Xbox 360 Wireless Speed Wheel

I purchased this wheel last night to go along with my new purchase of Forza 4, which I bought at 8AM on the day of it's release. I played Forza 3 since release, and have been a huge competitive player of Forza for some time now, spending much of my time on my Xbox tuning, upgrading and making cars specialized for certain tracks, and most of my lap times are in the top 1%, albeit at the wrong end of it. I'm not trying to brag here, I'll explain in the next paragraph.

All of the reviews I read about this wheel said that it's for "casual" gamers and wouldn't really suit the needs of anyone who's competitive or plays on the Simulation steering selection

Many reviews, including CNET and IGN and others, really made it sound like this wheel isn't for anyone who is serious about forza, and rather illuminated it as if it's a neat little toy for someone who wants to get someone into the game and doesn't race very often, or plays Wii a lot. I want it to make this VERY clear;

THIS IS NOT THE CASE.

This wheel is fantastic, it simply takes some getting used to. The movement of the wheel is 1-to-1 on the screen, meaning that in "cockpit view" in Forza 4, your wheel will turn at the precise time, precise angle, and in the exact velocity that you turn the Speed Wheel.

My first race using it, I wrecked all over the place. I tried to dive right into an un-assisted A-Class race in a '69 Fairlady Z, and it became apparent to me after a few attempts that I'm going to have to re-learn how to play this game. I proceeded to start a hot lap on Infineon Raceway (Sears Point, screw you infineon) in a A class '65 Mustang that loves to drift, and practiced for about an hour. Soon enough my laps got within 2 or 3 seconds of the top in the game. Later, I posted a 1:45.8-- on "Star in a reasonably priced car" Top Gear Challenge, faster than several times of my competitive friends who race with controllers. No assists on anything I did.

Conclusion; it's a great wheel, a lot of fun, and makes for some fantastic drifting experiences, throwing the wheel from left to right and back to correct and re-correct... incredibly accurate, fast, and fun. The people who reviewed it didn't spend enough time to get good with it. They played for a few minutes and came to an inaccurate conclusion that didn't reflect the true potential of this fun little controller that makes the Wii Wheel look, and feel, like a joke.

Downside: No left/right bumpers or a slot for your wired microphone. The former is annoying because not all the menus in Forza can be navigated without the LR bumpers, mainly in the Community section and decals/paints. However, I can understand the omission of the wired microphone slot, I can see myself getting frustrated and tangled in the wire of the headset while throwing the wheel around.

Pick it up if you play Forza, practice for a bit, and you'll have a blast.

Race with me! TM SlinkyBlue

My Logitech G27 is great for my PS3 and computer, but unfortunately, it doesn't work with my XBox. I can't/won't race with a thumbstick, so I needed a solution to play Forza 4. I saw the Wireless Speed Wheel at my local electronics store (So-So Buy), and if I bought this wheel and Forza together, I received a $25 gift card. I originally thought you needed the Kinect camera, but the salesperson said I didn't, so I bought it!

I really didn't think I would be happy with the Speed Wheel having been spoiled by my G27, but I was pleasantly surprised by its responsiveness and accuracy. Even the "force feedback" vibration added a sense or realism to the racing experience. I don't write many reviews, but I just had to give this thing 5 stars, which is based on its performance when taking into consideration its price and target market.

Two advantages this wheel has over my G27 is that it's wireless and very portable.

I haven't been able to locate the left and right buttons (it only has left and right triggers as far as I can tell), and I sort of miss those, especially when the Forza 4 menus require them. But that's my only issue so far, and maybe I just need to read the manual.

Thanks Microsoft for building this thing.

I have been thinking about getting a serious racing rig which would include a racing wheel with integrated seat and pedals etc. The problem is space and cost ($500-1000). Now, there is no way this wheel would fit in with those plans but it will give you a taste for the next level of racing without much of the cost.

To do that, the Speed Wheel will need to be responsive and precise. This is something that "motion control" has severely lacked. The Wii can barely read gestures correctly, the Kinect is also flaky and laggy, and PS move has similar issues. So, with all this, I was pretty skeptical that a digital motion sensing device could work well for steering controls.

The good news is that motion sensing in the Speed Wheel is in a completely different class the from that on the Wii. The Speed Wheel is both precise and responsive as long as you are playing a game that has good "Advanced Wheel" settings. Games like Forza 3/4, Dirt 3 and a limited number of other car racing games on the Xbox 360. When used with these games, the steering input excellent and as responsive as a standard controller. In Dirt 3, you can (and should) change adjust the sensitivity and linearity depending on the style of driving. For drift heavy events, this can make a big difference. I believe similar settings are available in Forza 3/4 and the wheel probably works even best in Forza 4 since it was pretty much designed for that game. In Forza 4, for example, the lights on the end of the wheel will indicate advanced steering feedback (indicating shift change is needed?).

In initial use, its also unlikely that this device will make you a better driver (much like other racing wheels) because it takes some time to adjust to throwing you hands around to quickly impart opposite lock without loosing all control. But it does feel more real than just flicking a thumb-stick back and forth which is sort of the whole point. Once you learn the basics, your scores will fall back in-line and you may even improve but that will based on your skill not the controller.

One nice improvement on this wheel is the triggers are larger and have a longer and lighter throw. This makes precise throttle and brake control much better than with the standard controllers. The buttons on the right a much smaller than the standard controller and may even be too small for folks with large hands. the D-pad is also a bit smaller than standard but at least it properly oriented up/down to be used for gear changes.

Overall, the motion control of this device is excellent but what about the rest of the package? Well, one minor issue is the lack of bumpers. The reason they left them off is that most games that support advanced wheels don't use them for anything that is not typically mapped to the d-pad like shifting gears. Because you don't have pedals, any LB/RB control would have you lifting off gas/break which is why LB/RB are not often used during racing. However, they forgot that people also need to deal with menus and the LB/RB can also be used for switching settings. You could even use them for linear gear shifts (i.e. paddle shifter) if you use two trigger fingers instead of one. Its possible, if the wheel sells, they could release a 2.0 version that fixed this but I doubt they will have the kind of sales to justify a new production run.

Another issue with this controller is the limited number of games that can be controlled. You might think that arcade racers would also work well. But from what I have seen, that is not always the case. If the game does not have "Advanced Wheel" or support , the steering may have a huge dead-zone (45-90 degrees) and basically make the wheel unusable. And because the controller lacks RB/LB and there's is no way to configure the wheel outside of the games, its nearly impossible to use this controller with many/most arcade racers. You really need the advanced wheel support in-game for this controller to be any good. I did find that this wheel did work surprising well with some arcade racers like NFS Hot Pursuit and Split Second but not with other games like NFS San Francisco or Pure. So, its hit an miss if the game does not support advanced wheels.

I have a bit if a problem with the fact that Microsoft does not supply this list of games along with the Speed Wheel advertising or documentation because anyone buying this for other games will generate and RMA. That is bad for both Microsoft and the consumer.

As far as feedback, the rumble is very light, and it can't give you that kind of feedback you would get from a typical high-end wheel and pedals but you are only spending a fraction of that cost. In Dirt 3, you can turn up the rumble setting to its max which helps quite a bit.

You should really only consider purchasing the Speed Wheel if you are Forza/Dirt fan who wants a different way to play those games. Don't expect to be using this wheel for Driver San Francisco or for driving in GTA 4. But if you really like those games and don't want to get into full racing rig, this is the only game in town. And for that, it succeeds extremely well in what it set out to do.

P.S. I would hope that this kind of precise left right motion control will be built into the next generation Xbox control so that it could be used for more games. I could see this working well for all car games even casual ones. It could also be used for leaning in FPSs etc. Perhaps, this motion control is a test-bed for next gen controller features. I certainly hope it is.

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