The use of glorified video games to train military personnel is nothing new, but traditionally, it's been pretty stodgy stuff, not really the kind of thing casual users would be particularly jealous of.

This stuff, though, I am jealous of.

Laser Shot is a company that specialises in providing military training gear to clients like the US Army and Navy. In terms of software they use VBS2, a highly flexible and realistic simulator based on Bohemia Interactive's ArmA II and something we've spoken about before here on Kotaku.

What's cool here, though, is the gear Laser Shot uses. Soldiers aren't trained using a mouse and keyboard. They're trained using replica firearms and even replica vehicles, all rigged up to the software in elaborate virtual reality-like systems.

There are sniper systems where actual rifles use modified scopes that are plugged into the "game". There are "multiplayer" systems where squads can practice combined arms tactics. There's even a little replica Humvee, where a crew can work together on everything from their driving to manning the machine gun up top.

Needless to say, while these are serious in intent, they also look amazing to someone who would just want to jump in and play with them. Especially that sniper one. Looks like the world's most badass / comfortable arcade gaming experience.

UPDATE - For the video above, reader James tells us "Its not a modified scope. They are real scopes. The weapon itself is a real lower receiver with basically an air rifle upper receiver. The magazines are filled with CO2. Its a pretty nifty system".

Military [Laser Shot]