The folks at Novint have demoed their unique force feedback PC game controller the Novint Falcon by, among other means, using Valve's Half-Life 2. The demo allowed people to use the controller to "feel" effects like weapon fire recoil, the weight of holding objects like barrels and even feel textures in the game world. Now IGN is reporting that Novint and Valve are planning to expand their relationship.The report states that Valve plans to support the Novint Falcon beyond just Half-Life 2 to cover all of the games covered in their Orange Box collection (Half-Life 2, Episodes One and Two, Team Fortress 2 and Portal) along with Counter-Strike Source and the upcoming Left 4 Dead. Novint will also release a special Orange Box version of the Falcon controller later this year. A new pistol grip attachment for the Falcon should start shipping to stores soon....

If you have a gaming PC, you might need all you need is a powerful rig with a great graphics card, a big monitor, a super sound system and a gaming oriented mouse and keyboard. Oh, but 1Up.com says, "Wait a second, partner.". They have taken a look at some other types of technology that might (or might not) influence how we play games in the future.Some of these devices are actually available right now such as the Novint Falcon controller that allows gamers to "feel" things like weight and textures inside the game. Other currently available "innovations" include the amBX sound and light system that allows supported games to extend beyond with new sounds and light and the TN Games Vest which allows the wearing to "feel" shots created by in-game shooting. One device that isn't out yet is the Emotiv Epoc headset which has sensors that in theory allow people to use their thoughts to control games. It's not due for release until this fall but the device had a fairly spectacular and fairly public failure during a press conference at GDC last February. In short; it just didn't work. The 1Up.com article also seems skeptical that the Epoc will gain again traction but who knows? Maybe next year at this time I will be playing Crysis with my mind....