Thursday 27 August 2015

My experiences with simulator sickness

I get terrible simulator sickness. The thing where you get the feeling of motion sickness while trying to play a video game.
The theory on the root cause is that the eyes and the body are reporting different things, (i.e. the eyes say “you just moved” and the body says “nuh-uh, you’re just sitting here”), which causes the brain to go “this is so weird! You must have been poisoned! Time to throw up!”.
But... I am not sure if it’s 100% right.
I’ve looked into it a lot (and I mean *a lot*), because I don’t like getting sick, and I can say this for certain:
  1. Tiredness affects it. More tired = get sick faster.
  2. Reticules can help
  3. It can sneak up on you without warning
  4. Consuming ginger helps a little. Drugs help a lot but they make you too drowsy to play. And who wants to take drugs in order to play a game? Seriously.
There are many solutions involving turning off head-bobbing, increasing field-of-view, wearing seafaring wristbands, having a fan blow in your face, and - this one is crazy and actually works a bit - wearing a fake nose. Or rather, a prosthetic bridge to my nose, because I don’t really have one otherwise. The fake nose might let me play for twice as long! Which is... 20 minutes instead of 10. Hahaha!
Things that are mysteriously ok:
  • I played through the whole of Portal (I really liked this game)
  • I played through half of Mirror’s Edge (with the little red dot on the screen switched on)
  • I played all the way through Doom and Doom 2 when I was a teenager
  • On-rails shooter games, e.g. Time Crisis, House of the Dead, etc
  • Elite Dangerous. I think it's because my brain has no real-life experience of space flight
Things that are not ok:
  • Most FPS (including Doom 1 and 2)
  • That FPS on Nintendo DS that’s set in a mental hospital, I could’t even play that!
  • Minecraft, Gone Home, other first-person games that are not shooters.
  • I can’t get past the opening cutscene of Bioshock
  • Portal 2 :( I really wanted to play it too!
  • Stacking, by Doublefine Games, even though it is weird 3rd person - I think it’s the angle
  • I got halfway through The Unfinished Swan then suddenly got incredibly sick without warning. Like, I was completely floored for a whole afternoon, world spinning.
  • The poo-spraying missions in Saints Row 2 - the rest of the game is fine, as long as I’m driving and not a passenger.
  • One time a rotating door in a hotel lobby in real life had the same effect on me, just briefly.
Seriously, lots of people act like it’s a solved problem, telling me that all I need to do is adjust field-of-view, but it totally doesn’t work. “Have you tried field of view?” YES ALREADY. “ok ok I was just trying to help” Hahaha! Sorry anyone I’ve been grumpy towards.
Finally, this condition affects many East-Asian people [study], and I think that is why there are so many more third-person games released in Japan, and so few first-person games.

Tuesday 25 August 2015

Japanese video game English localisation news - 30

Featuring:

  • La Mulana EX (Vita)
  • Grandia® II Anniversary Edition (PC)
  • New Style Boutique 2 (3DS)
  • Mega Man Legacy Collection (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
  • Onechanbara Z2: Chaos (PS4)
  • One Piece Warriors 3 (PS3 / PS4 / PS Vita / PC)
  • Amnesia: Memories (Vita, PC)

Monday 24 August 2015

Japanese video game English localisation news - 29

Featuring:

  • Devil's Third (Wii U)
  • Senran Kagura 2 : Deep Crimson (3DS)
  • Star Fox Zero (Wii U)
  • Xenoblade Chronicles X (Wii U)
  • Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water (Wii U)


Friday 21 August 2015

Japanese video game English localisation news - 28

Featuring:

  • Forget Me Not: My Organic Garden (PC)
  • Link: The Unleashed Nexus (PC)
  • Ultra Despair Girls - Danganronpa Another Episode (Vita)


Thursday 20 August 2015

Japanese video game English localisation news - 27

Featuring:

  • Little Battlers eXperience (3DS) (otherwise known as "LBX")
  • Senran Kagura: Estival Versus (PS4 / PS Vita)
  • Corpse Party – Blood Drive (PS Vita)

Wednesday 19 August 2015

Japanese video game English localisation news - 26

Featuring:

  • Sword Art Online Re: Hollow Fragment (PS4)
  • Yokai Watch (3DS)
  • Senran Kagura 2 : Deep Crimson (3DS)
  • FINAL FANTASY TYPE-0™ HD (PC)
  • Nekopara vol 0 (PC)
  • Final Fantasy VII (iOS)
  • Puyo Puyo Quest -> Cranky Food Friends - a Delicious Drop & Match RPG (Android)


Sunday 16 August 2015

Japanese video game English localisation news - 25

Featuring:

  • Sword Art Online Lost Song (Vita, PS4)
  • CLANNAD (PC - just announcing there's no DRM after all)
  • Sonic The Hedgehog 2 3D (3DS)
  • Chōshin Heiki Zeroigar (PC-FX)
  • GalaxyRobo (SNES)
  • Metal Gear Solid radio drama
  • Steins;Gate Linear Bounded Phenogram (PSP -> video)


Tuesday 11 August 2015

Japanese video game English localisation news - 24

Featuring:

  • Etrian Odyssey II Untold: The Fafnir Knights 
  • Moco Moco Friends 
  • Caladrius 
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion: Girlfriend of Steel 2nd