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Virtual insanity

Posted by putsimply on 4th April 2008

No this isn’t a homage to the hat wearing clown from Jamiroquai – it’s about the madness being marketed at today’s ‘yoofs’ to entice them into a ‘better’ video game experience.

I admit I’m a bit behind the times as this technology was unveiled at CES in Las Vegas back in January but an article on Gizmodo today caught my eye and I just had to flag it.

Apparently, excitable gamers will soon be able to buy the catchy titled ‘virtual impact, 3rd space FPS vest’ in the UK. Imagine a flack jacket which has been embedded with lots of little pneumatic cells so that when you’re playing your war game and your character gets shot, the vest kicks in to action and administers what the manufacturers term ‘a mild punch’ to the approximate part of your torso.

Now although I’m old enough to remember Pong and the ZX Spectrum, I am also still with it enough to care that GTA IV is released later this month and have an active interest in the latest gaming technology, but this all seems a bit masochistic and unnecessary to me.

Gaming has come a long way since I was a kid – the constantly evolving graphics, sound and game play never cease to amaze me, but since when did we need to indulge in light self abuse to enjoy a good shoot-’em up?

I can confirm I won’t be in the queue at my local Game store to get one and if I catch anyone I know actually buying one I’ll happily offer to stand there whilst they play and punch them myself.

putsimply