Imagine playing a basketball videogame in which you can actually feel the weight of a virtual ball in your hand as you toss it towards the hoop for a match-winning penalty throw. Or perhaps you would prefer to savour the ultra-realistic recoil effects from a pistol gripped in your sweaty palm as you take down waves of alien enemies. This is the future of gaming as envisaged by the maker of the Falcon, a new type of game controller coming to a store near you soon

This device threatens to blow the cosy world of PC gaming wide open — and could sound the death knell for the traditional joypad or mouse. Novint, the American maker, says that the list of titles signed up to work in tandem with the Falcon includes the classy Half-Life 2 first-person-shooter series, the top-ranked Tiger Woods 2008 golf game and World of Warcraft, the ubiquitous online fantasy adventure.

As a gizmo, the Falcon looks pretty sci-fi in its own right. Novint calls it “a small robot that lets you experience true virtual touch”. It’s best described as a squashed orb with three arms that are all connected to a front-mounted grip that players move with their hand up to 4in in any direction.

You use this grip to control in-game characters, to swipe an air-hockey baton or even to handle a vehicle. The grip is detachable and can be replaced with, say, a pistol-shaped variant (sold separately) ideal for first-person shooters. The level of feedback a player gets far exceeds the low-level rumble you feel from some standard joypads.

This isn’t the only novel twist. The device — which weighs a sturdy 6lb — allows users to experience genuine 3-D gaming for the first time on a PC. Taking its lead from the Nintendo Wii, the three arms of the device detect the movement of the player’s hand, then map it on screen. So, to throw an object, you would simply perform the physical movement while holding the device and it would be replicated on screen.

It is the feedback technology that will excite gamers the most. Often referred to as “haptics” — a term relating to the sensation of touch — it can create the illusion of encountering different textures, such as pushing an object on a slippery surface or in mud.

So far only a handful games are compatible with this technology. For it to work, games either need to be written with the Falcon in mind or require patches to be downloaded.

The technology is best showcased in Half-Life 2, which is fully Falcon-friendly. The title has a weapon known as a gravity gun, which enables your in-game character to lift up heavy objects and throw them. When using the Falcon to play this game, instead of merely pulling the trigger on your joypad, you must also employ muscle power to lift an object — and if you want to hurl a car, be prepared to sweat.

The Falcon is said to achieve most of its grandiose claims with aplomb. Its clearest rival is not fancy PC-based controllers but the Nintendo Wii. As the Falcon sits on a flat surface, you do not move it as freely as the Wii’s remote, but the Falcon is far more accurate.

So what else might prevent the Falcon from spreading its wings? First, at £165 this is a premium-priced beast currently sold in Europe only by an obscure Swedish e-tailer (www.haptx.com ). And even though the list of big games Novint has signed up already looks impressive, few actually work as yet and some may never do so properly.

Nevertheless, the Falcon’s pedigree plumage is taking gaming to a whole new horizon.

Also consider

Logitech 3Dconnexion SpaceNavigator (personal edition) £39 (www.3dconnexion.com )

This mouse-sized gizmo is the consumer version of a gadget that architects use to navigate 3-D software on a PC screen.

Saitek Cyborg Command Unit £30 (www.saitek.com)

This innovative controller has a cut-down keypad and a regular four-way direction stick. It is meant to replace the mouse and keypad used by most PC games and is useful for playing complex strategy games on a laptop.