Feel the pavement beneath your wheels
Last week, Logitech announced the launch of a pair of racing wheels: the G920 and G29. At E3, we got our grubby paws on the G920 and took it for a spin.
The first thing to know about the racing wheels is that they are pretty much identical, save for input buttons on the face of the wheel. Both have dual-motor force feedback, paddle shifters, leather grip, and responsive floor pedals. The G920 has XBox One buttons on its face, while the G29 has buttons for PS4. Both wheel units can be used on PC, so you can take your pick of button preference. Logitech also has an optional six-speed manual stick shifter.
When we got a demonstration of the G920, our unit was hooked up to an XBox One, but we were assured that everything would work identically on a PC. The wheel felt natural, but the way the rig was configured caused a problem: Logitech had the driving rig set up in a way that put a vertical metal bar between crotch and brake pedal, making it nearly impossible for a 6-foot 1-inch editor to slow his car quickly. This made for an interesting driving experience, to say the least.
The lack of braking access did show off how the wheel reacted when the car had power and traction, lost traction, and when it hit a wall. Repeatedly. When coming into a turn, we felt how the car would carve into the road before our excess speed caused us to lose traction and send us into a skid.
The floor pedals come with the full set of clutch, brake and accelerator, and react pretty well. There is a definite disconnect between the real-world seat-of-your-pants feeling of acceleration and simply seeing it on screen. That disconnect led us to accelerate much faster than would be sane or traffic laws would advise.
The unit we tried also included the stick shift, which we opted to use instead of the wheel paddles. Despite our claims that we knew how to drive stick, a Logtiech engineer set the game to use "auto clutch" for us, so we wouldn't futz with stalling the car and trying to find the control to restart it in-game (which would take away from the limited time we had).
The shifter has a relatively short throw distance, and we treated it gently so we wouldn't damage the show floor model Logitech had on display. When we get a review unit in our office, we'll definitely put the shifter through its paces.
The PS4 and Xbox One versions of the wheel will both be available for $400, and come with the floor pedals. The Driving Force Shifter is sold separately for $60.
From maximumpc
from http://bit.ly/1JXyLyP
