7 Video Game Weapons You Didn't Know Were Real

Some iconic weapons from video games are excessively absurd to beryllium real. The Lancer from Gears of War, Cloud's Buster Sword, and astir everything from Monster Hunter are included. But not each mind-blowing limb successful video games is simply a enactment of axenic fantasy.

Some unthinkable weapons are based connected the existent deal, but not each of them are practical.

7 Gunblades Are Real, but the Worst of Both Worlds

Final Fantasy VIII instilled a full procreation of gamers with a deep-seated emotion for swords that are besides guns. Squall's gunblade sits successful the video crippled weapons hallway of fame for a precise bully reason. The thought of some stabbing and shooting your enemies astatine the aforesaid clip is conscionable awesome.

So awesome, successful fact, that the thought occurred to humanity arsenic aboriginal arsenic 1575, with immoderate flintlock pistols constructed arsenic gun-swords with a akin plan to Squall's gunblade. The pistol would often remainder against the broadside of the blade, aiming successful the aforesaid absorption arsenic the tip, though it would mostly beryllium utilized arsenic a backup weapon. Think of it similar a reverse-bayonet situation—instead of a weapon with a leaf arsenic backup, gun-swords were blades with guns for backup.

Swords aren't the lone real-world weapons to person a weapon slapped onto them either. Humanity has besides produced gun-hatchets, gun-knuckledusters, and adjacent a triple-barreled gun-mace, specified arsenic the 1 owned by King Henry VIII. The United States Navy adjacent tried to marque a Bowie knife-pistol, called the Elgin pistol, modular contented successful 1838.

Unfortunately, these conceptually awesome weapons ne'er became our mainstream mode of fighting. Instead of a hybrid that's bully astatine some adjacent and agelong range, these chimera weapons were usually unwieldy, being heavier than an mean weapon and mostly much poorly-balanced than a standalone mentation of the aforesaid melee weapon. And of course, they were beauteous costly and complicated, creating logistics and attraction concerns arsenic well.

6 Guided Bullets Are Terrifyingly Real

Guided missiles and bombs are 1 thing, but bullets person ever had a estimation for being more... archaic. They're fundamentally conscionable truly fancy arrows, their accuracy astatine the mercy of wherever you constituent the barrel, right? Well, the guided "smart" bullets you saw successful games similar Titanfall 2 oregon Fortnite are not wholly disconnected the mark. Smart bullets that tin alteration trajectory oregon velocity mid-flight person been a conception since 1998 and a world since 2008.

The archetypal known operational astute slug came successful the signifier of DARPA's EXACTO program, launched successful 2008. It's a fire-and-forget astute rifle, presumably capable to fastener connected to a target, fire, and person a slug that corrects its trajectory mid-flight to deed it. Though the nonstop exertion down EXACTO has not been made public, the limb was test-fired successful 2015 with palmy results.

Other types of astute bullets whitethorn usage a laser designator, being guided toward a people successful a manner akin to a laser-guided missile. Such a exemplary was announced by Sandia National Laboratories successful 2012, and it tin allegedly update its presumption 30 times a 2nd to deed a people that is simply a mile away.

These types of bullets are not commonplace successful warfare yet, and admittedly, they're thing similar the close-range tracking bullets that propulsion a 90-degree crook wrong 3 feet of formation time, similar you spot successful immoderate video games. However, "steerable" oregon "homing" bullets are a reality, and they volition nary uncertainty go much prevalent astatine immoderate constituent successful the future.

5 Whip Swords Bend the Rules of Swordplay

Ivy Valentine from Soulcalibur is iconic for a assortment of reasons, but 1 of them is undoubtedly her serpentine whip sword, which tin alteration from a rigid leaf into a flowing nexus of sword pieces to onslaught astatine a distance. If you played Elden Ring, you whitethorn besides callback coming crossed the urumi, a bladed limb that shared a moveset with the galore different much accepted whips successful the game.

Ivy's signature limb is simply a much fantastical rendition of the concept, but Elden Ring's urumi is really precise adjacent to the existent deal. The sanction isn't adjacent made-up—the urumi is a existent limb that hails from India. The leaf is made of flexible Wootz alloy and is razor crisp connected some sides. It's not arsenic agelong arsenic the 1 seen successful Elden Ring, mostly being astir 4 to 5.5 feet, and it decidedly can't harden into a rigid spike for thrusting, but it's awesome nonetheless.

The urumi is beauteous overmuch a abbreviated whip that tin portion you, wielded similar a benignant of flail utilizing centrifugal unit for deadly cuts. It tin adjacent person aggregate blades attached to 1 hilt, with immoderate Sri Lankan versions having up to 32 deadly limbs. While intimidating and perfect for fights against a radical of enemies, it's a hard limb to maestro and could easy wounded an inexperienced wielder, which is wherefore it is the past limb to beryllium learned by students of Indian martial arts similar Kalaripayattu.

4 Laser Weapons Aren't Science Fiction Anymore

Laser weapons person been a mainstay of galore subject fabrication video games. Ace Combat, Halo, Fallout, Warframe, and tons of different games person each featured weapons that occurrence sustained laser bursts to incinerate your enemies. The thought for laser weapons has been astir for a agelong time, but lone precocious has specified weaponry go viable for real-world use. They're called directed vigor weapons.

In 2019, the United States Navy fielded the High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance (HELIOS), a 60-kilowatt high-powered laser limb intended to instrumentality down drones, aircraft, and adjacent missiles. We're talking a existent laser here—a continuous vigor beam traveling astatine the velocity of airy to destruct targets. This isn't the archetypal laser limb to beryllium developed, but it is 1 of the largest.

Laser weapons bash person immoderate challenges holding them back, specified arsenic atmospheric conditions heavy limiting their relation oregon viability. However, they are highly precise nether the close circumstances and overmuch cheaper per "shot" than the limb systems that would beryllium doing the laser's occupation successful astir cases. Because of this, we're apt to spot much and larger laser weapons successful the adjacent future, with models successful the 150-300 kilowatt scope being tested arsenic of 2024.

3 Railguns May One Day Replace Conventional Cannons

The large Helldivers 2 railgun nerf whitethorn person caused contention astir a purely fictional weapon, but railguns were a realized conception arsenic aboriginal arsenic 1917, erstwhile French inventor André Louis Octave Fauchon-Villeplée created a tiny moving model. Since then, determination has been plentifulness of involvement successful the accumulation of a viable railgun, with designs cropping up successful World War II and astir each decennary afterward.

The main happening holding backmost the viability of military-grade railguns similar you spot successful Helldivers 2 is the powerfulness required to run them. While building your ain low-power railgun is really rather communal arsenic an amateur project, the magnitude of powerfulness needed to marque a railgun that tin combat aliens oregon adjacent beryllium utilized arsenic an effectual limb connected a existent battlefield is excessively overmuch for man-portable options based connected existent technology.

However, we tin battalion a large capable generator for deadly railguns connected warships oregon arsenic fixed emplacements. In 2010, the United States Navy tested a railgun that accelerated a 7-pound projectile to Mach 10, different known arsenic 7,600 miles per hour. While determination are inactive galore aspects of railguns holding it backmost from wide subject adoption, including powerfulness draw, accumulation costs, retrofitting, complexity, it's precise apt that the exertion volition proceed to beryllium developed successful the future.

Maybe 1 day, existent grunts connected existent battlefields volition kick astir however their railgun shaper ruined their favourite weapon.

2 Fighting Like Marvel's Wolverine Is Historically Accurate

X-Men's Wolverine mostly conscionable punches people, but with agelong blades coming retired of his fists. This isn't a caller conception birthed by a comic book—human beings person been trying to punch each different with blades for hundreds of years. There's a full class of weapons designed for this purpose, called propulsion daggers. There are galore types of propulsion daggers retired there, but one of the much iconic is the katar.

Its biggest video crippled quality has astir apt been arsenic Voldo's main limb successful the Soulcalibur series, though katars person appeared successful different games arsenic well, specified arsenic Chivalry 2 and Brawlhalla. The katar is simply a limb of Indian root recognized by its H-shaped grip that placed the agelong leaf straight implicit the wielder's knuckles. The limb was utilized with a closed fist, truthful utilizing it successful conflict was rather akin to conscionable punching radical with a dagger.

These weapons are hundreds of years aged and are inactive taught successful Indian martial arts, and they person besides received the gunblade attraction passim history, conscionable similar galore different weapons. While they aren't utilized for immoderate signifier of superior combat successful the modern era, katars are often utilized ceremoniously successful India adjacent today.

1 Smart Airburst Grenade Launchers Aren't Limited to FPS Games

In the heyday of Battlefield 4, 1 of my favourite weapons for hectic battles successful the Metro was the XM-25 grenade launcher. This atrocious lad fired airburst grenades that would alert implicit a portion of screen and detonate close down it, making it an excellent—and terrifying—weapon successful scenarios wherever the different squad was perpetually huddling down immoderate screen they could find. I could spell connected rather a streak with that thing.

The XM-25 whitethorn look similar a science-fiction limb created for a video game, but it's a precise existent portion of equipment. It's a squad-level grenade launcher that uses a laser rangefinder to programme the fuze hold connected the grenades. Basically, if you aimed the laser astatine a portion of screen that was 300 feet away, the grenade could beryllium programmed to detonate aft flying 301 feet, hitting the people down it.

It's not hard to spot wherefore the subject would privation thing similar this, and it adjacent saw immoderate constricted usage successful 2010, but the full task got officially canned successful 2018 adjacent though studies showed it to beryllium 300% much effectual successful combat than other, much accepted grenade launchers. The main issues cited were value (the limb unsocial was 14 pounds, with a afloat complement of ammo, the value was 35 pounds) and the information that a worker carrying 1 had to sacrifice their firearm successful exchange.

Of course, successful video games, we don't person to interest astir pesky things similar value and chronic backmost pain. What's 5 100 pounds of weapons, armor, equipment, and ammo to your integer avatar? But for the existent world, adjacent a scarily effectual limb similar the XM-25 tin spell unused owed to factors similar that.

---

As you tin see, determination are tons of insanely chill video crippled weapons that are taken consecutive from reality. Fiction is awesome, but the aforesaid creativity that humans usage to marque things up for a video crippled is utilized to marque things successful existent life, too. That said, determination are plentifulness of wild weapons successful video games that genuinely are the effect of a fantastical whim consecutive from immoderate crippled developers mind.