"I learned that in the heat of a Halo Reach battle, I'd be cannon- fodder" The boffins confirm it: years of battle gaming will make you one cool customer under fire, writes CIARA O'BRIEN

THINGS ARE looking pretty good for gamers these days. The latest in a line of studies has revealed that, along with improved coordination and vision, gamers make decisions faster and more accurately. In particular, the study carried out by the University of Rochester found a link between first-person shooters and quick decision-making.

I'm not sure how much my decision-making has benefited from my years of gaming. Much as I enjoy the pace of video games, I prefer a rifle and a sniper scope as my weapon of choice, to give me a bit of distance from the action, or else things turn ugly quite quickly. Think scatter-gun approach and randomly firing at anything that moves and you have it about right.

Take Halo Reach. I was lucky enough to take part in the multiplayer beta a few months ago, and it was a learning experience. Specifically, I learned that

in the heat of battle, I'd be cannon-fodder. The longest I lasted without being taken out was about 15 seconds. The majority of my time was spent hiding to try to avoid the opposing team, or finding myself suddenly face- down in some water after an unseen assailant had snuck up behind me.

There was nothing speedy nor terribly accurate about my decision-making. It was just dumb luck if I survived.

But maybe there is some truth to that study for me after all. Things have, after all, improved drastically over the years. While some games will still reduce me to button- mashing - certain sports games induce a frenzied panic - my melee battle skills have improved immeasurably. And when faced with alien hordes, I'm holding my own (at least when it comes to Halo Reachlately).

The university research measured the reaction skills of a group of gamers who played FPS games such as Call of Dutyagainst a group of non-players. The good news is that an improvement in skills was found after only 50 hours, which many of us would notch up pretty quickly in the days after a major games launch. The improvements can filter through to driving, multi-tasking and other important tasks.

So no need to feel guilty about the marathon CoD sessions any longer. And instead of staging an intervention, your friends and family should be encouraging your dedication to improving your life skills.

At least, that's what you can tell them.