Xbox Lightguns?

[Corrupt Rose]

'ello.

I'm probably going to buy House of the Dead 3 soon, as well as a couple of lightguns. I was wondering if there were any standout ones that I really ought to be trying to get my hands on...

[Madbury]

Not used any myself, but people swear on the Thrustmaster guns (Barretta) and they look cool.

Seen some pump action type ones on ebay, which may or may not be any good. I suppose they are closer to the arcades shotguns.

[mid]

I've noticed that some of them claim to work with 100Hz TVs.

So, two questions - how reliable is this, as I don't want to be 20 quid down when there isn't even a 50Hz TV in the house any more, and do they work with LCD TVs as well?

[Brats]

The best one is supposed to be the sniper rifle released for Silent Scope complete in the US. It also converts to a proper pump action shotgun for HOTD3.

I would link to one, but I can't access shopping sites from work .

[Treble]

It's available over here - I was playing with it at my mate's on Sunday, on SS Complete.

First off, it looks ok, but definitely errs on the cheap side. It isn't well weighted, and the centre of gravity appears to be roughly central on the gun - not ideal, as the weight should be equal between the barrel and the stock, so that it pivots around your hands.

It certainly does work on 100hz TVs.

In-game, it works fairly well: when your face approaches the scope, an IR sensor automatically zooms you in to the screen, and you can see the zoomed crosshair part through the scope. It works quite well, although it isn't a totally transparent process, as it should be: you sometimes have to waggle your face around in front of the sensor a bit until it detects your presence.

Its sensitivity to movement of the crosshair is adjustable, and you'll spend many an [un]happy hour getting it right. With such a gimmicky peripheral, you'd need something costing >?150 to get it perfect, I reckon. Even the gun on the cab is actually a giant analogue stick in reality, so this peripheral is a noble effort at least.

You also have to get the in-game brightness (set in the options) well high...or at least you did on my mate's 100hz WS TV. This mars the look of the (already quite basic-looking) game, and makes some levels (such as those set at night or with deliberate fogging) hard to see.

On the whole, it's ok. When it works, it works effectively (although we had problems hitting objects on the extremes of the screen), and the accuracy is good when calibrated properly. On the bad side, it feels quite flimsy and calibration takes an eternity and needs to be done frequently. My mate said it works better even with HOTD3 than SSC, but that might be simply because the 'House' games require far less accuracy.

I'd rate it about 6/10 as a peripheral, overall. Hope that weighty impression helps

[Dragon2k4]

IC cool cheers for the impressions of that Rifle, i wont bother getting now. Well maybe for a few bob later, but the Beretta seems to be the don of guns on xbox at the mo. Shame it don't kickback/vibrations - still solid gun that would last ages!