I love racing games. Forza Motorsport 6 is enough of a reason to own an XboxOne, even if you never play Halo. Never have pixels been so magically rendered. It is sometimes difficult to tell if you're watching video or video game.
Can you imagine weaving through midtown traffic controlling your car with just an Xbox controller? That little thumbstick just doesn't give you enough precision. Same thing for racing games. We communicate with our cars via steering wheel, and that is how the games based on automobiles were really meant to be played.
Now, there are all sorts of ways to bring a driving simulator into your living room, but most won't meet the spouse-test. You know, the one that ends with "it's me or your toy car". You could set up a projection or multi-screen rig, get one of those fancy reclining bucket seats and plop it down in front of your TV, or if you've really got deep pockets get a motion simulator for six figures. Why not?
Instead (and this is how you're going to justify the purchase to yourself, if not your spouse) for *only* a few hundred dollars you could get a steering wheel, pedals, and joystick that can quickly be stowed away when not in use that will make your gaming experience so much better? See how reasonable you're thinking. Go get your credit card. I'll wait.
Well crafted accessories are legitimate objects of technolust, even if they are out of our price range. There have always been super-high-end controllers; I still lust after the Thrustmaster HOTAS flightstick and throttle, though I hardly still play flight simulators. But, if the idea of spending as much (or more) on a controller than you did on the gaming platform discomforts you, perhaps you should stop reading. Because, I'm just going to fan the flames of desire.
Let's get the price out of the way. For some of us, most of us, a four hundred dollar game controller is as out-of-reach-in-this-reality as a Ferrari. Yes, the Ferrari costs more, but scraping together four bills for a toy steering wheel, even one cloaked in leather, just doesn't make sense for everyone. But, price has never stopped me looking at one in the street with appreciation, or even reading about their unbridled acceleration in an magazine. Same here. The G920 Driving Force Racing Wheel for Xbox One and PC ($399) is cool. The pedals, each with its own amount of resistance, give a sensual verisimilitude to the whole experience. The optional six-speed “H”-pattern shifter ($59.99) adds to the wow factor: that leather covered knob, the way you depress it to go into reverse, the joy of a well timed downshift. Touching it is cool. Driving with it is red-hot. All that's missing is the wind in your hair.
In practice, and with practice, the entire rig can make you a better racer. Even with the wheel, there is not a straight line, one-to-one correlation between driving your Honda and a video game vehicle, the latter being infinitely much more difficult. Part of the problem is that, at least until VR is more common, you brain has to translate a two dimensional experience into 3D input. Still, the G920 takes you as far as it can. The force feedback gives you a feel for the different road surfaces and contact you might make with walls or other cars. Unfortunately, and this is true for every wheel I've tried over the years, the one sensation that is not well represented is when the front of your vehicle taps something directly in front of you, but there you have good visual information coming in, so it is not as important.
Price is not the only factor you need to consider before purchasing the G920, as big an issue is "where will you set it up?" The G920 requires a surface that you can clamp it onto, and the unit assumes that surface is going to have a straight front-edge. Also, the tabletop the wheel needs can't be too thick. In fact, there was nowhere in my living room that I could test the wheel. My office desktop also had problems, the drawer got in the way of the mounting bracket, which couldn't open wide enough. The ideal mount for the G920 is a purpose-built racing rig, like one of the Playseats. However, if this isn't practical in your living-space, then you really need to think about whether this is the wheel for you.
Price is not the only factor you need to consider before purchasing the G920, as big an issue is "where will you set it up?" The G920 requires a surface that you can clamp it onto, and the unit assumes that surface is going to have a straight front-edge. Also, the tabletop the wheel needs can't be too thick. In fact, there was nowhere in my living room that I could test the wheel. My office desktop also had problems, the drawer got in the way of the mounting bracket, which couldn't open wide enough. The ideal mount for the G920 is a purpose-built racing rig, like one of the Playseats. However, if this isn't practical in your living-space, then you really need to think about whether this is the wheel for you.
Without a doubt, the G920 makes racing games more fun, particularly if you spring for the extra shifter. However, practicalities may make it just another object of technolust, better in fantasy than reality.
