News Articles

Best of E3: Gear - Novint Falcon 3D Touch Controller
May 19, 2006

by Gerry Block
May 19, 2006

Developer: Novint Technologies
Release Date: 2007

The Nintendo Wii made a big splash at E3 this year, and its motion-tracking controller has suddenly pushed innovative control mechanics into the forefront of what's hot in gaming. While we were fans of going through physical motions to play games with the Wii, Novint Technologies opened our eyes to what it's like to actually feel a game. The Falcon is a first-of-its-kind PC peripheral that makes use of force feedback to allow users to experience artificial 3D-touch "Haptic" sensitivity of virtual objects. Three articulated arms attach to a center grip that can control games just like a mouse, and highly-developed algorithms apply appropriate forces of resistance to create realistic impressions of weight, recoil, and shock.

We demoed the Falcon with Half Life 2 and were blown away. Shotgun blasts produced hard, lurching recoil, while automatic machine gun fire was fast and light with an upward pull on the handle, simulating the barrel-rise effect of automatic fire. Lifting a box put weight on the handle, and taking damage from the side jerked the controller appropriately as our character stumbled away. We were blown away, and can hardly wait for Novint to make good on their promise to launch the Falcon in 2007 with a retail price of less than $100.

Runner(s)-Up: Wii-mote (Nintendo) SMART BrainGames Brain-wave-sensing PS2 controller (CyberLearning Technology)
Other Nominees: PlayStation 3 Controller (Sony) G25 Racing Wheel (Logitech) Wireless Racing Wheel 360 (Microsoft) Now that you've seen Gear's winner, check out the other platform and overall winners as well: