Review: Logitech Driving Force Wheel - PS2

[HD Library]

By Richard Fisher

Price as tested $69.95

Fit and Finish
All plastic and light weight. The blue parts of the wheel are rubberized. While it looked good it felt kind of cheap. There was substantial play between the wheel shaft and console. Pedal assembly connector is a phone jack keeping it well secured. Rather than the standard hand controller plug this wheel uses USB connections instead.

Features
PS2 only. Force Feedback steering means the wheel is pushed around in your hands to resemble a real driving situation and is compatible with many games. Force Feedback and Vibration Feedback requires an additional AC power supply, included, and plugs into the wheel console. While designed for table top mounting this controller comes with a laptop adapter that the console attaches to with small wings on each side for the top of your legs and a large center portion below that goes in between your legs. No gear shift lever is provided. Left right shifting paddles. All hand controller functions and buttons are included.

Performance
The following comments are based on GT3. At first I did not care for the Force Feedback system and uplugged the power supply. I liked that. The Force Feedback gearing mechanism put just the right tension and resistance in the wheel for me without the loose feel of the MadCatz or the Logitech Nascar wheels. None the less I could not help but be drawn into the Force Feedback feature and turned it back on. With some more experience behind the wheel I came to like it. Sometimes the Force Feedback will intuitively straighten your car out for you and seemingly point you into the turns. At other times you may feel you are fighting it and there was one long distance oval that relies purely on high speed where I unplugged the power supply to defeat the system because the wheel kept trying to put me somewhere else. Either way there is some significant resistance involved and the lap mount adapter did not quite cut it. At the end of every race I found the wheel crooked in my lap and I would even straighten out during the race. I resolved this by screwing in some plastic crown molding at about 10" long onto the side wings providing a perfectly stable platform; pictures are at the end of this review. Dual clamps are provided to keep it securely mounted for desk top applications. The pedal assembly felt great but will require something to keep it in place. Finally with the Force Feedback keeping things pretty well shaken up I have little to tell you about the Vibration Feedback except I am sure it was kicking in somewhere along the way. The shifting paddles have quite a bit of throw to them which is normal but I do prefer the short throw type such as the Logitech Nascar Racing wheel. It just feels better shifting gears in my hands. These paddles are also on the large side and there were a few times that shifting a gear caused the paddle to strike my thumb in the steering wheel.

With GT4 I did not like Force Feedback at all. In the setup menu there is only one adjustment for the Driving Force wheel and it did not tone the effect down. In the end I disconnected the power supply for this game. It is required when you start the game to setup the wheel centering. The game will tell the wheel to turn all the way left and right and then return it to center.

Force Feedback in general appears to be more of a toy than a real driving simulation. With GT3 and GT4 you can drive real world vehicles. I have been behind the wheel of a number of them and there simply is not that much force in the wheel whether it was GT3 or GT4. Even though full support for three Logitech wheels is provided GT4 is geared towards the Driving Force Pro and does have an option to set the Force Feedback to mild but that combination has yet to be reviewed. Either way Force Feedback certainly adds a great deal to overall game play when it enhances your experience like it did with GT3.

Conclusion
I always liked this wheel with the Force Feedback disabled and would have kept using it in that mode. While it was an adventure at first the Force Feedback grew on me and now I actually prefer it with GT3. With GT4 the power supply is removed to defeat it. Either way the good news is it

[steve0]

Price as tested $69.95 .Sounds very nice!