On August 4, 1997, Skynet went online, and shortly thereafter it became self-aware. Thankfully, John Connor saved humanity from the possible nuclear oblivion that would have been wreaked by Skynet and its army of cyborgs. This new machine, the Novint Falcon, looks just as formidable as a mimetic polyalloy cop with a funny gait, but instead of traveling back in time to kill, it merely functions as a 3D videogame controller.
The Novint Falcon can simulate every semblance of 3D space, as Niero explained at CES in 2007. It also has room for attachments, to make the gaming experience more refined. The Novint Falcon is manufactured by Novint Technologies and carries the heavy price tag of $239, which doesn’t exactly make it the most affordable robot for the doomsday enthusiast with a budget.
Upon release, the biggest problem with Novint Falcon was its lack of support by developers. That issue is no more, according to 1UP. On Thursday, Valve announced that it would support the Falcon with Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, Portal, Counter-Strike: Source, and Left 4 Dead via an update on Steam. The Falcon has yet to become an elaborate AI construct that can sell itself, so both Valve and Novint are tossing out a joint bundle consisting of the Falcon controller and The Orange Box set.
The only machine that I need in my life is our own lovely mascot here at Destructoid. I definitely do not need some crazy, bulky controller just to get spawn-camped in Team Fortress 2. Perhaps I am just a child of the listless past, one in which we never envisioned robots crushing skulls of children lying in the streets of an Armageddon Earth.
What do you guys think? Signs of a nuclear winter, or an awesome controller?
Contest:
8:24 PM on 06.26.2008
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You can manipulate objects in a 3D space, and you can "feel" surfaces and textures (like a bumpy surface or a sticky texture) pretty realistically. I really liked the force feedback of it too. The feeling of the force feedback is incredible. Its hard to describe unless you've used it.
I almost bought one right then and there, but other than Haptic Half-Life 2 (also awesome), I didn't see much in the way of third party support. There are were some Wii-like minigames that I played using the Falcon, but I would feel silly playing them in front of my PC. Even now it looks like Valve is the only one who is actively supporting it. Kinda sad.
If you like PC FPS's though, this thing totally smokes mouse aiming with force feedback turned off. It's that quick and responsive. However, $240 bucks is still too expensive for me, with so little support on the horizon.
If they find some way to lower cost, and streamline the device, it would be awesome. Until then, it won't happen.
For devs to bother with software support, it has to have a wide audience.
For it to have a wide audience it has to not cost a fuckton of money.
I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this.
Who are you, and what do you do?
They ran a demo with some adventure game. They way you could search a room was really cool. You even got a sence for the weight of objects you tried to pick up. (I almost broke the thing trying to lift a table ingame ^^).
I also made it crash. Twice.
It was pretty cool to play around with it for a few minutes but I wouldn't be willing part that much money for it, especially with such little software support. If anyone can find a live demo of it, you should give it a go purely for the novelty.
You pretty much just use that ball in the front as a single "eye" that you move around to simulate looking around the screen; it also has a couple of buttons on it for clicking.
Personally I have never liked the Falcon, a mouse is easy, cheap, reliable, 100% stable and works with anything. I don't see the point in paying $300 for a sore arm and carpel tunnel syndrome.
-- I love the beginning of this article. That must be why my Falcon searches for me at night, just like T2 pulling itself around with just one arm.
"Even now it looks like Valve is the only one who is actively supporting it. "
-- we have signed with Valve and EA so far. I guarantee there will be more - EA and Valve are just the first. We're talking to 16 of the top 20 publishers and are very close with many others. So far we have right to integrate Falcon support into Battlefield 2, Battlefield 2142, Madden NFL 08, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08, NBA Live 08, Need for Speed Pro Street, Half-Life 2, Episode 1 and 2, Team Fortress 2, Portal, Counter-Strike Source, and upcoming Left 4 Dead (which is going to rock). We're also coming out with a pistol grip, so you can hold onto an actual pistol handle while you play the games.
"$240 bucks is still too expensive"
-- msrp is $189. We're also selling a Falcon bundle with Orange Box, pistol grip and black or white Falcon for $189 which is a pretty good deal. You can reserve that bundle now on our site.
"For devs to bother with software support, it has to have a wide audience."
-- we've actually cracked that nut. Signing with EA and Valve is no easy feat. There will be other publishers to announce soon using the same model we've used with them.
"+1 'less expensive please' post"
-- in my view, as we get dozens of AAA titles, it is similar to a console purchase. We provide an entirely new experience that cannot be had elsewhere. After one hardware purchase you will be able to buy many games. I personally feel the purchase price is becoming justifiable with all the games we're getting. Read our reviews to see how powerful the game play is
http://home.novint.com/news/media_highlights.php
"I don't see the point in paying $300 for a sore arm and carpel tunnel syndrome"
-- I've been playing our racing game XLR8 and our new alpha build of Battlefield 2 for 6-8 hour sessions without fatigue. It really changes the game play. Check out this video on our racing game as an example
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi8pssf8py0
thanks all, tomnovint.