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Anders Behring Breivik knew it would take practice to be able to slaughter dozens of people before being shot by police.

In a chilling summary, the far-right fanatic claimed on Thursday that he sharpened his aim by playing computer games for more than a year before Norway's worst peacetime massacre.

Breivik said he played the computer game Modern Warfare for 16 months starting in January 2010, primarily to get a feel for how to use rifle sights. In 2006 he devoted a full year to playing World of Warcraft, for 16 hours a day, he said.

Christopher Ferguson, of Texas A&M International University, said there is no link between violent video games and violent behavior. Though some research suggests that action games can improve "visuospatial cognition," he said it's difficult to say whether Breivik could have improved his accuracy by playing Modern Warfare.

"Let us keep in mind too that he was shooting kids on an island from which they could not escape easily," Ferguson said. "That does not require great accuracy."

Breivik told an Oslo court he took steroids to build physical strength and meditated to "de-emotionalise" himself before the bombing and shooting rampage that left 77 people dead.

His lack of remorse and matter-of-fact description of weapons and tactics - he even considered using a flame thrower - was deeply disturbing to families of the victims, most of whom were teenagers...
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