AM
wasn't this game for the mac, and isn't it free now or something?
I might have to try it!
Just_a_guy @ Aug 5th 2007 12:06AM
wasn't this game for the mac, and isn't it free now or something?
I might have to try it!
Kevin @ Aug 5th 2007 12:42AM
I played for about 2 or 3 minutes. Got nauseous. Quit. I decided (long before the 2 or 3 minutes) that there was NO WAY I would buy the game, so I didn't feel disappointed that I felt sick. If I want to play a retro shooter, I'll replay Half Life (for the 7th or 8th time) - that is about as retro a shooter as I desire to play for any length of time.
lostprophet @ Aug 5th 2007 1:12AM
I downloaded the demo earlier today(Didn't know anything about getting sick) and started playing it. Shortly after I started playing it, I just started sweating and thought it was my room or that I was just crazy. I open the window and go back to play some Halo-Inspiring Marathon demo. Yet again, sweating and nausea come about. I was gonna try and do it tonight when it would be cooler. Guess I won't be doing that now.
Todd Dominey @ Aug 5th 2007 6:58AM
I downloaded the demo yesterday, and had forgotten about the reports of motion sickness earlier in the week. About two minutes into it....wham...I felt absolutely dreadful. I immediately turned off the TV and had to lay down for about 5 minutes, and still felt unstable for at least another half-hour. I'm 36, so I've played *plenty* of FPS shooters in my time (even this one years ago), and still play them today. But this...it's not a slow, oncoming feeling of lightheadedness. It just smacks you between the eyes.
License to ill @ Aug 5th 2007 12:16PM
Yuck no thanks, where's the barf bag?
wildweasel @ Aug 5th 2007 7:35PM
The thing about Marathon is that its field of view is narrower - more zoomed-in - than typical FPS games. Its view bobbing is also more exaggerated than most players are used to at this point, which ordinarily wouldn't be too bad (see Doom), but with the on-screen weapon bobbing vertically as well (typically out of sync with the view), that makes things all the worse for those who are sensitive to motion sickness.