Microsoft wheel review

Read Full Review. Xbox Wireless Steering Wheel review. This sturdy, smartly designed wireless wheel is worth the relatively high price tag. Microsoft Xbox Wireless Steering Wheel review. Engadget Reader. November 14, A dependable product that doesn't really stand out from the competition. April 12, I've been using it for well over a year and it is far more accurate than using the gamepad.

If you enjoy racing, you really should get the wheel. June 28, There aren't many options for Xbox racing wheels. Fortunately, one of the few options is pretty good. The force feedback is strong, and it adds a degree of immersion to racing games that you'll never get with a control pad.

Unfortunately, many units come misaligned from center. My wheel was always turned a little to the right to be straight. If you want, you can disassemble the wheel and realign the drive gears to straighten things up. Speaking of gears, the gear drive does make the wheel a bit noisy when you're really working it hard. Full disclosure, I'm writing this review after my wheel quit operating correctly. Turning the wheel only a couple degrees in real life resulted in full-lock in either direction in any racing game I tried.

I did some searching online and found that many other people had the same issue. Microsoft had no solution, suggesting that users buy a new wheel. Mechanically apt users took the wheel apart but found no obvious fix. I wasn't aware that Forza only supported this wheel. That's a real strike to Microsoft. I guess all the gripes about other wheels don't matter too much at this point if they limit our options like that.

I considered mentioning the degree rotation, lack of a clutch and shifter but didn't because I figured no software would support these anyway. The only wheel I owned with degree rotation was the Logitech Driving Force Pro, but the extra rotation made it practically unusable in Gran Turismo 4.

It just wasn't practical in that scenario; still, degrees or even degrees or something would've definitely sweetened up this wheel significantly. Or it'd be best I imagine if we could customize the turning angle.

The game could do a little math to compensate I imagine. It was awesome, but only 2 somewhat-good games supported it. I guess Microsoft didn't want to limit their options either by making an expensive add-on that only a couple games supported Forza 2 will be a great game but never a simulator as many of die-hard fans are hoping it sounds like Future shop and best buy just dropped the wheel 99 Can now thats cheap!!!

Unregistered , May 25, The SideWinder software also allows you to customize the sensitivity and dead zone of the wheel to your liking, as well as letting you customize the force feedback settings. The most important of these is the Return to Center Tension. This basically controls how much the wheel will try to return to the center position and playing without it is difficult you get the same effect if you turn the force feedback off. This is probably an acquired taste but something you should be aware of.

Some games support this feature more than others. With the game support, the impact it has is amazing. You could feel every shift, every bump in the road, and got a solid feedback when you hit the walls or other drivers. The use of force feedback in RalliSport Challenge was also impressive with a different feeling for when you were on pavement and when you were on dirt which really amplified the game experience. What is neat about the wheel is that almost every lap was better than the last as I adjusted to the wheel.

The impact with the other games I tested was the same. This is really the kind of peripheral that really makes an entire class of games.

If you are a die hard racing fan, then you probably want to have one of these around. You could put that money towards a memory upgrade or other gaming hardware more in line with your personal gaming style. It would be also nice if Microsoft would include a better game with the package adding Rallisport Challenge would sell a ton of these wheels.

The Microsoft SideWinder Force Feedback Wheel is a solid but not perfect racing wheel for the true racing sim enthusiast.