I got the game recently, since I had a bit of spare birthday money left. It’s a great game, but after a while of playing it I get really dizzy - similar to motion sickness. I haven’t had this problem with any other games.
Anyone else have this problem? Know what causes it?
I can’t imagine there’d be anything specific to HL2 that would make you dizzy over any other recent FPS game. (If you want dizzy, try Prey!)
I suppose I’d suggest reducing your graphic options to make sure you’re getting a smooth framerate and reducing mouse sensitivity so your view isn’t all over the place and erratic.
Do you feel dizzy walking in a straight line with your view level? Or is it only when you’re looking all around?
It’s been awhile since I played any FPS games, but I have a theory on game dizziness. My wife found it funny that I’d lean and dodge while playing, but I think that’s why I never got dizzy when I played. If your eyes tell you that you’re moving and turning, but your muscle (kinesthetic?) sense tells you that you’re still, there’s a disagreement that can bring on dizziness or even motion sickness.
Actually, it’s a problem that’s frequently complained of with HL2, so it’s not just you. Reportedly, something is wonky about the POV in the game, it’s set too wide and too low or something like that, giving alot of players headaches and motion sickness.
There was a thread about it kicking around the Something Awful games forum a few weeks ago, if you’re familiar. There might be some fixes in there, I’ll nose around and try to find it later if I get the chance.
I actually noticed this a little bit. The only other game to make me feel that way was Doom II, which I really couldn’t play for extended periods because I’d start to feel sick.
Ugh I know what you mean. There was a popular FPS engine years ago (I forget which one) where every game made with that engine made me ill. Deus Ex used it and so did several of my favorite games. Some games have a ‘head bob’ that you can adjust and sometimes that helps (though I don’t remember that option for HL2)
Anyway the best you can do is break yourself in. Play short sessions and stop as soon as you feel ill. Don’t play when you’re tired or are hungry. Over time your tolerance will go up and you can play for longer times.
Well, i’m relieved. Nice to know it’s not just me that has problems with the game. The strange thing is, I don’t usually get motion sickness, so that made this all the more weird.
Thanks for the advice. I’ve been playng in short sessions, but the problem is it doesn’t creep up over time, I just suddenly get a wave of dizziness, seemingly out of nowhere, so I pretty much have to stop straight away if I don’t want to throw up.
Sorry, missed this response at first.
I’m not sure. It comes on really suddenly, so i’m not sure if it’s due to what i’m doing at the time, or if it’s built up.
Oddly, I don’t seem to get it when i’m driving a vehicle. I would have thought that that would be the worst, dizziness wise.
See if that link works. Guess I got it wrong, apparently the video is too narrow and it makes people puke. Buried somewhere in there are the commands to adjust the FOV.
It works, but it needs a subscription.
I didn’t really have this problem with HL2, but I couldn’t play Unreal 2 for more than five minutes without needing to lie down.
The same went for Aliens vs. Predator 2, except only in the Colonial Marine segment. I could play the aliens and predators just fine.
Haven’t tried it myself but here’s the fix that helps some people:
sv_cheats 1
default_fov XX
fov XX
Where XX is the FOV you want. Default is 75. Switching to 90 or 100 gives a wider FOV, but this will only work right if you’ve got the hazard suit on. Seems to reduce nausea in some players.
Thanks, Grossbottom, i’ll give it a go. 
From the looks of things it counts as a cheat, so I won’t be able to use it for Counter-Strike, but so far I haven’t had any problems with that.