RyanRacer48
4.0ghz
Registered: April 2008
Location: Ohio
Posts: 1114
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Review Date:
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: $199.99
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Immersion, force feedback, feel of holding a gun.
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Cons:
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N/A
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Novint Falcon review.
I will be reviewing the Novint Falcon Pistol grip bundle with Orange box today. You can purchase this awesome bundle at https://home.novint.com/store/store.php
Normally you’d pay that JUST for the Falcon unit itself that doesn’t even come w/ that sweet Pistol grip attachment. Throw in the fact your getting Orange Box, and you’ve got yourself one heck of a deal!
IF your interested after reading this please email or PM me as I can give you a referral code that will sweeten the deal even more than it already is! ( I think I saw $40 off ).
1. Introduction
Just to give a brief background, the main reason for my interests being sparked on this item was as I’ve gotten older I’ve noticed the ability to immerse into a video game diminishes. I recall back in my teens sitting in front of a computer gaming for hours, totally disconnected from real life. I could have a fire going on all around me and I wouldn’t slip my focus from that clutch frag or important race winning move. Unfortunately for my kill to death ratio I grew up! I now have screaming children and/or work issues constantly beckoning for my attention.
2. Packaging.
The Falcon and the pistol grip both ship in separate boxes, both of which are safe and securely packaged. Inside the box you will fix your Installation Disk, Nvent install disk, manuals, and the unit it self. I was surprised at the size of this box, they definitely took the extra precautions to lessen any chance of damage during shipping.
Speaking of shipping, once you find these things in stock and buy one, expect it to be at your door step within days. I was very impressed with how fast I got my unit.
3. Ease of install.
If you’ve done any kind of plugging in of USB devices and installing basic software, you will be able to install this w/o a hitch. The mods for games are also very easy and seamless to install. The actual unit it self feels sturdy and the Pistol grip attaches securely.
Included games to show off its features are very interesting and entertaining oddly enough for my entire family. My 4 year old son was amazed, as was both my fiancé and I. These included games definitely will spark your interest however I doubt will keep a gamer busy for too long. Especially, while I was sitting next to that pistol grip I was waiting to test.
4. Game testing.
Novint Demo
The first experience I had with this unit was the Tutorial showing you the basic movements and functionality of the Falcon. It has you doing things such as touching a rough surfaced rock, and swinging around a ball on a string etc. Sure it doesn’t seem amusing but when your controlling a cursor on the screen that’s acting as your virtual hands, and you push against the very firm, not giving rock surface and actually feel the rough contours of the surface your touching, the experience is quite impressive. When you swing the ball around holding onto the string you feel the physics of centrifugal force! Again, nothing to keep you busy for hours but it definitely further sparked my desires to get to gaming!
Half-Life 2
First off let me just say, WOW. At first I expected to not be able to control my movements and actions yet I quickly developed the feel for the aiming. It feels like a combination of actually holding a gun like Duck Hunt style, while still being connected to a controller. I’ve noticed it does feel like a controller as well when you reach the far edges. Rather than on a mouse when you run out of mouse pad you have to lift up, instead you just hold the grip to the edge you want to turn and it “scrolls” as would a controller.
In regards to the recoil, let me tell you right now Novint definitely stepped up to the plate in this department. Its easy at first to be overzealous and jack up that force strength, but you’ll quickly learn just how much recoil the game developers intended those big guns to have. First gun I shot was the shotgun and just switching between that and the pistol was an incredible different effect. It does take some getting used to after taking a shot to realign yourself with the target. This adds to realism however in turn adds difficulty. At first when I had to fight those little jumping head crabs it was a nightmare trying to hit them, yet after about 30 minutes of play I was snapping onto targets .
The environmental effects from this were definitely an added touch. Rather than just have the recoil when you shoot, you feel it from jumping, getting shot, nearby explosions etc. I particularly liked the feeling of weight of you get from picking up various objects.
Crysis
Essentially everything I’ve boasted about this unit from my Half-Life 2 experiences carry over to this just with more eye candy.
5. Cons.
Unfortunately nothing in the world is perfect, and for a review to be complete the negatives must be pointed out. Luckily for this unit, the few complaints I do have seem to for the most part be only a matter of time. First on my list would be games supported. I would like to play COD4&5 with this as well as any shooter. I hope in due time they are able to come to agreements with more and more game developers as this definitely adds an great feel to games.
This con though from my talks with the powers that be over at Novint assures us all that it is nothing more than a temporary delay. They have new drivers already in the works that will allow you to use the Falcon in just about all FPS games along with basic windows mouse functionality!!! I assure you all from my experiences thus far, the creators of this are very customer service oriented and will strive to make this already phenomenal product that much better!
The only other complaint I really could come up with would be the weight of the actual Falcon itself. I found if you move the unit too fast sometimes the entire unit will actually move. Now in retrospect this could be a savings grace to your Falcon. I’d prefer having the unit move a bit rather than put undue stress on the edges of movement. Its going to take some diligence on my part to ensure that I don’t get too rough with this thing, say at 5 health left trying to clutch those last few frags to win the round.
6. Overall conclusion
Flat out, if you play video games (FPS especially) and the whole aiming w/ a mouse thing is just not “wowing” you anymore don’t hesitate for another second you NEED this.
I will admit as much as I hyped myself up about this as it was being shipped, I also had my doubts on whether or not it would even feel semi realistic. One of the biggest concerns I had w/ how I game was how sturdy this unit is. We all know when were sitting by ourselves in enemy territory with 5 health left you sometimes can be unintentionally pretty rough w/ your mouse and keyboard. They apparently thought that through very well when designing this unit as it feels like it can definitely take a beating. My 4 year old son played on it for over an hour HOOKED, and the thing still works so 5 stars from me!
Flat out, don’t make excuses, don’t hesitate. All it took for me was one nights worth of play and I can say that I wouldn’t want to go without it. I’ve been informed stock usually comes in around Thursday and Fridays so keep checking that website and get yourself back into the game with the Novint Falcon!
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" A lot of things wouldn't get done if it weren't for the last minute. "
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MY BUILD THREAD - BONEYARD
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