Customer Reviews

Xbox Racing Wheel

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

I bought this racing wheel for the XBox. I am playing it with Project Gotham and it is AWESOME! Great quality construction, the steering column is actually bolted into the console. I has a digital power meter and allows you to configure the wheel turning radius. This product far exceeded my expectations and I would definately recommend it to anyone looking for a wheel for XBox.

Just purchased MadCatz MC2 Racing Wheel and Pedals. Here is the good news.

Fits about as well as I could expect on my lap. The pedals take the place of the triggers and work well when the triggers are accelerate and brake. The wheel and pedals seem durable if used with moderation. I would not get too aggressive with this product. The calibration system is easy and helpful.

Bad news. The buttons are not programmable. This makes games like "Spy Hunter" rather awkward. In Spy Hunter the acceleration button is "A". Firing weapons and selecting weapons are located at the triggers. This means when you use the pedals in "Spy Hunter" you will be firing weapons. This gets rather confusing. This has as much to do with the design of the games. If the game allowed the player to reprogram buttons, this would not be a problem.

Overall racing wheel worked well on Project Gotham and Wreckless. It did not work as well on Spy Hunter for reasons mentioned above. I recommend the product, however I would have preferred a wheel with programmable buttons (if there is such a thing).

Just bought this wheel today and I love the way it feels. I've been playing Sega GT 2002 and Rallisport non stop for past 7 hours. Very well designed and fits on my lap perfectly.

There are problems with it however that will make me return it tomorrow morning.

1. In both games it will disconnect 1-5 times a race. Pressing start button will fix this but it also resets your calibration. Imagine being disconnected and having to recalibrate it 5 times a race - extremely annoying.

2. It doesn't remember your calibration settings when it's powered off. This alone wouldn't make me return it but is still annoying.

I haven't had anything brake off yet, like other reviewers. The wheel and pedals are very firmly built.

Another thing - Mad Catz need to be open for support something other than Mon-Fri 9-5.

This wheel makes Project Gotham Racing. I liked it before I had the wheel but now I love the game. The wheel is much more sturdy than I figured it would be plus if you are using the wheel on your lap there are two pieces that pull out of the bottom to help the wheel from sliding too much. I really like the sensitivity of the wheel and the analog gas and brake pedals are awesome. The very nice touch was force feedback which seems a little week at times but at least it isn't too strong. The only thing I can't get used to the buttons on the steering wheel itself since I have trouble using them and turning the wheel at the same time. This isn't a big deal since most games don't use too many buttons other than gas, brake, shifting hears, and handbrake. Overall a great product that made Project Gotham Racing much better.

this wheel is great. i just bought it with all my birthday money and i got project gotham and halo for my birthday present. so the wheel has evey button that the controller does and it has a memory card port. the peddels hook on to the side of the wheel. the peddles are way differnt then all the other peddles, it goes down instead of back. the wheel has rubber grip and it doesnt hurt your hand. it has suction cups so if you have a table it sticks, or it is designed to fit on your legs and its comfterble.

This wheel is a real shame. It looks/feels great for the price and the light-up meter on the dash is cool, but it simply doesn't work properly.

There is a huge dead zone in the middle that you can't get rid of with calibration, which makes the wheel more difficult to use than the controller. It feels like you either have the wheel in the dead center or turned all the way. This is not the point of owning a racing wheel - I can tap my way into turns all day long with the standard controller, but I was looking for something that would allow me to take turns smoothly.

It will disconnect in the middle of a game, and your XBox will prompt you to press 'start' in order to continue. Gameplay resumes immediately, but this is really really annoying and takes the fun out of playing racing games.

The experiences I had with this wheel leave me with a few questions...

This wheel is supposed to be officially licensed for XBox, did anyone in Redmond even bother to try this piece of junk out before slapping their name on it?

The Microsoft Sidewinder wheels work great on the PC, why don't they make one for their console?

To sum up. Don't buy this wheel. I had it back in the box ready to return about 10 minutes after I got it home.

Being a hardcore F1 fan, I eagerly anticipated playing F1 2001 with this wheel. However, the controller configurations for F1 2001 only allow you to select the A and B buttons or the triggers for upshift/downshift. Unfortunately, the butterfly shifters on the Mad Catz wheel correspond to the A and X buttons. So, semi-auto shifting has to be done with the A and B buttons on the wheel and are almost impossible to use correctly at speed. A major bummer!

I purchased an MC2 wheel probably 6 months ago now and it still works great today. It has been heavily used by many adults and children alike; it's great fun at parties when put on a big screen tv.

I've had no problems at all with PGR2, Nascar Heat/Thunder 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, Burnout 3 or SegaGT. The 'dead zone' in the middle of the wheel is very small and if set right doesn't exist at all. The wheel has a 90º turn radius which throws some people off at first but is pretty easy to get used to.

It has both leg 'clamps' and suction cups so it can sit on your lap or a table. The foot pedals do slide a bit depending on how you step on them; I only use my right foot (like driving a normal car) so my left foot is able to hold the pedals firmly in place, however some people use right for gas and left for break, which tends to push the pedals forward quite often. We usually put a folding chair in front of them to avoid the sliding.

The size of the wheel isn't bad at all, it is smaller than a real wheel but I find it to be rather fitting; it works for all ages. We've put probably over 1,000 hours on it now and it's still going strong. If you're a fan of using a stick shift, you'll find that to be probably its biggest drawback; it doesn't actually shift positions but simply clicks up and down, and is more often than not just a hassle to use...that being said, we never use the stick shift, but no one has ever complained.

All in all, I love it, and so does everyone else who has used it. Since my original purchase, several others have picked them up after trying mine because it was so much more fun. Even if it's not entirely realistic, it adds another level to the game. Some compared it to playing House of the Dead III without light guns. I plan on purchasing another in the near future so two players can go head to head with them.

As a very avid motorsports fan and participant (both electronic and in the real world), I've got just about every roadracing game available for Xbox. Naturally, I wanted a wheel. What in the world is up with the unbelievable LACK of choice out there? Thrustmaster, Logitech, Saitek, HELLO!!!! Anybody out there? Anybody ever heard of XBOX?!!! Will one of you PLEASE make me a wheel for this thing that works right...

I want to know, because I'm SICK of my MC2 and want other CHOICES. Ones that don't give me a disconnected message five times a game and one made by a company that actually stands behind their product and acknowledges that there is a problem. Been to the website? I have to laugh when I go to the tech support troubleshooting and "known problems" section and there is no mention of this issue.

Here's a news flash - every one of these controllers has this problem and it affects almost all of the driving/racing games I have. Project Gotham and Apex are the only two games I own that are stable with this wheel. All of the rest pretty much will frustrate you into wanting to throw the thing through the window as it "disconnects" right in the heat of gameplay.

Just keep using your handheld until someone comes out with a wheel that works. - Unless all you want to play is Apex and Gotham (which it does work reasonably well on both) Mad Catz, fix your problem and make good on your promises.

After reading some of the negative feedback I almost didn't buy this wheel, but I'm glad I got it after all. I've been playing on it for the past 5 hours and have had 0 (that's zero) disconnect messages, or any problems at all for that matter.

The other complaint that I kept hearing was about this "huge deadzone". First of all, the deadzone is customizable and you can tell the difference. On one game (Colin McRae Rally 3) I noticed that the deadzone still seemed very large. That's when I realized the controller settings for the game were not set to "wheel". Once I made this small change everything was great.

It is true that the vibration is pretty weak, but that's ok with me. I certainly have not been a better driver because of this wheel, but it a lot of fun to use and I'm still getting used to it.

Just to clarify to anyone about to purchase this wheel, this IS the XBOX version of the MC2, not the Universal MC2, and I've had none of these so called controller disconnect messages. I hope the defective wheels all got taken off the shelves because I think this is a great product.