4 Things I Love And Hate About Gaming Wheels

Thanks to the guys at Thrustmaster, we’ve spent the last six weeks putting both the T300RS and TX Racing Wheel Ferrari 458 Italia Edition through their paces, with a mixture of Forza 5 on Xbox One and Project Cars on PC.

After a month of tearing up the race tracks and street circuits of the world, we’ve come to a few conclusions about what it’s like to own these kits. While they’re great fun in so many ways, there are a few minor frustrations we’ve encountered.

Own a racing wheel? Let us know what you think in the comments!

Love: Authenticity

The vast majority of us will never get to drive the cars of the super elite of the motoring world. That’s why racing games are so popular: you get to race unobtainably exotic cars as fast as you like. Racing wheels go a long way to increasing the realism stakes, especially in the case of the TX 458 model, which even has a plastic ‘Manettino’ dial.

Switch the lights off and switch on your imagination, because it just got easier to pretend you’re actually hooning that Ferrari.

Hate: Driving position

It takes a lot of commitment (and cash) to have a proper setup like the one above. Most of us are stuck with attaching the wheel to whatever desk we might have, whatever height that may be. For me, the wheel is a bit too high, and the pedals too far away, so I have to sit stupidly close to the wheel. I then have to walk about regularly thanks to gaming-induced backache.

If you’re not into your 458 Italia wheel, you can just replace it with a different one, such as a button-festooned F1 replica unit. There are also manual gear stick adaptions available and different pedal sets.

Hate: Pedals

Since the pedals don’t receive force feedback like the wheel does, accelerating and braking can be tricky. Particularly when it comes to braking; you have no idea how much force to use, as there is no indication about bite or locked brakes. The accelerator pedal is slightly easier to use as it’s spring-loaded to allow fairly incremental changes, however a slight dead spot at the top of the pedal makes minor adjustments tricky.

The pedals are also quite difficult to keep in place. If you don’t have a wall to place them against, every time you put your foot down they’ll slide away from you and move about.

While the pedals might not feed back, the wheel certainly does. Especially on PC, where you can whack the settings right up, the feedback is immense. It really makes you think twice about clattering that kerb on a high speed kink, and makes it easier to steer into a slide.

The wheel in the video above is malfunctioning, but it gives you an idea of how strong the motors are.

Hate: Occasionally odd resistance

While the feedback is great for the most part, there does seem to be an odd quirk. You can almost push past the resistance in a tight turn, at which point the resistance eases off. It’s counter-intuitive and quickly kills the illusion you’re actually driving a car…

Your mates/girlfriend/family might think you look like a tool, but when you’re in the zone - nailing apexes and braking later than your opponent to charge into first - the only thing that matters is the race. In your mind you’re Lewis Hamilton on a good day. Just remember when you jump out of the seat you won’t have Nicole Scherzinger waiting for you. Sorry.

Hate: They're expensive

Unsurprisingly, given that this is an incredibly niche product, gaming wheels are quite expensive. The TX 458 Italia wheel retails at £349.99, while the T300RS will set you back £329.99. If you really enjoy your racing games, and either can’t put up with a rubbish driving position or just want to commit to a proper setup, you’ll have to drop top dollar on something like a PlaySeat.

These setups can be bought for about £490 (including the price of the wheel), which is a hell of a lot of money. You could also try a smaller, foldable setup, but they’re hardly cheaper.