KNOW WHEN YOU'VE BEEN SHOT

Remember your childhood days when you played cops and robbers? Remember what would happen when you got shot? More often than not, you'd yell out "You missed me!" and keep on playing. Of course, the kid who shot you would scream out something to the effect that he didn't miss you and that you should fall down dead. Of course there never was a referee around when you needed one and so the battle would change into a heated debate on whether or not you got shot. But it looks like that with the help of technology, today's kids or adults playing shoot 'em up games on a computer won't have to be subjected to that decision ever again. Because now when you get shot, you're going to know it for sure. You're actually going to feel the bullet impacting your chest. How's that for realism? A bit too much? I guess that depends on how far you want to push the realism of virtual gaming.

Yes, once again it's that time of year again when I go into my holiday technology gift buying mode and seek out the latest technological gifts and gaming items for that special tech-lover in your life. This year, gaming is pushing the boundaries of reality even further. In many ways, that reality is actually making gamers get up off the couch and physically interact. Just take a look at the wildly successful Wii gaming console. No longer can you merely sit and play the game. Using a variety of available velocity-sensing controllers, you have to be standing to swing at the ball, reel in the fish or attack with your light saber. Being made to physically imitate what you would be doing if you were actually doing it is the ideal way to make the virtual game seem more real. But there's another way you can make a virtual game seem more real and that's adding physical feedback.

Game consoles and some computer games offer physical feedback in the controllers you hold. Steering wheels now lurch in the appropriate manner and direction when your driving game has you hit another car or you crash into a wall. Other handheld controllers vibrate when your fire your blaster or you get hit by something that explodes. And now just in time for the holidays, you'll know when you've been shot. That is if you happen to be wearing the new 3rd Space FPS Vest from TN Games.

Looking pretty much like a flak vest, you strap on the FPS Vest as you would put on a regulation body armor vest. In fact, it looks just like the real thing. You just slip on the black vest and tighten each over the shoulder strap and buckle with a quick pull. Then zip up the vest and finish by tightening the chest and waist straps and buckles. Make sure you plug in the vest's USB cable and you're ready for action.

The FPS Vest ($169) contains eight active zones that simulate the direction and forces of bullet fire, explosions and even the fear-inducing finger taps you may feel as someone touches your virtual body. Includes with the vest is 3rd Space Incursion, a futuristic first person shooter game that has the necessary coding to take advantage of all the FPS Vest's abilities. The game is multiplayer and requires a broadband connection to the Internet. The actual system includes the FPS Gaming Vest, air compressor, USB cable, power supply and 3rd Space Incursion game disc. The black FPS Vest comes in two sizes. S/M will fit a person sized from 4 to 6 feet with chest sizes ranging from 30 to 49 inches. L/XL is 6 feet and up with chest sizes from 36 inches and up.

So go ahead and take your best shot. This time, they're going to feel it.

Requires Windows XP or higher.

www.tngames.com

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