18 out of 18 people found this review helpful.
A racing controller that is actually realistic
Date of Review: Aug 22, 2007
The Bottom Line: If you want the most realistic wheel and shifter out there, buy this. It has features that are simply not even approached by anyone else.
Express Section:
If you want a realistic racing game controller, this is the product for you. It is the only product on the market to my knowledge that includes a realistic shifter and leather steering wheel. While other racing wheels are more arcade-style, this one feels like the real thing. It is pretty expensive, but if you want something that makes you feel as close to a racing cockpit as you can get, this is what you want to buy.
Description:
The Logitech G25 Wheel is more advanced than other wheels. It includes a wheel, a Shifter, and a set of pedals. The wheel is wrapped with real leather, has two thumb buttons and two paddle shifters, and includes dual-motor force feedback. Another cool feature of the wheel is its 900-degree range of motion. This means you can turn the wheel completely around two-and-a-half from one stop before hitting the other stop.
The shifter unit is pretty cool,although somewhat smaller than I expected. The stick itself has the familiar positions of a six-speed, including a reverse position that you access by pushing the stick down and moving it to the sixth position. The stick can also be changed to a sequential shifter by pressing down on the stick and turning a knob on the shifter unit. Behind the stick are eight buttons, a power LED, and an eight-position directional pad, although I don't see how you cannot access these buttons with your hand on the stick.
The pedal unit has large metal pedals that are more realistic than the tiny plastic pedals of most wheels. On the unit are three pedals; gas, brake, and clutch. The pedals have accurate resistance; the brake is hard to push while the gas is easy to push. The entire brake unit does not slide on carpet because the underside is fitted with anti-slide spikes.
The wheel and shifter units clamp to the edge of a desk with attached hand-clamps, while the pedal unit, of course, sits on the floor. All units plug into the wheel, which plugs into the wall and computer.
Included in the box are the three units, a manual, a quick-start card, a power adapter, an installation CD, and a game demo CD. I cannot remember exactly (it has been a month or so since I purchased this device), but I do not think a USB cable was included. Someone please correct me on that if I am wrong using the comments section.
Installation:
Installation was pretty straightforward; plug the shifter and pedals into the wheel, plug the wheel into the wall, insert the installation CD, follow the prompts, and connect the wheel to the computer when instructed to do so. I am using Windows Vista 64-bit, and had an issue with the included game profiling software not working. I am sure an update would fix this, since Vista was brand new when I installed the software, but since I have no use for the game profiling software, I have not bothered to update it. The driver itself works fine.
Performance:
This thing is cool! I loaded up the included demo of "rFactor" racing, chose the G25 under controller settings, and started playing. The wheel works great, the pedals don't move, and the shifter is easy to use and realistic. After a while, I found that 900-degree steering was annoying, so I went into the driver settings and changed it to 360 degrees. You can change the value to anything you want up to 900 to match your favorite car or driving style.
The force feedback was powerful and accurate; better than any other wheel I've used. I attribute this to the use of two motors instead of one in the wheel. When turning at high speeds, the wheels motors would provide a lot of resistance. You could tell when you over-steered and lost traction because the resistance would suddenly release.
Next, I tried the wheel in Need for Speed: Carbon, and it was excellent. The driving was not as realistic since this is not a realistic game, but it sure was fun! The wheel and shifter all worked fine in NFS by default; the game detected my controller and setup the buttons and shifter for me.
I have not tried any other games, but for those that are not supported by default, you can probably get them working using the included game profiling software.
Aesthetics:
This will be a short section since people who spend $300 on a racing wheel probably aren't worried about how it looks. I must mention, however, that the wheel looks professional. The rim is covered in leather, and the center is made of real stainless steel. The shifter includes a stick with a realistic leather sheath. Unfortunately, the control panel behind the stick that looks like stainless steel is only veneer, and I don't understand why Logitech couldn't have put a bit more stainless steel there to make the entire thing look professional. Still, everything else is made of real material, including the wheel and pedals.
Also, please note that the wheel has a small aesthetic flaw in it. When you clamp it to a desk the bottom of the unit lays flat against the desk. Unfortunately, cords from the other units must plug in to the bottom, and there are no slots for the cables to go through, resulting in a unit that is resting on cables. It looks somewhat messy and causes the clamps to occasionally come loose. This is the only aesthetic problem with the wheel and isn't really a big deal.
Conclusion:
See "express section" above.
