New Gaming Chair

By Kristine Westman

As a child, I loved to play video games. My favorite were racing games and first person shooters. My favorite game growing up was “Road Rash,” where you ride a motorcycle and race to the finish line with any means necessary.  I remember trying to make those sharp turns on the bike and I would lean with my controller, thinking that would actually help. It was fun and I wish that I could have been able to use my entire body to change the course of my car, motorcycle, or character. Recently, I found that you are now be able to use your entire body, while sitting comfortably in your own home. 4th Motion has created a very unique gaming chair that all gamers will love and enjoy. This chair will give gamers a complete new experience with the games they love.

Recently, I have had the opportunity to experience this great product. 4th Motion has allowed me to test their unique chair, The Gyroxus Chair. This chair is just not any chair, it enhances the video gaming experience. I was able to use the chair in the comfort of my own home for the last six days. I enjoyed every minute of my game playing time.

The first time I tried out the chair was at Best Buy. 4th Motion was previewing the chair to the public. At first when I saw the chair, I thought, “Okay, this is interesting.” So I tried it for a brief moment while playing “Need For Speed: Carbon.” When I sat down my entire body became the car. My hands were not controlling the vehicle anymore. I had to turn my body side to side to make the car turn. If I leaned to far to the left or right, I would spin out of control. I had to retrain myself to play a racing game. I soon got the hang of it and I was speeding away, and winning the race.

I was able to use one of the prototypes.  I wanted to beta test this chair and see what it truly is capable of doing. I tested out my favorite game, “Grand Theft Auto IV.”

This game has all different types of gaming; it’s a first person shooter, a racing game, and a flight simulator. There are so many things that you can do in the game that I thought it would be perfect to try out. I started a new game, considering that I was playing on a PS3 instead of my XBOX 360. First you use the chair to take control of Niko. I walked around using just the chair. To go forward, I leaned forward. When I wanted to move left or right, I leaned left or right. This was the easiest part of the game. Next, I jumped into Roman’s car. This is where it got interesting. Driving in “Grand Theft Auto IV” is typically hard because it is now more sensitive to your movement. In the Gyroxus chair it gets even more difficult because the game senses every slight movement you make. After crashing and practically destroying Roman’s car, I finally got to the safe house. Driving was so interesting, I practically spent most of my time doing it. Next was the first person “shooting” in the game.

While I was playing the game I never got the chance to pick up a gun and shoot. I fist fought a ton of people which made up for the shooting. It was fun since you had to use the chair to move and the O button to punch. I wish I had advanced further in the game to experience some of the great shootouts, but I wanted to test other games. I also never got the chance to fly.

The other game I tested on the PS3 was “Rainbow Six: Vegas 2.” This was the most intense gaming experience I had with the PS3. I truly enjoyed it. To move my character I just leaned forward and when I wanted to stop, I leveled my chair out. What I loved about the controls was when I wanted to sidestep, I used the chair but when I aimed I could use the right analogue stick. I tried switching the controls, but it was more difficult to aim with the chair, so I switched back. I beat the first two levels before I had to return the PS3, which I borrowed from my brother.

4th Motion was able to lend me a XBOX 360 controller for the chair. Now the fun began. I tried as many games possible in the short time I had the chair and the controller. I ended up testing out “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare,” “Halo 3,” “Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion,” “Fight Night Round 3,” “Tony Hawk: Project 8,” and “Need For Speed: Most Wanted.”

When I thought, “What first person shooter would be the most interesting to play,” it hit me... “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.” This game is intense and the multiplayer is even more intense. I didn’t just want to play the story mode, first its not as fun as online, and second I already completed the game once before. I entered multiplayer when the game loaded and I was ready to go. I played quite a few maps and I enjoyed my experience playing it in the Gyroxus Chair. I found that with the chair, I had an advantage. Instead of holding the left analog stick forward all the time and hurting my finger, I was able to just sit up and lean the chair forward slightly. I ran everywhere and was even able to distract other players and make it harder for them to aim at me. In doing so I got a lot more kills than I anticipated. I also love using the chair for side stepping. In multiplayer mode, side stepping is very useful, especially with grenades. When you side step you use the chair and lean to the left or the right. With the combination of leaning forward, backwards, left and or right in the chair you can really move your character and get out of some sticky situations without panicking. I believe that the Gyroxus chair will give most FPS players an advantage over those with a plain controller.

“Halo 3” was one of my first choice to try with the Gyroxus Chair. This game was the perfect opportunity to refresh my memory of what the game was truly about. My husband and I started a new campaign when I got the chair. I sat in the chair and was in charge of Master Chief, while my husband used the normal controller and played the Arbiter. We both realized that with me in the chair, I had more of an advantage over the regular controller. Master Chief was moving more freely. I moved faster and gained an edge over the Covenant.  I found that I fought better with the chair because I didn’t have to worry about my movement if I just sat up straight in the chair and made Master Chief move forward. All I had to do was aim and kill. All I had to worry about was going to far forward and in that case I just leveled out the chair and I would make Master Chief stop. 

After spending hours on “Halo 3” and “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare,” I knew exactly the next game I wanted to try, “Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion.” The controllers are the same as those in all the other first person shooters I have previously mentioned. So I switched it up a bit and changed the controls where I had the right analogue stick to move and the chair was used to aim and look around. This new setup gave a whole new meaning of killing rats and goblins. It was much harder to control and see your enemy. This new way of aiming showed how great it would be to play this game with your entire body. The chair just might bring the excitement back to “Oblivion.”

Soon I became bored with “Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion” (its not as much fun as an MMO like “World of Warcraft”) so, I decided that it was time to test out some sports games. “Fight Night Round 3” was on the top of my list to play.

In the Red Corner, using the Gyroxus Chair is Oscar De La Hoya and the blue corner opponent is Sugar Ray Leonard. You probably assumed my opponent won based upon his reputation. You are correct. There is no way that Oscar De La Hoya could beat Sugar Ray Leonard. That’s not the point, though. The chair made the movement feel like you were really in the ring. When you want to reproduce the circular motions of the boxers just move your body in a circle. I tried switching the controllers to see if you could use the chair to control the punches, but I was not sure which of the six different controller settings switched the left and right analogue stick. I kept the default controller and tried to beat Sugar Ray, but I got knocked out. As any player knows to get up, you need to get both the analogue sticks in the circle on the screen.  This made using the chair difficult, because you have to move your whole body to get to the circle in time, but I came close. I know with practice this part of the game will get easier over time and your boxer won’t be TKO.

What better extreme sports game in the Gyroxus Chair to try out than “Tony Hawk." With the chair your body is in complete control of the skateboard, not just in directing where you are heading, but in ever move you make in the air. After jumping off of a ramp if you move your chair and pressed X or O the board would do a trick in the position that you are sitting. The board will also rotate if you lean left or right in the chair making different combinations of tricks. It takes on a different feel in playing in the chair.

Now, what about grinds. In “Tony Hawk” with a normal controller, you use the left analogue stick to keep balance. This has changed with the chair, now you use your entire body to balance. With the standard controller any slight movement with the left analogue stick and you bail, but with the chair you can easily lean the chair very slightly and keep yourself from bailing. It took practice to achieve the art of grinding, but once I got the hang of it, I accumulated higher scores than I have ever thought possible.

Since I didn’t get enough time with “Need For Speed: Carbon,” I decided to dust off “Most Wanted.” I wanted more time with a racing game. The Gyroxus Chair is a perfect fit for the racing genre.  I also wanted to get in a high speed pursuit, and GTA IV is just too easy to get out of a wanted level. First I tried just racing and since I am still learning how to steer with the chair, I wasn’t doing so hot.  I decided to jump out of the race and just drive and get use to chair without worrying if I was winning. After about five minutes of driving recklessly, I got into a hot pursuit with the cops. This is where the fun began and since I still had difficult with steering, this made the chase unpredictable and a lot of fun. I would spin out of control, because I would lean to far to the left or right, and crash into cop cars and get into very sticky situations. I eventually caught on and started to smoothly drive in the chair, and after six minutes of great fun I finally got out of the chase and evaded the cops with a bounty of $156,000.

The Gyroxus Chair gave me an experience in gaming that I never thought possible. I didn’t know what to expect at first. Although I was beta testing and didn’t have a final product to view, I know that when the final product hits stores it will change everyone’s view of what gaming is truly about.