Marathon: Durandal's bonus feature: motion sickness

The first person shooter genre has always been synonymous with motion sickness, but when the ol' iron guts here at Joystiq started feeling queasy after playing Marathon: Durandal for Xbox Live Arcade, we knew something was wrong. Sure enough, threads began to pop up all over the place and even IGN noted in their official review that four of their editors felt ill while playing. To find out what's to blame for this poké-esque epidemic, we talked to Freeverse's Bruce Morrison, project lead on Marathon: Durandal.

"Marathon's obvious popularity, the sudden forum 'meme' of it making you sick, and the wealth of really excellent hurl jokes ... I think that explains a lot of it." teases Bruce. In all seriousness, he explains, "No one at Freeverse, Microsoft, Bungie, VMC or our testing and localization partners reported any motion sickness issues and many of us have logged hundreds of hours of playtime. So we really don't believe the problem is universal. However, a good number of people will experience motion sickness with any FPS."

While Freeverse is planning on investigating this matter, Bruce does have some suggestions. First, try playing with the "camera bob" option set to on as the lack of default motion tends to make things appear smoother than they already are. Also, if your mother never told you better, try adjusting your seating position. You may be sitting far too close to your set for this odd, stomach churning experience.

Having taken his advice, we can now enjoy this remastered classic with only a mild headache as the side effect. Thanks, camera bob!