Dave Gilbert | 
10 30th, 2007| 
It’s come to my attention that I suck at first person shooter games. I’m not only bad at them, but I physically can’t play them.
An IGDA buddy of mine dropped by my place last weekend with his Xbox 360 and a few games. One of them was the well-known Halo 3. I’ve heard of the Halo series, but I’ve never played any of them and I was curious to see what the fuss was about. It was definitely gorgeous to look at, and blowing up colorful aliens bent on killing you certainly never gets old.
However, I couldn’t last 45 minutes before feeling queasy. The constantly shifting first-person POV caused my wussy stomach to flip and flop and threaten to disgorge my lunch. After awhile of this I handed the controller to my friend and let him take over, while I tried to prevent the world from spining.
I can play a game like Grand Theft Auto or Shadow of the Collossus and I’m fine. Strange, when you consider that the camera shifts and tilts just as much. However, in those games the camera is always focused on the character I’m playing, so my eyes have something to hang onto. In first-person shooters, there’s nothing. The screen shifts and spins and my stomach churns in protest.
Am I just getting older? Perhaps, but this has always been a problem for me. I was a young and spritely 22 year old when The Blair Witch Project came out, and the shifting and shakey camera work had me convinced I was going to throw up. Maybe it’s just part of my genes or something.
This could be why I like adventure games. Sweet static backgrounds! No shifting POV! My stomach likes that very much indeed.
