SITREP

The other day I purchased The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt after becoming thoroughly engrossed with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. It seemed like a logical next step as the game has a similar open world play style with like quests, etc. The graphics are absolutely stunning and it is crystal clear to see the amount of care and development that went into that title. Sadly I could not play the game for very long without becoming sick to my stomach. The combination of camera, motion and radial blur, plus the physics of the game all lent to my first case of video game motion sickness.

I went back to Skyrim to check and had no issues playing that game, then returned to Wild Hunt and tried to work out some agreeable setting combination that would alleviate the nausea associated with character movement and interaction in the world. Unfortunately I was not able to find a balance that would prevent me from physically becoming ill so I requested and was issued a refund through Steam. I have no doubt that the Witcher series is of AAA material the likes of Battlefield, Call of Duty, etc. (think big budget operations); however for me it just does not work.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a beautiful and expansive game. Credit: Steam and CD PROJEKT RED

On a whim I decided to check some other games (in particular non-RPG) like DiRT 3 and Formula 1 2014 which feature a decent sensation of speed effect with various blur mechanics and was glad to see I have no problem there. Which makes the physical reaction to Wild Hunt all the more surprising as I would never had suspected that such a thing would make me ill.