Gaming Seat Experience the topmost gaming seat ever!

Review by S. Bates:

I purchased GT5 Prologue and played for 2 days using the Dual Shock controller, while the game was fun, I was having trouble running well on several tracks. Over the weekend, I went to a local store which had GTP5 and the racing wheel setup as a display. After sitting down and using the wheel for about 10 minutes, I knew it was a must have. The wheel itself feels well made of durable products, the rubber on the wheel makes it very comfortable. It also has reduced my times in the races where I have used the wheel. The setup was easy and control layout is easy learn. Some reviews I have seen discount the wheel because it does not have a clutch or shifter with actual gears set out. But with the 0 I saved, I am willing to live without theses features.

There are a few downsides, I was hoping for a wireless wheel, but it connects to the PS3 with a USB cable. However, the cable is a good length and allows you plenty of space to move across a room. Also, you have to plug the wheel into an electrical outlet. While this makes for more wires, it also allows for some great force feedback and opposed to a rumble effect.

I am looking forward to using the wheel with upcoming racing games and some old ones. And my favorite thing about the wheel, it the GT logo that lights up in the center of the wheel.

My advise is to get the wheel if you can. Now if they would only release the full GT5 (with damage to the cars please!)

Wanted to update this review to mention the product I found to use the Racing Wheel. I tried small tables, a tv tray and an IKEA laptop table. None of them worked because of they were to tall or short and the tables that could be adjusted were to wobbly or slipped. After much searching, I found the Wheel Stand Pro which is made in Poland. Unfortunately, it was more expensive than the Racing Wheel, but it was a great buy. You can adjust the height, angle of the wheel and distance to the pedals. It is made of steel so it is solid and has sturdy clamps to fold it up and store easily. If you are looking for a great way to use your Racing Wheel, I highly recommend you check out Wheel Stand Pro site. Also, shipping was great. They emailed me on a Friday the stand was on the way and I received it on Monday.

Review by Riyad Kalla:

Summary [8.5 out of 10]

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The Logitech Driving Force GT PS3 Wheel is an excellent driving wheel with a good build quality at a solid price point that will satisfy any casual or avid racer. Unfortunately not every game makes correct or full use of driving wheels, but the ones that do (e.g. Gran Turismo 5) create a surreal driving experience that will satisfy any driving fan.

For the purist that must reproduce the true racing experience in his or her house, we would still suggest the Logitech G25; it is, however, more than twice the price of the Driving Force GT.

What's in the Box?

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It's a good sized box, about the size of a Logitech 2.1 PC speaker package. As shown on the box there was an instruction booklet, pedals and wheel (with integrated shifter).

What I was really surprised to find in the box, and it might have been a toss-in for some promotion because I don't see it mentioned on Logitech's site, was a full copy of Gran Turismo 5: Prologue. If you already have it, then use this copy (if you get one) as a gift I suppose. If you didn't have a copy, you will be so freaking happy they included one, it does the wheel justice while other games don't:

After spending time with this wheel and especially Gran Turismo 5, I would have to say that you cannot review a driving wheel, or al teast this driving wheel, without having a copy of Gran Turismo 5 to test with. The experience is so much better with GT than it is with other "arcade" racers that it's a night-and-day difference. More on that later though under "Driving Experience".

For anyone that has used a force-feedback wheel in the past 10 years, I think the form factor of these things has always been the same. A life-sized steering wheel attached to a tapered base that is fastened to a table or desk of some kind using clamps or grips of some kind; this is very similar:

As you can see the steering wheel reproduces all of the 17 or so buttons you find on a standard PS3 controller. The red wheel and "enter" button on the bottom right can be used for navigation and confirmation as well as in-game adjustments for games that support it (like Gran Turismo 5).

I'm not sure what the split-circle +/- does on the bottom left, I never got it to really do anything in any games.

In addition to the full-sized wheel the base unit includes an integrated shifter. The shifter doesn't have much play up or down as it behaves more like those auto-shifters (flappers) you find on some higher end cars that let you drive in automatic or shift automatically if you want. It just clicks up or down as you are driving and a spring re-centers it when you let go. It doesn't click "up" or "down" into position like a gear shifter, it's more of a toggle action.

Of course you have your pedal plate. I'm a size 11.5" and the plate felt like a nice size, sturdy, good resistence on the brake and gas and my foot never fell off it or slipped off. It's a perfect size.

I did find that the pedals stood upright a bit too vertical, so sitting in a chair and playing, my foot was always cocked up when I was off the gas or break. This made switching from gas to brake with 1 foot uneasy for me and I ended up driving with both feet instead; I just couldn't flip from gas and then cock my foot up enough to clear the brake as I moved it over to the left to push it back down. What ended up happening is that the side of my foot would hit the break as I moved my foot to the left and push the whole pedal pad over.

I would also point out that the pedal pad would be perfect on carpet because it integrates a retractable spike-strip on the bottom of it that can click out, and dig into the carpet. On hard/wood floors like I have, it was moving around a little bit, so I secured it by pushing it up against the table you see in the picture above. I believe there are little rubber feet on it but they don't do as good a job stopping it from moving as the carpet-spike-strip would if it was on carpet.

Keep that in mind if you are on a hard floor and don't have a way to secure it in place, I'm sure putting it on a mat on your hard floor would work fine (like a yoga mat) or something else that will cause it to stay put.

Hooking it all Up

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As with all racing wheels since the dawn of mankind, you fasten the wheel base that everything hooks to, to a table or desk using clamps that tighten to hold it in place:

If you don't have a table or desk that this can be fastened to, you will need to get one if you plan on using this. I lucked out in that our coffee table had a lip on it that I could hook to, but I have a friend that has a low coffee table that he hooked the wheel to that provides a lack-luster driving experience as he is bent over the wheel.

Someone else that came over to try the wheel out didn't have a coffee table at all in front of his TV and was wondering how he would use it; my only comment to him is that he couldn't unless he had something to hook it to.

The base unit is front-heavy with the steering wheel; meaning if you didn't secure it to the table, it would happily fall steering-wheel-first off the table onto the ground. You can't just set it on something and use it; it needs to be clamped down.

Also you will want it attached to something sturdy because you can get to fighting with the force-feedback and turning the wheel and moving quite a bit while racing. This could move whatever you have the wheel attached to in more vibrant racing moments; something I did with our coffee table because it has wheels on it.

For example, if you tried to hook this to a bar stool or something, I don't think that would work out really well.

After getting the base-unit in place, everything plugs to it into sockets in the back of the base-unit, right behind the shifter. You will plug in:

* Power Adapter

* Pedal Plate

* PS3

The wire length between all 3 of these things is pretty liberal, so unless you are trying to spread yourself across your entire living room you should be OK.

The shortest connection is from the pedal plate to the wheel (understandably, since the two will always be near each other) and uses what looks like an old-school COM port connection.

In what I consider the most important connection, the base-unit to the PS3, Logitech was pretty generous. You have a 10' or 11' USB cable to connect to your PS3. In the picture above I am about 10' from the PS3 and that is about as far away as I am going to get without a USB extender.

The power adapter also had a generous lead on it, which I plugged into the wall behind me, about a 5' run total and there was still plenty of slack on that cable.

For those curious, the power adapter is one of those "huge bricks that I have to plug in and will cover a bunch of other plugs" types. The prongs themselves are set high enough on the brick though, that if you are plugging into a wall socket, you can use the top or bottom socket without blocking the other one.

If you are using it on a power strip, I'd suggest making it the last plug off the power strip so it hangs off and doesn't block other plugs cause it will. It's a bit bigger than a deck of cards or there-abouts in size.

Build Quality

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My gut reaction out of the box was "meh" honestly. I have used force-feedback wheels in the past and only once can I remember being impressed with the non-plastic build quality.

However, after using the wheel for a while and playing quite a few games with it, I came to find the build quality above-average. The wheel is solid feeling, it's got a leather-wrap feel to it, the force-feedback is dynamic and consistent and the pedals were sturdy and performed well. If you want to turn the force-feedback up, the wheel can really wrestle with you, so if you like a powerful experience, you can certainly get it with this wheel.

The pedals didn't feel amazing to me out of the box, but playing with them I didn't have any complaints, besides the comment above about how vertical the pedals stand.

The gas is easy to depress but sping-loaded in a firm fashion to make it somewhat hard to push down with your hands. And the brake is firmly spring loaded, but in a smooth, shock-absorber way that makes it satisfying to use and feels more like a real car.

The shifter does feel a little rinky-dink because it's just a plastic knob on a metal pole that is attached to a spring-loaded click-shift mechanism.If you want that tactile feedback, you'll want to get the Logitech G25 Racing Wheel.

If you are a build-quality nut and don't mind paying for you, you really should be looking at the Logitech G25 Racing Wheel; that's more of a direct race-car replica, complete with metal parts, full shifter, clutch, etc. But it's more than twice the price of this wheel (just a warning).

Driving Experience

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First a list of the games we tried (in alphabetical order):

* Burnout Paradise

* Dirt

* Gran Turismo 5: Prologue

* Grid

* MotorStorm

* Nascar '09

The "awesomeness" of this wheel (and I imagine all racing wheels) depends 100%, completely on how well the game you are playing implements it.

Let that above statement sink in... you could spent 0 on a wheel, and if the game you are playing doesn't have a tuned wheel experience, you will likely go back to using a controller.

Gran Turismo 5 is excellent, Grid and Dirt are bad; even though there are a ton of adjustments for the wheel, I wasn't able to find a combination of settings for those two games that made them playable for me with the wheel... there is a certain amount of arcadey lag that occurs between the wheel and what your car does that screws you up in tight spots, sharp turns, etc.

You spend a lot of time spinning out and then spinning out more as you try and get straightened out on the track.

Your mileage may vary and your tollerance may vary, but this was a comment another friend of mine with the Logitech G25 Racing Wheel echoed about those two games as well. Some of the bad controls can lead to road-rage though if you are expecting a perfect-simulation-experience from all games:

I tried this wheel out, along with my wife, our friends and their children. I didn't see anyone "not get it", it's pretty straight forward and accessible to anyone that has driven before. Although the children seemed to pick it up no problem and like the idea that they were racing "for real".

While the wheel does expand the experience of driving, especially if you stick yourself in "first person" perspective in the cockpit of the cars of some of these games, bad response from some games can ruin that experience just as fast.

Conclusion

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After some time with this wheel and quite a few titles, I think I've come to the conclusion that if you are a Gran Turismo fan/junkie, and plan on getting it, this wheel or one of Logitech's others is a must-get along with the game.

If you just like racing games, especially more arcadey ones, you should probably skip getting a force-feedback wheel. The wheels themselves are excellent, but they are only as good as their weakest link. If the game you are playing wasn't tuned for the wheel you are just going to end up going back to the default PS3 controller after a while anyway so you can win races.

It's unfortunate, but with a lot of the problem titles, I didn't find playing with the 20 settings or so for force-feedback in most of them helped at all. Some I couldn't even see a difference between a 1/10 or a 10/10 "Force Feedback" setting.

Areas of Improvement

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As with all our reviews, we don't like to criticize without providing suggestions on how to improve the product, so here are our suggestions for the Logitech Driving Force GT PS3 Wheel:

* Any of the following individually (realizing that all of them together would increase the price too high):

o A clutch on the pedal pad

o Gear flippers on the wheel for easy shifting

o A Shifter that included two well-defined gears and not the small-range-of-motion up/down click-shifter that is on there now so you feel cooler throwing it into gears

* Wireless connection to the PS3 (Is that possible? I don't know how much data is being transfered from the wheel to the PS3)

* A chart or guide that has "Best suggested settings" for the most popular driving games. You can spend a lot of time messing with the Force Feedback settings for different driving games. It would be nice to have "recommended" settings out of the box since the sampling of popular driving games on the PS3 is so small, it shouldn't be hard to do this.

* MINOR: Easier to reach Start button (for pausing) on the wheel. The phone rang while I was playing a few times and I fumbled and crashed 3 times trying to pause the game. I can't imagine getting interrupted while driving is an uncommon thing for a video game. Would have been nice.

* SUPER-MINOR: Working horn button, there is a horn button in the middle, and it lights up and depresses, but none of the games I tried it on did anything. This is super minor, but I like honking a lot before smashing into people.

Review by Andrew Z:

This wheel is a blast! I was already addicted to Forza 2 and was moving steadily up in my career with the regular game controller. With this racing wheel (and pedals), I'm moving up even faster than before and the experience is dizzying - literally. I have my setup about 3 feet from a 50" plasma and the feedback of the wheel is so realistic that I was getting odd dizzy effects when going in and out of tight corners because my body was expecting to feel real world forces from the seat against my back and sides - and they of course were missing. Make no mistake, this isn't a bad thing - its a testament to the realistic feedback of the wheel. You feel everything - understeer, oversteer, grass, jerks when flying from grass back onto the pavement.

Prior to this wheel, I always detested driving the big American cars like the Camero or Corvette because they were so difficult to control with the normal controller - they would constantly slide out and wag back and forth because there was no feel. Last night I nailed several races with both these cars because I was finally able to control the car through power slides and oversteers.

Setup was easy. Though the manual says a system upgrade was needed, I did not find this to be the case. The wheel paired up instantly and I started driving in Forza 2 immediately. The only thing I had to figure out was how to change the camera view (I like the in-car view) because they moved it from RT to X on this controller.

I found a chair with a sloped back on it, put a lumbar pillow in place and just rested the wheel on my legs. Surprisingly it stays in place well though you'll want to wear a pair of jeans. At first, the pedals kept sliding forward on my carpet causing me to crash a couple times. I finally placed them on one of my wife's yoga mats and its been fine since. The only beef I still have is that in intense situations the wheel moves around a bit. I may look for a small table to mount the wheel. Also note that the "in the lap" setup makes it impossible to drive with mostly straight arms like the pros. I end up sliding the wheel forward so that its just barely hanging on to the end of my knees so that I can straighten my arms more.

One last piece of advice: don't make the mistake I did and select the McClaren F1 (or similar super car) as your first drive and expect to see a big change. You'll still be all over the place on the road. Work your way up and learn the controller because the turning radius takes some time to learn. Once you do, you'll be amazed.

Pros:

- Realistic feel, improved times, better control over rear wheel muscle cars

- Trivial setup

- High quality materials

Cons:

- minor: Pedals slide without some kind of mat

Review by E. Ravage:

This wheel kept me playing Forza 2 for hours! I am an 'old school' gamer and I could never get the hang of using a joystick to drive. Keep in mind that this is the 're-released' version of the Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel and thus it only includes a demo of Forza 2. The older models were recalled by MS, so beware of used ones.

First things first, the box that this wheel comes in is HUGE! The upside to the large box is that everything is put together and all you need to do is unpack the wheel and pedals and plug them together. You are going to want to plug the wheel into the wall and use the full feedback features. I don't think too many people are going to spend this kind of money on a racing wheel to sit on their sofa and play with the wheel on their lap 'wirelessly'. The benefit of the wireless part is that you don't need to worry about using up a USB port on the front of you Xbox 360 to plug this in. Connecting is easy, push the sync button on your console and on the wheel. Like magic they each recognize each other and you are in business. After plugging the foot pedals into the wheel via a little cable that looks like a telephone wire you are set to race. Feedback on Forza 2 was amazing! Understeer, bumps, warning strips, you feel everything.

Pros:

Top notch feel and finish, no corners cut on cheap plastic or details.

Works right out of the box. No drivers to fumble with.

Feedback (while connected to power source) is excellent.

Clamping system is easy to understand and use.

Doesn't tie up a spot on your Xbox USB ports.

Cons:

Minor- you need to find the right table/surface to mount this on. It is heavy!

Minor- clamping system is excellent, however, after a long race it may move and need readjusting.

Conclusion:

Spend a few extra bucks and buy this wheel. I think the smiles that you will get from finding out how much fun racing games can be with this setup will be worth every penny!

Review by Andrey:

Pros: Well built. Leather wheel feels much better than plastic. Clutch, break, gas all have different push pressure. Feedback force feels great. I just hope the motor won't give up on me any time soon!

Paddle shifters made out of metal and when shifting they feel very durable and firm.

Installation was a breeze.

Cons: The leather is no BMW quality! However, as mentioned before, it's much better than plastic wheel.

The screws that attach the wheel and shift stick to the table are made of plastic and give impression if you screw them too hard they'll crack. But so far so good.

Lots of cables. But I just taped them together and it's now manageable.

Have no horn button?..

I don't have much to say about manual shift stick. It feels alright but I don't use it in any games( takes longer to shift), only paddle shifters.

I've never tried g25, so I can't compare them but judging from the pictures, extra buttons on g27 give a bigger advantage.

Overall, I'm very satisfied with this product.

Games played with G27: iRacing, NFS Shift.

Review by I. R. Smart.:

I had the privilege of owning its predecessor several years ago, the G25, so I knew mostly what to expect with this new G27, but I was still expecting so much more from Logitech. The expression "Logitech giveth and Logitech taketh away" seems most pertinent.

So, let's start:

Opening the box and getting everything out is very simple. All the parts are well designed, but you're immediately greeted with what I think is the biggest issue with the G25/27 set, - the cables. So many cables! 400 cables! (at least it feels like it)

The wheel has a cable coming out of it that goes into your PS3; the pedals have a cable coming out of it; the shifter has a cable coming out of it, and then there's the power brick that has a cable to be plugged in. All these cables plug into the wheel itself, and it's definitely not a pretty sight. I don't know about other people, but I don't have a place where I can leave my steering wheel/shifter/pedals plugged in 24/7, so setting all this up and putting it away again is a COMPLETE pain in the rear.

Putting the cable issue aside, there's a lot to like with the G27. It's an improvement over the G25 in many ways:

1.) The G27 wheel uses helical gears (or diagonal-cut gears) vs the G25's straight-cut gears. What this means is that there's a reduction in noise when turning the wheel, and it's also smoother while maintaing powerful force feedback! Great stuff!

2.) The shifter on the G27 no longer has a sequential mode (i.e. clicks up and down only), which is no big loss to me. I prefer either the regular 6-speed or using the paddle shifts on the wheel. While it may seem that this is still a LOSS compared to the G25's 6-speed AND sequential shifting, the new addition to the G27 is that the gears don't CLICK into place. On the G25, every gear change would greet you with a CLICK as the gear was put into place. Logitech have removed this sound so the gear movements don't hurt your ears with their plastic sounds as the G25 did. Now, some people have modified their G25 shifters to remove this sound, but it voids your warranty and I've read of several people irreparably breaking their shifters by doing this... In any case, for me, the G27 shifter is an improvement over the out-of-the-box G25 shifter.

3.) The pedals are now adjustable, which makes it a joy to heel-and-toe while racing. The pedal layout is a huge deal more comfortable than on the G25 pedals. This, for me, is a huge improvement. My right foot would get very uncomfortable with the G25 layout.

4.) There's a new set of tachometer LEDs on the wheel, though I've yet to play any game that supports them yet... It's a neat little feature, though, if it does as advertised.

5.) The G27 also has some more buttons on the steering wheel, which you can customize, of course.

So how does it play?

VERY well, depending on the software!

Need for Speed: Shift PS3:

I first tried out Need for Speed: Shift on the Playstation 3, and was pleasantly surprised to see that no setup is needed, and the controls just work. In fact, it even shows you a picture of the wheel/pedals on the control screen (albeit just the G25, but still...). It's great to have the wheel work out of the box with no tinkering. THAT said, there's perhaps too much force feedback in Shift to be particularly comfortable. The faster you get, the more the wheel fights with you. At 120mph, it's very hard to keep the wheel straight. I've track-driven several times at near 150mph speeds at times, and I can safely say my steering wheel doesn't fight me in real life like it did in the game...

So, for ease of use with Shift, I'd say 5/10. It's just too hard to keep the wheel straight at relatively high speeds...

Gran Turismo: Prologue PS3:

NOW we're talking. None of the fighting I experienced in Need for Speed: Shift, and plenty of smooth corners and subtle force feedback. It's fair to say the force feedback is a tad muted in Prologue, but it's infinitely more comfortable to play than Shift, and a real joy to hit those apexes time and time again. 9/10.

Overall, this wheel is excellent, but the pain of setting it up is just too much to ignore. It really is a cable nightmare. The wheel, pedals and shifter could easily be wireless by this point, meaning the only cable needed would be a power cable to the steering wheel for the force feedback to work. I suspect the inevitable G29 will remedy this, as the way the G27 currently works is a direct copy of the G25 which is 3 years old as of November, 2009.

Overall, though, a great wheel, if you can be bothered to go through the setting it up...!

4/5

Note: This wheel is for PC AND PS3.

Review by Brett J. Monroe:

Bought this wheel and pedals while my son was visiting, and boy did we ever get my money's worth out of it! We had a blast playing all his driving games on the PS2. And the USB connection, well, I've got to get the PC set back up in my new office room, but I'm dying to put it to the PC game test... but in the meantime, I've played more PS2 lately than anytime since getting home from overseas. (Soldiers play a LOT of games on off-duty time!)

Loved it, even considered buying a second one so we could go head to head on even terms... oh well... maybe for Christmas.

Review by Hueichih:

This pc Wheel is better than you would expect the vibration feature is what pushes over the top of the other 30 dollar pc wheels(can also be played with ps2)this is a great wheel its pedals are a little small same goes for the wheel but after a few runs with this wheel it wont bother you at all.

Review by Aheg:

I purchased this for my 11 year old daughter, as she wanted a "real" racing wheel with pedals for the Wii. It was easy to set up (just plug it in) and, it worked right away. After launching Mario Kart Wii with the wii remote, the Thrustmaster wheel functions like an additional wii remote for choosing characters and races. The pedals work for acceleration and braking, and, I find that the racing wheel has a nice feel to it. It can be set to one of two sensitivity settings.

I also found a sheet showing the button presets for Mario Kart on the Thrustmater support website. For instance, the brake pedal also functions as a drift button. My daughter loves it. She races with my 14 year old son, who uses the Wii wheel that came with the game. But they both prefer using the Thrustmaster racing wheel, as it is easier to use and more "fun," than the standard Wii wheel.

NOTE: Check the Thrustmaster website: go to "Tech Support--Downloads--Game Settings" for the list of compatible games for this wheel.

Review by Sean A. Rousey:

I ordered this last week for playing GRID on my PS3. When I took it out of the box, I was a little worried because the wheel is so small compared to one I had for my Xbox. But after clamping it to a table and firing up GRID, my worries are gone. The choice I had was between this wheel for or a Logitech wheel for 0. I'm not sure what a 0 wheel does for you but this one works well with my PS3, will work with my Wii, and makes playing GRID much more fun.

Review by D. Rhodes:

Hi, I have been using this Logic3 wheel for about 3 months with my PS3. The product worked perfectly right out the box and installed with ease. The wheel has a very realistic grip found of wheels costing alot more. I would recommend this product highly!

Review by Ronald Neville:

lots of trouble installing and the provided booklet has very little information. Contacted customer service many times and don't get any good answers to questions, just a general runaround. It's as if they don't have the foggiest idea about this product and don't care to be helpful. My advice....BUY A DIFFERENT PRODUCT!

Review by Scott K. Harder:

I should have bought this wheel before spending a lot of money on a high end wheel that was a big dissapointment. I have owned the MS Sidewinder, 3 Logitech Momo Racing Force (they wear out fast), and a Thomas Superwheel. The Thrustmaster F430 puts them all to shame. It works with every driving game I own. I can't say that for the other wheels I've owned. It is very well built, especially the mounting mechanism. Very precise and a really good force feedback. I am finally enjoying pc racing the way it should be.

Review by Jonathan M. Tanner:

First, let me say that I am new to racing games. I have played the Need For Speed Series, but that is really it. A friend of mine mentioned that the Thrustmaster Ferrari F430 Racing Wheel was compatible with Dirt 2 on the PS3. I contacted Thrustmaster and sure enough, it is! They said that Codemasters had worked with them to get their wheels tech programmed into the game. I was sold. I bought the F430 and Dirt 2. I WAS AMAZED at how comfortable this wheel is. Make no mistake, this wheel is as sturdy a wheel as I have ever used. I tried to play some games on teh Xbox 360 using the Microsoft wheel and when my palms sweat (which was often due to my n00b status), my hands would slip. On the Thrustmaster F430 wheel, the grip is a VERY high quality rubber that meant ZERO slipping when my hands got sweaty. I was also very impressed with the responsiveness of the force feedback. I got to the point where I could tell I was in control and driving the right line, simply by how the wheel was responding which made it feel so realistic! Im playing in automatic mode, but the metal f1 style shifters on the wheel are very sturdy. I currently have one of them programmed as my horn. You will not be dissapointed with this wheel. The only thing I didn't like was the lack of labeled buttons. i rated its appearance as 4 stars for that reason alone. Otherwise, this wheel is an almost identical replica of the wheel on the real F430!

Review by A. C. Johnson:

One of the most impressive things about this wheel is that within 10 minutes of removing it from the box, I had it installed on my computer and was using it in a game. Logitech scores again with rock solid software that is easy to install and use.Once I started to use it, the other good parts about the wheel became apparent within a very brief amount of time. FORM FACTOR: Compared to other force feedback wheels, this takes up a surprisingly small abount of desk real estate. Once clamped onto a desk, the unit only takes up a 7 inch by 14 inch area of space. The clamping mechanism is notable for not extending very far below the desk. This means there is less for you to bump your legs on and it makes it possible to clamp it in a wider variety of locations.PEDALS: In my previous wheels, the pedal unit would slide all over the place on my wood floors. This unit, though has a big enough base that there is absolutely no sliding whatsover. In addition, there is a little traction device you can turn on, so that on carpet, the base will stick even more.FORCE FEEDBACK: To set up the wheel, you can use the default Windows Game Controller set up. Force feedback can be set from 0-150% strength. For my game, Rally Trophy, I found that anything greater than 20% was too strong and I ended up using 14%. This is a sign of quality, because it indicates that the wheel has a full range of power available. The fact that at 14% power, the wheel delivered a nice range of subtle in-game effects proves to me that this wheel has been put together solidly.This wheel met all my expectations and for me was a MAJOR step up from the little game pad I was using. It has taken me about 2 days to really get the hang of driving with it, but now that I have figured out the right settings, there is really no comparison. Before I was just goofing around with a video game. Now it feels like I am actually using an advanced driving simulator. Very cool!

Review by A. Hon:

Short version: This wheel is a cheap plastic imitation of its higher quality forbears. It works, but it doesn't give anywhere near the realistic driving experience the previous models gave.

Long version:

My friend bought the original, red Logitech Wingman Formula Force (...) a couple years back. I borrowed it recently to play with NASCAR Racing 2003 and loved it. The experience was quite realistic. So I thought to get my own.

First I bought the standard Logitech Wingman Formula Force GP (...), because it didn't seem the MOMO version was much different (...), and I didn't want to bother with the rebate. I thought the cheaper price reflected savings in production efficiencies. The GP wheel was shockingly different, in a bad way. The original red Wingman Formula Force has some kind of ball bearing, spring and damper system that lets the wheel turn freely, but give varying amounts of force feedback depending on the game. The original red wheel lets you feel when the wheel gets "loose", and you're about to lose traction. The new, cheaper GP version has a horrible plastic, notchy feeling, as one other review commented - as you turn the wheel it grinds. Turning seems to be a matter of grinding each gear tooth which corresponds to a bit in the control axis. The GP is not at all like a real steering wheel, when the original red wheel was a passable facsimile. The force feedback on the GP is a joke. It's like seeing a downsampled, low resolution, 8-bit version of what used to be a high resolution, 24-bit image.

So I returned the standard, cheaper (...) GP wheel to Amazon and bought this MOMO wheel hoping that the extra dough gets you that special "real" feeling. Unfortunately, the MOMO still fails. This (...) MOMO version is better than the standard GP version, but there's still a plastic notchy gear feeling to the wheel. The notches are finer, and the force feedback effects have a higher sample rate, but it's still the same fundamental cheap plastic gear feeling.

It seems that the wheel I actually wanted was the ORIGINAL, now discontinued, Logitech MOMO Force wheel with the authentic leather, steel pedals and whatnot. It probably wasn't cheap, but you get what you pay for. About.com reviewed the original MOMO wheel and commented: "One of the best features of this force feedback wheel is that there is no "notchy-ness" in the steering wheel. In other force feedback wheels you could feel the gears in the wheel which would prevent you from making smooth adjustments. This wheel solves that problem, it's very smooth."

(...)

I wish I had read that review before I bought this new, plastic version. It's surprising though that nobody had commented in a comparative review about how the steering feel has been compromised. About.com wrote: "The Logitech Momo Racing (black) wheel is a revamped version their legendary Momo Force (red) wheel. They replaced some of the expensive metal parts with plastic and even made some improvements along the way such as increasing the pedal throw and adding a manual stick shifter. The result is a wheel that is even better than the original." (...)

I beg to differ. Maybe the About.com reviewer got a different version of the MOMO wheel, because I'm surprised he didn't comment on the lack of ball-bearing feel to the new wheel. This plastic, notchy feeling to the steering in both the current GP and MOMO versions destroys the suspension of disbelief. The few reviews that said anything about the plasticky-ness, expressing disappointment, were given poor feedback. Why? Do people only want to read glowing reviews of products, regardless of the accuracy of the review?

The only thing positive to say about the newer wheels versus the original red wheel is that the pedals are bottom hinged, and easier to modulate. The new wheels are also cheaper in price. But as I've explained, the new plastic wheels are also cheaper in the quality of experience they provide. You get what you pay for.

Review by de_r00ster:

I recently purchased a PS3 and downloaded a bunch of racing demos. I fell in love with racing games even though I did not care much for them before. I decided to purchase Need for Speed Pro Street. This racing wheel works perfectly with that game, and my experience with racing games is even more heightened now. I've been so hooked on them, and cannot wait until Gran Turismo 5 comes out.

If you own a PS3 and looking to buy a racing game, possibly Gran Turismo 5 when it comes out, this racing wheel will work perfectly with the PS3. It has all the buttons on the six axis with the exception of the left stick and right stick. The gas pedal is R2 and brake pedal is L2. The two gray levers behind the wheel are R1 and L1. There are also two extra buttons, R3 and L3, which I have not used in racing games. The beauty is that you can re-assign all of these buttons to which ever you like, and you can set the sensitivity of the wheel.

For , this racing wheel is well worth it. It does the job correctly and does not put a hole in your wallet like those logitech wheels. If you are into racing games, I highly recommend this. It will definitely enhance your racing experience.

Review by BonnieVille:

This wheel is a blast and certainly is better than the standard controller. There is only one problem that I have seen and that is it is so hard to get my turn at the wheel.