Review: Madcatz MC2 Wheel - XBox, PS2, PS, Game Cube

[HD Library]

By Richard Fisher

Price as tested $54.99

Fit and Finish
All plastic and light weight. While it looked good it felt cheap. Pedal assembly connector uses an RS232 serial connector with hold down screws for trouble free play.

Features
Multisystem compatible, X-Box, Game Cube, PS and PS2. Accudrive settings for the wheel cover center sensitivity and extreme left and right sensitivity. You can make the reaction of this wheel loose as a goose or tight and sensitive. Allows the reprogramming of buttons with Sony and Game Cube consoles. Has a right mounted gear shift lever. Side flaps pull down for the outside part of your legs so you can lock the wheel in place with grooves on the bottom for lap applications. Includes Vibration Feedback. There is an RPM scale that is directly related to how far you have pushed the gas pedal. Spring tensioning for wheel centering. Left right shifting paddles.

Performance
First thing you should know is if you are using a different sensitivity or button layout other than default you must reprogram the wheel every time you turn it on. On both games sensitivity had to be maximized on both ends for a decent response. As a spring loaded wheel there was little resistance when turning which made it very easy to oversteer in a fit of compensation. Even with sensitivity settings a center wheel dead spot could not be resolved leaving me with the feeling I was driving an old car with worn out bushings teetering the wheel back and forth in an attempt to maintain a straight line. While the pedals offered a range of response that range was quite narrow. As an example with GT3 it was difficult to get the engine spinning without causing it to red line on the starting line. This also created difficulties with F1 during the starting line training sequence that had you either spinning your tires or a rolling start. While the car is rolling it seemed you had either an off or on response with difficulty trying to maintain a steady speed with either game. Pressing the brakes typically gave you a full force panic stop response. While I used the side flaps at first I found that they really where not necessary and the wheel console provided plenty of stability. That said if using one hand to steer and manually shifting they may play a more important role. The pedal assembly will move around on carpet so be prepared to use a brick or other object to keep it in place.

Conclusion
Regardless of the above with general game play this wheel was decent and I ran many races with it in easy modes or modes where damage and precise steering did not count. My greatest frustration ended up being the wheel center dead spot making it difficult to position the car properly when setting up turns or even passing. Some of the courses have narrow pit lanes and this problem will have you all over the road. Bottom line, forget going for a realistic setup in your game as you will only be wrecking the car constantly from bumping into the competition or slowed down by running into the grass, walls or other cars. If you use this wheel it is best you stick with the automation and bang

[mjm76]

Richard,

Good Review. Even though I am not much into racing games I do play other sports games(football,basketball,soccer, baseball, and hockey) on the xbox. I appreciate you posting your findings and review about this wheel.

Interesting read...............................