360 racing wheel encounter

A short while ago I acquired the genuine Xbox 360 driving wheel via Microsoft from the mailman. Right now I'm out of town on a short business trip, but wished to take a second and write an article regarding my thoughts following pretty much 2 hrs of trying the wheel. In an effort to give a little bit of background: I have purchased driving wheels for each and every game console I've had in the past. Mad Catz for the Dreamcast Game Console and original Xbox, and yet another generic driving wheel (that was just the racing wheel) for the original Xbox. I have played with them for everything from Crazy Taxi to Project Gotham Racing and Sega GT.

Now that you have got my background…lets look at the official Xbox 360 Racing Wheel.

After opening the box, I looked over the wheel. Overall build quality felt remarkably solid. The official racing wheel possessed wonderful rotating level of resistance, terrific grip and in general sound quality. Don't forget, I ordered the wireless wheel preowned and don't understand just what the original product packaging and directions look like. Still with no directions, setup was a breeze. I just switched the wheel on, attached the foot pedals with the supplied wire (generally a phone wire) and synchronized the wheel to my Xbox 360 (precisely the same way you'd synchronize a 360 controller).

Another thing which i definitely enjoyed concerning the official wheel was the capability to use the same battery pack from my 360 remote to supply the microsoft racing wheel. Microsoft Corp. has included the recognizable microphone port and power from the cordless Xbox 360 system in to the official racing wheel. This really is practical simply because you won’t be burning through Battery supply just to play video games with the official wheel. Purchase a rechargeable battery pack station and a few chargeable battery packs then you'll be ready to go (I do think this is a must for all Xbox 360 console users).

Soon after the official racing wheel was set up, it was Forza time. I have been forging my way through the world tour mode in Forza Motorsport 4 through the past couple of weeks within my sparetime, so obviously just where I started out. Modifying steering to sim mode and changing the shifting settings to manual, I was currently set for the awesome race experience. All I could say was how amazing the racing wheel was.

The simulated controls were sensational and natural. Using the wheel was precisely the feeling I recall from other driving wheels in my history…. Difficult at first but fulfilling.

Originally the 360 racing wheel encounter is very difficult for most people. If you are use to playing racing games with your standard controller, the jump is going to take some getting use too. Please don't let this dissuade you. Once you get the hang of using the official wheel, game play becomes outrageously fun. I could hardly leave from the official wheel. This felt the same as when I was a kid, it absolutely was a blast to play with and really boosted the racing experience.

The sole trouble I had with the 360 racing wheel is the pedal setup. Reaction was terrific, but they seem to slide all around a lot on my rug. I feel like there needs to be some sort of spikes to burrow into the floor, or velcro to generate more friction with the ground. This doesn’t help to make the experience terrible, it just makes you think a little more when you wish to slam the gas pedal down.



There you have it, my brief experience with the Xbox racing wheel. If you have one and want to chime in…dont hesitate to leave a comment.

Kudos for reading.

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