Is the Falcon controller sweet? Yes. Unequivocally, freaking sweet. I spotted this thing a while back and it absolutely is the best force feedback controller around. No simple haptic feedback (rumble), but real functional touch controller.
Touch a smooth surface and you’ll feel that it’s a smooth surface. In a few demos, I touched a sticky fluid ball and I could feel the thickness of the fluid as I pushed my virtual hand through.
Is it expensive? For a controller, yeah, it’s a little pricey. But it’s something that will truly improve and immerse your gameplay at the same time. Unlike expensive 3D glasses and compatible TV sets, Falcon allows helps to let you know what’s going on in-game. Get shot at and you’ll feel it from the appropriate direction. A bullet from behind hitting you will push you slightly forward. The Falcon will nudge your hand accordingly.
Essentially, it takes the place of your mouse in an FPS. In a fun way, when you shoot off a whole slew of bullets and don’t brace yourself properly, your directional view will be accordingly crazy.
When I fired off a shotgun and didn’t properly brace for it, after squeezing the trigger, I was looking at the sky.
Out of the box, all of Valve’s shooters are supported. New game scripts and drivers are being developed everyday by fans and professional develops alike.
You’ll find pistol grips, mice balls, and even a soon to be released driving wheel and flight yoke.
Where 3D views in a FPS help to draw you further, nothing puts you in the game like feeling getting shot at. Falcon does that with surprising realism. Walking or running down stairs, you feel the subtle feedback of your feet. Jump off a ledge and you’ll feel your hand being lifted up and really end up feeling slightly weightless during the free-fall. Then you hit the ground with a thud.
Price wise, the Falcon is not cheap. There’s an E3 special going for $149.99, which includes the Falcon and pistol grip bundle. Normal pricing is slightly more than double that.
There’s quality in the build and Falcon is heavy and won’t move once placed on your desk.
If you’re into FPS and want to take the next leap (not 3D glasses), then Novint’s Falcon controller is your answer.
3 Responses to “E3: Novint Falcon Controller”
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Good review, and the Novint Falcon is truly awesome device, lets you feel everything in game just like the review says. Definitely worth getting.
Use the code E32010 to get the E3 discount
I love my Falcon, immersion that’s worth the money.
I’d say Crysis is the best game with it, and really looking forward to Bad Company 2 support. The FGen drivers allow u to code for any game and it’s a pretty straight forward code to script your own. I’ve done a bit of my own but need to be very thorough in your possible cases to cover all that can happen in a fps but generating my own series of forces for jumping and recoil was really cool.
I have a Novint Falcon and it is truly an amazing device. I look forward to future game integrations especially Bad Company 2. If anyone is interested in purchasing this jaw dropping device from the Novint store, use the referral code “20%Off” (without quotes) at checkout to receive 20%Off.