Kotaku: novint falcon

Valve Games Now Support Gun Controller

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 05:30:00 MDT

Sadly, it's not the "PC Game Gun". Instead, it's been announced today that most of Valve's shooters will be compatible with Novint's Falcon peripheral.

All games included with The Orange Box - those being Half-Life 2, HL2 Episodes 1 & 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2 - will now work with the novel controller. And Valve's other big shooters, like Left 4 Dead and Counter-Strike, will "soon" be supported as well.

If that sounds just too awesome to resist, Valve and Novint are offering an Orange Box bundle over on Novint's site, where for $149 you can get a Falcon and The Orange Box.

Novint Falcon Soon To Confuse Console Gamers Too

Mike Fahey — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:00:00 MST

With the peculiar-looking Novint Falcon finally gaining some solid support in mainstream games, such as Valve's Left 4 Dead, the company plans on bringing the 3D controller to consoles.

Looking like a device you'd expect to see in a medical office or alien spaceship, the Novint Falcon is a USB device that replicates mouse movement in 3D space. Already on the market for two years, Novint believes they're now ready to take it to the console level. Speaking to GameCyte, Novint CEO Tom Anderson explains that it was more or less an instance of "Show us the gameplay."

The main thing is that the console manufacturers wanted to see game support, and now, we have that game support. We’ve asked our publishing partners if they’d be willing to support us on consoles, and they said yes. So all the pieces are there — we just need to put it together.

Anderson told GameCyte that they hope to have console games that support the Falcon by the end of the year. I'll hold off on picking on up until I can attach a dentist-mirror swivel arm in my living room to complete the effect.

Novint Falcon, Coming Soon to a Console Near You [GameCyte]

CES 09: Novint Falcon + Pistol Grip + Left 4 Dead = ?

Michael McWhertor — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:00:14 MST

Novint's Falcon doesn't currently support Valve's Left 4 Dead or The Orange Box, but the curious looking controller supported both at CES. How useful is it and the pistol grip in games like these?

While it, like much of the wares at the Consumer Electronics Show, answers a technology question that very few asked, the Falcon feels great, after becoming acclimated to its unusual control scheme, based on our quick hands on time with Valve's latest. That pistol grip similarly feels like a natural fit after a few minutes.

The Falcon's realistic kickback, however, is going to seriously limit how often you'd use this thing in a game like Left 4 Dead. The intense force feedback you'll feel when squeezing off a shotgun round or dropping from a ledge can be disorienting. Fortunately, these effects can be scaled back or turned off altogether.

If you think mice and trackballs just aren't giving you enough trigger squeezing feel, the Novint Falcon may make your zombie apocalypse feel that much more authentic.