In the early days of console gaming, about 25% (maybe more) of games made me nauseous, dizzy or gave me headaches to the point where I couldn’t play them. A prime example was Deus Ex: Invisible War. I enjoyed the game and wanted to continue playing it. But I couldn’t play for more than 15 minutes without becoming dizzy and nauseous. Ultimately, I had to abandon the game.

[Nov 8, 2008 Update: In an attempt to isolate exactly what the ‘X-Factor is that makes me dizzy/nauseous, I updated this post to add a list of games that have made me nauseous.]

In the current (Xbox 360/PS3) console generation, the percentage of games that are unplayable due to nausea, headaches or dizziness has dropped dramatically to, perhaps, 5 to 10%. For example, I couldn’t play the otherwise enjoyable Laura Croft: Tomb Raider Legend for more than 15 minutes without feeling ill.

Below, I identify three factors that cause me dizziness, headaches and nausea when playing video games.  I’d be interested in your thoughts – especially with respect to what might be behind the X-Factor discussed below.

CONTINUE READING →

Digg Del.icio.us 1504Commentshttp://www.daleisphere.com/video-game-induced-nausea-dizziness-and-headaches/Video+Game-induced+Nausea%2C+Dizziness+and+Headaches2008-10-13+23%3A00%3A07Dale+Dietrich 

Reviews: Metacritic 73%| Game Rankings 77%
Reference: Achievements|
Walkthrus:  WikiCheats | GameFAQ   | Mahalo
Developers: Konami | Double Helix Games
Genre: survivor – horror
Status: Abandoned after escaping hospital

As explained in my “Video Game-induced Nausea, Dizziness and Headaches” post, I had to abandon Silent Hill Homecoming due to nausea caused by the inability to invert the Y-axis.

It came as a shock to me that, while there is an option to invert the Y-axis when shooting, Silent Hill Homecoming does not give you the player the option to invert the Y-axis when walking around, fighting or doing anything else in the game. This is extremely rare in modern video games.

A quick Google search to see if there is a patch, cheat code or some other way  to rectify the situation yields posts like this one and flame wars like this one. It seems that Konami is aware of the issue and just doesn’t care. No patch is available and none is in the works. It’s truly bizarre that Konami does not provide an across-the-board option to invert the Y-axis in a major title such as Silent Hill. This is a standard option in virtually every console game that comes out these days.

The upshot for me - the game was unplayable. I tried. I killed some nurses and critters, got a couple achievements and made it out of the hospital. But 25 minutes of playing without inversion made me too dizzy and nauseous to continue. FYI, the game also suffers from reliance on quick time events – which I detest.

Thank goodness this was a rental. Back it goes.

Digg Del.icio.us 1493Commentshttp://www.daleisphere.com/silent-hill-homecoming-is-unplayble-no-y-axis-inversion/Silent+Hill+Homecoming+is+Unplayble+%26ndash%3B+No+Y-Axis+Inversion2008-10-13+22%3A02%3A16Dale+Dietrich