Korax

Novint Falcon

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I'd read some good things about it a while ago, and was trying to justify buying one. The recent wizard discount gave me the perfect excuse. I just got it today, and I must say: holy balls.

I played Half-Life 2 for about 45 minutes, and was thoroughly impressed. I originally thought that it would only be providing some weapon recoil and force-feedback when getting hit. Not only does it do that, but it gives objects "weight" when you pick them up, and jolts the control around when you bump into things like walls or land after a short fall. It made the beginning escape sequence that much more frantic. I was trying to sprint down hallways to safety, bumping into objects and walls and getting shot at, my control being thrown off while I tried to correct for it. And it's great being able to feel the impact of my crowbar on a Civil Patrolman's head.

My one disappointment (so far) was the first time I used a turret. Part of the point of a turret is that the gun is supported by its mount; the user doesn't have to worry about recoil very much. As soon as I fired, however, my hand was thrown back by force, and it was difficult to aim at anything. Fortunately, you can hotkey a haptic feedback toggle, and turn it off at any time.

Did anybody else take advantage of the offer? Any thoughts on the Falcon?

Edited by Lord Korax

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Is there a time limit on the offer? It seems like a ridiculous excess, but it intrigues me, and I sometimes indulge myself in such stupidity. I need time to decide!

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Jake and Nick and I played a bunch of Falcon before recording the latest cast. It's rad! We talked about it during the episode.

If you haven't tried it yet, crank up the resistance settings to the max, to see what it's like. It's hardcore.

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It looks totally fucked ergonomically. It's way too high.

It's not really a problem as long as you have a bit of support from an arm rest or something similar.

The HL2 support is a bit buggy, but I can't blame Valve since it's a mod by Novint. There were a couple cases where doing things "out of order" crashed the game. Tried a quick Left 4 Dead scene, and was impressed all over again. Valve added in shakes and bumps when reloading. It's satisfying to feel the pistol magazine slide into place after emptying it into zombie heads.

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Ordered one of these last week with the wizard discount..gonna take a bit to get to Australia though :(

Went halves with a friend on the agreement that if it is good i can buy the rest and we'll order in another one..

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Played a little Penumbra today. Awesome use of 3-D manipulation. HL2 only used movement detection on 2 axes. Penumbra gives you a full 3-D area in front of you that you can move objects around in. It also has a "touch" mode that represents your point of contact as a small sphere in the environment, allowing you to run your "hand" across surfaces and swat at things. In order to open doors, chests, and drawers (the door to a chest of drawers?) you have to actually perform the motion and pull them open.

If you have the cash to spend, I wouldn't hesitate to get one. The supported games may be limited in number, but it makes the gameplay more (visceral? mind-blowing?) interesting.

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Aarrghh... I really love Penumbra, and I really want to play it with the Falcon, but I don't know how much I would actually use this and I don't want another peripheral I won't use.

Of course, I could sell if after playing a few games, I guess.

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Aarrghh... I really love Penumbra, and I really want to play it with the Falcon, but I don't know how much I would actually use this and I don't want another peripheral I won't use.

Of course, I could sell if after playing a few games, I guess.

Same here!

I bought a keyboard that had a display that was supposed to be used in a bunch of games, but it was only used in ONE!

Maybe I should wait a year? If they are still making games for it by then, it should be a safer bet?:erm:

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Same here!

I bought a keyboard that had a display that was supposed to be used in a bunch of games, but it was only used in ONE!

Maybe I should wait a year? If they are still making games for it by then, it should be a safer bet?:erm:

I think the Falcon has been around for at least a few years, so whatever support from devs they've been able to muster so far would probably be indicative of how much support they'll get in the future.

Edit:One other thing to keep in mind before buying the Falcon, is that if you do you'll probably have to spend a lot of time convincing your non-gaming friends that the Falcon isn't a teledildonics accessory.:crazy:

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I think the Falcon has been around for at least a few years, so whatever support from devs they've been able to muster so far would probably be indicative of how much support they'll get in the future.

Really? And only now it's starting to pick up? Either way I'm waiting, I don't want it to end up like my G15 keyboard which is useless now...:hmph:

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Really? And only now it's starting to pick up? Either way I'm waiting, I don't want it to end up like my G15 keyboard which is useless now...:hmph:

The Falcon was released in 2006. I've seen it discussed elsewhere, and the general consensus seemed to be that it's cool but support is limited. The wait and see approach seems reasonable, but I don't think that there will be any sort of massive upswing in dev support for it.

Also the Novint website has a listing of games that have Falcon drivers availible:

http://home.novint.com/games/games.php

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I bought one, but their shipping is slow as a show, so I don't think it's even left LA yet. Typical American laziness.

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I bought a keyboard that had a display that was supposed to be used in a bunch of games, but it was only used in ONE!

Only one game? I used to play BF2142 a lot, so I used it all the time. Having a clock display available all the time is pretty handy, too.

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Operation Flashpoint 2 is coming out soon with native support for the Falcon.. also on their forums they said they'll be releasing their 'F-Gen Drivers' very shortly which will make it compatible with all games..

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How good is it for non-first-person games? I saw Gish listed in the supported games section.

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How good is it for non-first-person games? I saw Gish listed in the supported games section.

Can you vouch for the game's quality? If it's good, I might buy it and see. Unfortunately, it looks like you'll have to buy the haptic feedback version from Novint's site. If you've got it from Steam or some other service, you're out of luck.

Also, when looking at some of the other games on the list, I saw "Klectic," a Falcon-enabled version of "The Wonderful End of the World." I might try that one out, too.

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I bought one, but their shipping is slow as a show, so I don't think it's even left LA yet. Typical American laziness.

Hey Jezza- some of us Americans are either:

a)Anglophiles

or

B) not all that lazy.

Some of us even value other parts of the world.

Just saying :)

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Are there any good video reviews that get across how it works with HL2 etc?

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Here's a rather in-depth look at it working with Crysis. There are a decent number of other random videos on YouTube, as well.

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Can you vouch for the game's quality? If it's good, I might buy it and see. Unfortunately, it looks like you'll have to buy the haptic feedback version from Novint's site. If you've got it from Steam or some other service, you're out of luck.

Gish is a great game. You play as a sentient ball of tar that maneuvers around a platform environment by changing your physical properties. Like, you become denser to smash through blocks and enemies, you become sticky to climb up walls and grab objects, you become slick to squeeze through games, and you become rigid to jump after compressing yourself. Haven't quite played anything like it. The original publishers have a demo if you want to try it out.

That said, I have no idea how the hell the Falcon would work on a 2d side-scrolling platform game. :erm:

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That said, I have no idea how the hell the Falcon would work on a 2d side-scrolling platform game. :erm:

I haven't played it with this device, but considering how close the Falcon is to an analog stick, it's not too hard to imagine.

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I haven't played it with this device, but considering how close the Falcon is to an analog stick, it's not too hard to imagine.

I seem to vaguely remember the GFW radio crew talking about the Falcon and Gish. I sounded cool because the physical properties of the ball-thing changed the level of resistance from the Falcon.

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Hey Jezza- some of us Americans are either:

a)Anglophiles

or

B) not all that lazy.

Some of us even value other parts of the world.

Just saying :)

I was only kidding. I know only most Americans are lazy.

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