All About the Wheel

The Force is Strong With This One

The real question here is how the force feedback holds up. Between the other two wheels, our only choice for any serious racing was the Thrustmaster, as the Sidewinder wheel was too hard to control, because of the distractions of force feedback. Would the little red driving wheel stand up to the test? We called in special guest Mario Andretti Jr. to judge for himself.

Mario: Firing what? Computer wheel? No, you can't use my name! And stop calling me! How'd you even get this number?

Unfortunately, Mario's schedule proved too hectic to come in and test the wheel, so filling in for him is me. Wary of force feedback, I tried to push away my predilections and fired up Midtown Madness, which has somewhat better force feedback than NFS: HS. After a brief setup, I hopped in the seat of the Ford Mustang, and was off.

Surprisingly, I found the wheel movements subtle enough that they didn't overpower the control of the game, but noticeable and relevant enough that they contributed to the overall feel of the game. Drive on the sidewalk and you'll feel the cracks; drive on grass and you'll feel the wheel jerking around as you hit lumps of dirt; crash into another car and you'll feel the collision.

Ice Ice Baby

After being pleased with the feelings present in Midtown Madness, we fired up NFS: HS to try the wheel out on different road conditions. The most extreme condition available was a snowy mountain road during a winter storm, so we jumped right in. And crashed. Repeatedly. Not because the wheel was performing badly, but rather, because it was performing just right, and we aren't very good at handling a Z3 doing 90 through hairpin slippery turns. You can feel the loss of traction in the wheel on the snowy surfaces, forcing you to change your driving style to suit the conditions. Fans of the genre will likely appreciate this, unless they're looking for nothing other than to win.

We do have some gripes about the wheel, though. Most importantly, the force feedback decreases as you turn the wheel to the side, so things you should feel, like gravel roads, lessen when going around corners. This can be confusing, since the center stiffness, which should definitely be there, seems to replace instead of accentuate the effects of driving. Our other complaint was that, unlike in my Nova, letting go of the wheel while going over rough terrain didn't affect where the car was headed, but just made the wheel shake.

Little. Red. Different.