Last week I noticed a bunch of my Steam games got updates - all Orange Box titles and thus quite old and beyond what one would have thought was "update age", thus my curiosity was piqued and I had to investigate what this update brought. "Support for the Novint Falcon" - what, new gun? thinks I, but a quick google search revealed that it was in fact the contraption you see at the head of the blog.
And I think it's freakin awesome.
It looks somewhat like a robot fighting off a gun, which actually turns out to be not too far from the fact of the matter. It's actually a mouse replacement game controller currently for PC, the pistol grip is an optional extra for use in shooters. The Falcon is in essence a robot, the arms detect position much like a mouse but on a curved vertical plane rather than the flat horizontal plane of a mouse, where the Falcon betters the mouse (and where the robotics come in) is in force feedback. For console and gamepad gamers force feedback is old hat, but for the more conservative mouse + keyboard PC gamers its a feature that has been pretty much lacking without investing in some sort of gaming chair. Of course gamepads supporting force feedback are available on the PC platform, but they sacrifice a lot in speed and accuracy that most PC gamers find unacceptable, particularly for online gaming where such a sacrifice is likely to result in a lot of pwnage - Novint claim an experienced Falcon user could match performance of a mouse user.
The method feedback is enormously superior to that of the traditional gamepad (which more or less purrs with varying force and duration), the arms of the Falcon actually push, pull and jerk against the grip of the user to produce weapon recoil and, more impressively, directional damage feedback. The weapon recoil is a cool feature, but the directional damage feature is revolutionary. The traditional methods of damage feedback usually involve on-screen indicators coupled with (on a gamepad) a burst of purr. The Falcon gives the player a more immersive experience by indicating via feedback where the fuck some bastard is killing them from.
The Falcon for me adds that sense of involvement the current crop of consoles are looking to provide via motion control, but in a more practical way for "real" gamers who want to feel that involvement, but not give up the level of control and feedback they're used to experiencing that waggling a wiimote simply can't provide.
The biggest problem I see with the Falcon is that it's currently only available in the USA, which sucks, but I read somewhere they're looking into expanding across the globe in the near future - which is good news. The next biggest problem I see is the price - it currently sits at $149 US for the Falcon/Pistol grip package, a straight currency conversion results in a UK price tag of £90, which is actually not bad, ballpark for a premium pro-gamer mouse, however when we add the cost inflation the UK usually sees for pretty much anything and everything we're probably talking more like £120-150, which is pretty steep for a controller. Next is space and comfort, I can see the Falcon might fatigue your arm faster than other control methods are likely to - not a problem if like me you rarely play for periods longer than an hour or two, but maybe a problem for marathon session gamers. The Falcon looks like it'd take up roughly the same amount of space as a typical mouse mat, but this could be a pain in the arse if your desk is small.
I'll close up here with a video from Novints CEO showcasing the falcon
It looks somewhat like a robot fighting off a gun, which actually turns out to be not too far from the fact of the matter. It's actually a mouse replacement game controller currently for PC, the pistol grip is an optional extra for use in shooters. The Falcon is in essence a robot, the arms detect position much like a mouse but on a curved vertical plane rather than the flat horizontal plane of a mouse, where the Falcon betters the mouse (and where the robotics come in) is in force feedback. For console and gamepad gamers force feedback is old hat, but for the more conservative mouse + keyboard PC gamers its a feature that has been pretty much lacking without investing in some sort of gaming chair. Of course gamepads supporting force feedback are available on the PC platform, but they sacrifice a lot in speed and accuracy that most PC gamers find unacceptable, particularly for online gaming where such a sacrifice is likely to result in a lot of pwnage - Novint claim an experienced Falcon user could match performance of a mouse user.
The method feedback is enormously superior to that of the traditional gamepad (which more or less purrs with varying force and duration), the arms of the Falcon actually push, pull and jerk against the grip of the user to produce weapon recoil and, more impressively, directional damage feedback. The weapon recoil is a cool feature, but the directional damage feature is revolutionary. The traditional methods of damage feedback usually involve on-screen indicators coupled with (on a gamepad) a burst of purr. The Falcon gives the player a more immersive experience by indicating via feedback where the fuck some bastard is killing them from.
The Falcon for me adds that sense of involvement the current crop of consoles are looking to provide via motion control, but in a more practical way for "real" gamers who want to feel that involvement, but not give up the level of control and feedback they're used to experiencing that waggling a wiimote simply can't provide.
The biggest problem I see with the Falcon is that it's currently only available in the USA, which sucks, but I read somewhere they're looking into expanding across the globe in the near future - which is good news. The next biggest problem I see is the price - it currently sits at $149 US for the Falcon/Pistol grip package, a straight currency conversion results in a UK price tag of £90, which is actually not bad, ballpark for a premium pro-gamer mouse, however when we add the cost inflation the UK usually sees for pretty much anything and everything we're probably talking more like £120-150, which is pretty steep for a controller. Next is space and comfort, I can see the Falcon might fatigue your arm faster than other control methods are likely to - not a problem if like me you rarely play for periods longer than an hour or two, but maybe a problem for marathon session gamers. The Falcon looks like it'd take up roughly the same amount of space as a typical mouse mat, but this could be a pain in the arse if your desk is small.
I'll close up here with a video from Novints CEO showcasing the falcon
freedoms_stain, out.
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