Someone found a way to stick to their New Year’s resolutions by playing Death Stranding (opens in new tab) with a treadmill. Anyone who’s played Kojima’s latest brainchild knows there’s a lot of walking involved, so this resourceful modder decided to put his body to the test and actually walk through the game with his real-life legs.
YouTuber Allen Pan (opens in new tab) starts by admitting to a sympathetic dilemma: putting on weight over the holidays. In looking for a way to shed the weight and stay fit long term, Pan took to some rather unconventional measures. By converting an old, abandoned treadmill into a functional PS4 controller, the YouTuber can enjoy his gaming hobby guilt-free and even productively.
The electrical engineer by degree goes into some detail to explain how the feat was made possible, but I refuse to embarrass myself trying to summarize the process. Essentially, the modder was able to rewire his second-hand treadmill and have it act as a PS4 controller’s left thumbstick, with the rest of the game’s controls functioning as usual via an actual DualShock 4. Pan calls the exercise “nauseating,” and I don’t for one minute doubt him – trudging through Death Stranding’s rocky hillsides can be tiring enough sat on a three-piece suite.
You can see Pan and his friends walking and running through Death Stranding’s environments wearing backpacks. As expected, no one has an easy time, proving Norman Reedus’s chiseled physique is more than just show.
Make life in Death Stranding easy on yourself with these 13 essential Death Stranding tips (opens in new tab).