New game designed to train coppers

A new game has been designed to teach trigger-happy po-po, or "firearms officers" as it's more likely to say on their business cards, about shooting.

Titled Shoot/NoShoot, it's the result of work by researchers at Abertay University, and appears to be played using a light gun. As reported by the BBC, the player's character approaches a man looking in a car boot. When the man turns round it's up to the player to decide whether to hold fire, let off a warning shot or pop a cap in his face.

According to PhD student Paul Robertson, Shoot/NoShoot isn't the type of game shooter fans are used to - it's much more realistic, and it's all about decision making.

"A lot of games become very 'arcadey', it's all big and when you shoot at people it takes eight shots to take them down, and everything explodes," he said. "This is more realistic, a single shot will take someone down."

It sounds good all the same. Characters have proper AI and will respond to voice commands. Plus, said lecturer Dr James Bown, like a sex macine, "The animation is very important, that we get as realistic as possible movements associated with the individual turning round because that's where the signals are going to be as to whether to shoot or not."

So how long before Taggart and friends actually start training with the game? Well, said the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland, it'll have to be tested by the Home Office Scientific Development Branch before they can come to any kind of a decision. Oh Well, Never Mind.