Real-Life Equivalents of Video Game Weapons

antdude writes "This GamesRadar article compares a bunch of fantastic video game weapons and their real-life equivalents: 'There are certain things we just accept in video games. An overweight pipe technician can jump five times his own height. A first aid kit will instantly heal bullet wounds and replace lost blood. And any theoretical physics model can be cleanly packaged into a lightweight, handheld weapon with a minimum of fuss. But in certain cases, that last one isn't too far off the truth. As guano loopy as most game weaponry is, some of it definitely isn't implausible. In fact, some of it exists already. Kind of.'"

Re:Crowbar

[noidentity]

What's the real-life equivalent of the Crowbar from halflife? I always wanted one

A Wiimote [wiihaveaproblem.com] maybe?

Re:A railgun will certainly get the job done...

[dintech]

It's fascinating to hear these kinds of war story. Thanks very much.

And The Weapons Are:

[Entropy98]

1: Railgun
2: Laser guns
3: Plasma rifles
4: Lightning guns
5: Mechs
6: Power-armour

Re:Screw guns from video games

[GigaplexNZ]

You mean like the Orgasmo Ray from the movie Orgasmo?

Re:I'll just wait for Real-Life BFG9000 ...

[Ant P.]

Actually it's more like "all the enemies in the direction you were facing when you fired it from the position you're standing when it hits".

The trick there is you can fire it down a long corridor in one direction, run off the opposite way so someone gives chase, and when it hits the wall the guy behind you gets blown to bits. Similarly you can survive it completely unhurt by getting on the opposite side of whoever fired it - as long as you know which way they fired.

Not really something you can build in real life.

Re:Crowbar

[The Archon V2.0]

Who uses a crowbar? Real men use chainsaws.....

And real ninjas use chainsaw nunchucks.

What the military actually has is more impressive

[Animats]

The U.S. military has some weapons which are much better than many video game weapons. Video games need "balance", so players aren't given weapons that are too "powerful". DoD doesn't have that limitation.

• The Grid Square Removal Service [wikipedia.org]. When a Multiple Launch Rocket System unit is loaded up with rockets with submunitions, it fires 12 rockets, each of which carries 518 submunitions, each of which explodes into a rain of fragments. This kills anything unarmored in a 1km grid square. In the U.S. Army inventory for years. Some Iraqi army units were wiped out with those things.
• The FireFinder radar. [wikipedia.org] Shoot at a U.S. Army unit with an indirect fire weapon, and one of these will see the incoming projectiles, calculate the location of the gun, and pass that information to the U.S. Army guns, which will duly plaster the shooter. Within one minute. Standard equipment for Army and USMC artillery units. The technology dates from the 1970s, but in newer versions, it's been shrunk down to a size a HUMMV can carry.
• The XM-25 "smart" grenade launcher. [military.com] Useful when someone is shooting at you from behind cover or from a window. Just point at the side of the window, and click a button to get the range with the laser rangefinder. Then fire a round though the window. The round goes through the window, and, with its timer set automatically, explodes 1-2 meters just inside, in the right place for killing the sniper. Finally, a practical weapon that shoots around corners.
• The Combat Engineer Vehicle [wikipedia.org], another reason the "Dune" approach to desert warfare won't work. These are tank chassis, with the armor, equipped with a bulldozer blade. They're used for removing obstacles. In the first Gulf War, they were used in Kuwait against dug-in Iraqi troops. They didn't bother shooting at them. They just bulldozed sand over their fighting holes, burying them alive.

"If you can see it, you can hit it. If you can hit it, you can kill it." As insurgent groups have figured out, the only way to succeed against a modern military force is to have a population in which to hide, one which the US isn't willing to exterminate.

Re:Crowbar

[GameboyRMH]

If you are a geek you should have really appreciated that fulcrum puzzle. You know why? Even if that puzzle was simple, it wasn't scripted. It was all handled by the same physics engine that controls everything in the game, you just manipulated the objects. You made a virtual see-saw with virtual objects by exploiting virtual gravity, which would be a first for you if you never played Trespasser (and even though I have, I still thought it was cool).