First let me get the con out of the way. This thing is not the easiest thing to setup. The clamps are simple, however you have to have a table or a wooden lip that is thick/thin enough. Next you have to have a base that is wide enough to handle the kind of power you and the wheel throws at the base. That's the main con with this wheel.
Other con: the wires are located on the underside of the wheel. There are 4 in all and two of the wires end hardwired into the shifter and the pedals while their ends plugin to the wheel. What this means is that if you want to move your entire unit you have to unscrew the wheel so that you can at the very least unplug the pedal wire from the bottom. That's a pain but you can get very proficient and fast at it. You can have the wheel setup and ready to go in about 3-5 minutes depending on how fast you are from scratch. Right now, I have a piano bench where the lid flips up sitting on top of two (big enough) ottomans. It provides a "meh" kind of base which does the job. If you have the money you probably want to spring for a small table or a racing cockpit/stand. This thing is not meant to be driven while laying back in the couch. You need a chair you can sit up in. You just cant unless you get a certain stand available on this site which allows you to sort of drive it from the couch. I dont have it so I wont omment.
Another (very tiny con) is that the wheel has a TINY (and I do mean) TINY deadzone in the center before the force feedback activates. You will likely not notice this.
Now onto the pros:
This is my first wheel and it's a heck of an experience. The force feedback motors are FANTASTIC. Everything youve read about it is true. You feel the wheel slip very realistically with traction loss, you can tell which side of the car went over a bump, and even which wheel. It vibrates differently for bridges, dirt, tar, etc. and if you crash you will feel it quite hard. Also the force feedback motors (power adjustable) are VERY powerful. It will rip the wheel right out of your hands if you set it up that way. Amazing feeling when you lose control and the wheel is pulling one way and another and you literally have to fight the wheel. To clarify with each of these things theres some seriously varied gradation levels. For instance when the wheel slips on traction it doesnt go all or nothing. It varies according to the amount of traction is being lost and changes on the fly as the car steers. This is true to all the force feedback felt. It is very precise.
The wheel has tension so if you steer and let go, if the game allows it, it will go back to the center. It will behave differently in steering weight and force depending on the kind of car you drive!
With these kinds of combnations the subtleties available are a whole lot and it's easy to get that magic feel where you dont know just quite how they do it but you are enjoying it nevertheless.
The wheel gave me TONS of accuracy over a controller. It has 900 degrees rotation and it shows. According to the game you can lower the rotation if you prefer. Works without a hitch on the PC and the PS3. Gt5 as of sept2011 does not have "official support" for the wheel but let me tell you that it does support it very very well. The only thing you cant do is remap buttons in that game.
The pedals make a great difference over the controller. They all have their individual tensions. The brake is harder than the accelerator and the clutch is the loosest. I havent used the clutch much but in gt5 it was quite an experience (you have to press triangle to activate it). However, if you love the clutch, I found that since I'm kind of big, it was hard to have both feet in a straight line to use both the accelerator and the clutch. The gap between accelerator and clutch was a little narrow for my taste. However, most of you will race with the accel and brake only and for that the pedals are perfect.
If you have a carpet, the pedal base will not slip even if you jam it hard as it has a carpet grip that is very good.
The shifter at first I had mixed thoughts about the shifter. I kept jamming the gears into the wrong ones. But after some time, these problems strangely vanished and I had no problem. It was just a matter of getting used to it. It is an H pattern and it feels nice to slam it in. The shifters however have little resistace or weight so you can change it with your pinky. However the options they give you is nice. You have the standard six speed with reverse. Then you can press the shift down and turn a certain nob and it will activate sequential shift where the gears are now locked in a straight up and down only fashion allowing you to press down for shift up and up for shift down. The transmission clamps though functional on my jerry rigged bench got loose and needed readjusting. IT wasnt a big problem but the clamps were just not as well designed as the wheel.
Something to note is that EVERYTHING in this setup has the screw holes where you can nail them perfectly down and you dont have the problems I described.
The paddle shifters are very very nice. They are metallic and have good resistance and a small click to it as you change. It also has good travel distance anda good solid feel to them. If you are not nused to a shifter you can just use these and gain quite an advantage. So that gives you THREE different styles of shifting all in one package.
Actual use:
When you first use it especially in a sim-like game like gt5, you will likely hate it as you will be CRASHING! This is because this is not an arcade wheel. It will behave similar to a real car wheel and going from a controller to the wheel is a learning curve which can easily be learnt in a few days. If you cut the wheel hard at 70 mph, well the car will either not turn or skid out, precisely like it SHOULD. However, do give it a chance. In gt5 I found the cars would understeer etc. until I learnt that with a wheel gt5 has more precision and doesnt quite give you those controller cheats. This wheel is best enjoyed with all assists turned off except maybe Antilock braking. I mean it. You will probably really dislike it if traction control is on. Basically, you WANT this wheel to be put in simulation mode.
After getting used to it, it was such a grand ride. All the cars behaved differently on the wheel and I had no problem being fully immersed in it. The fury of this wheel was quite obvious in GriD wrenching it from my hand etc.
A note here though, the wheel is only as good as the game that supports it and especially the physics complexity. A game like gt5 or Dirt 2 and 3 is great for it. Split second and even NFS shift 2 was so disgustingly arcade that I stopped playing those games. The wheel performed as well as how the programmers designed the game for the wheel.
I loved arcade racing games but very quickly I saw the enjoyment that the level of refinement this wheel brings that wasnt available in arcade racers with gimicky physics.
I finally came to understand the term "threshold physics". This is when the car is losing traction at the edge of its capabilities and you are pumping it and keeping it in this "drift" fighting it at every turn pulling off some amazing tricks. GT5 and Dirt does this great and the wheel is very adpet at keeping up with the nuances of threshhold physics. If you have a game that didnt pay attention to it, it feels more gimicky like a wheel at an arcade (I gag at the thought of it).
Dont get me wrong, you can still enjoy this wheel to the maximum in arcade games, but at this level, you will quickly start yearning for those complex wheel physics the programmers put into more advanced games.
I dont know how it does it but I literally feel the weight of the different carsin the game as I use it. The ferari enzo has such a different weight feel compared to a ferari 458 italia. Every car felt different and fantastic. When you discover the button for ehandbrake, you are then taken into another level.
Also with the good accelerator pedals, you can experience torque control! I cant describe it but is very varied and very nice. Basically if you are taking a turn and let go of the accelerator you will experience less control. Also while turning if you jam on the accleertor the handling changes. This also makes it great for drifting! Pulling that handbrake shifting the gears down jamming on the throttle while the tires scream throwing up smoke in the air, while you frantically twist the wheel back and forth steering and counter steering is very nice. All the while the wheel is throwing up different amounts of resistance realistically. Woah.
This wheel can be used on an xbox360 but you have to buy the (unsupported) modification box for it. So I dont know how well that translates in real life.
The wheel autocalibrates, turning on its own when the ps3 or PC starts. It is a very cool effect. Your friends will be impressed just by that. However, if they dont know how to drive properly, they will not like their first experience with the wheel as like you did on your first go throughs, they will be CRASHING! lol. Then they'll complain how the wheel or game sucks.
The build quality is very good. The clamps, the wheel ase is all plastic but it's STRONG/. The wheel itself is metal with nice leather/rubber grips. The wheel is large for a console wheel wich is a good thing. However, it is not as large as a car steering wheel. I didnt have any trouble though due to this.
I dont like the idea of wires, but they havent failed on me yet and theyve been through plenty of tugging The wires are nice and long though and I never had problems with legnth. Nothing on this wheel has failed on me or given me even an inkling that it will fail and I have thrown some serious force behind it. I've had this wheel for two to three years.
If you get the g27 compared to the g25 you will have some cons. Namely, the g27 is reported to make a tud tud tud noise when its force feedback motor is engaged on high and you are fighting the wheel. This can get annoying. The g25 is much less noisy in that aspect. The other one being you do not have the sequential shifting option on the h shifter. The pro for the g27 being you have more buttons directly on the steering wheel. I do not expect the performance to be much different between the two versions.
Compared to the driving force GT, the paddle shifters are better in this one. The 6 way h shifter is better (and is able to be mounted separately). The g25 has a clutch. The g25 has two force feedback motors to one on the drving force, though I heard the driving force GT has some very nice force feedback as well.
Another thing you should know is that this wheel has all the buttons/shoulders that a ps3 controller has in some form on the wheel/pedals. Most of the buttons are on the shifter. The wheel only has two buttons. This can be a pro or a con how you look at it. Only thing it lacks are the two analog sticks (but the direction pad is there). This can be a problem in photo mode or where you have to get out and walk around like in test drive unlimited. For that you have to use your regular controller during these sections.
This wheel can be significantly improved if it had the bluetooth wireless capability that the ps3 supports. Thereby eliminating wires.
It comes with a detachable power supply which is very nice for replacement if the need arises.
There is a good site on you tube called simracing tonight that can give you lots of tips on wheel purchasing. There is also a big aftermarket mods for this wheel, pedals and shifters if you are so inclined/crazy.
So there you have it. It's not cheap but it's worth the price and will not break on you and it just works. If you are looking for something cheaper the logitech driving force GT acts very similar to this one, though I suspect this wheel has more finesse to it. I dont think you will be unhappy with the driving force GT as it is very good value for money as well. If you buy this wheel, do yourself a favor and buy GT5 or Dirt 2 or 3, or even R/i racing (if you're hardcore). Dont waste it on the arcade games (which I liked on a controller). You will be missing out a lot. This wheel is simply in a different class. There are better wheels but they are significantly more expensive and not VASTLY superior and they have cons in their own form that this wheel avoids with its design. If you are a first time wheel buyer this is a worthwhile purchase as long as you have the proper base for it. For further reference if you hold your thumb and second finger in a BIG C then that is the maximum amount of lip thickness the wheel clamps can handle. The lip also needs to go back a bit to allow sufficient grip about 4 inches.Also if it isnt anchored down well, the force you apply can scrape your table. A towel will help prevent it.
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