- 9,209
- DerAlta
Last Friday, I picked up my expense check (rather large, considering I was on the road all week), cashed it in and headed for Circuit City (well known electronics reseller).
I have the intentions of picking up a Wheel for GT3. Low and behold there was a Blue Logitch Force feedback wheel. $90 +tax later, I was racing home, to set it up. The coffee table was too thick to lock it onto, so I had to improvise. The cheesy little adapter which allows you to hold it between your lags it built for pre-teen children. I used to squat over 400lbs, so my thighs aren't small. An end table, and a dining room chair worked, and was an easy set-up, take down.
The first test out was quite a few runs around super speedway in the stock miata. The first time I hit the rumble strip, it made me jump. Hitting a wall, was a new experience. To say it enhanced your racing experience, was an under-statement. I felt like I was driving. I swooped around the track many times, improving my times, and becoming more familiar with the attitude of the wheel. Also I had to re-learn the track. Which was nice, as I found a better line to take. I switched back to the DS2, and compared times.
Slightly faster with the DS2, but given experience, I figured I'd eventually be faster with the wheel. I have months of time on the DS2, but after 30minutes on the wheel, I was only off pace by 0.1XX seconds. not bad, considering I was turning fairly slow laps in the stock miata. Feeling like I was getting better, I jumped into my New Calsonic Skyline and headed for the Grand Valley 300km enduro.
To familiarize myself with the track, I decided to run a number of qualifying laps. Figuring I had to re-learn the track, I settled in for 30 or so laps. Nearly half of the enduro, but I needed to learn the track. I was able to trim my qualifying time down to match the First place AI. so I went for it.
It's amazing how much changes when you go from running alone to running in the pack. In the first 2 laps I was spun 3 times, settling me about 35 seconds out of first place. Too many to make up. It was about now, that the Shift paddles started to malfunction. It would randomly not let me down shift. I began loosing time in the corners. Restarted. Skipped qualifying, and started racing. Got spun by the AI once each in the first two laps. Restarted. Still off pace, and couldn't gain time. Frustration set in. After 2 more restarts, and 5 more spins, I lost my cool and now need to replace an end table ($15 at K-Mart). I calmly packed up the blue wheel and returned it to Circuit city. In all honesty, I feel that I could definately get better times with it, just that at 78% I didn't want to waste all that time relearning each track.
On a good note, My wife tried it out, and she thought it was fun. So inorder to continue my GT3 playing, I'll be picking one up after I hit 100% (and restart for a fourth trip through the game).
All things considered, I would recommend getting a wheel, and giving yourself about a month to relearn all the tracks.
My 2 cents, and hopefully an unbiased appraisal of the Blue Logitech wheel.
AO
I have the intentions of picking up a Wheel for GT3. Low and behold there was a Blue Logitch Force feedback wheel. $90 +tax later, I was racing home, to set it up. The coffee table was too thick to lock it onto, so I had to improvise. The cheesy little adapter which allows you to hold it between your lags it built for pre-teen children. I used to squat over 400lbs, so my thighs aren't small. An end table, and a dining room chair worked, and was an easy set-up, take down.
The first test out was quite a few runs around super speedway in the stock miata. The first time I hit the rumble strip, it made me jump. Hitting a wall, was a new experience. To say it enhanced your racing experience, was an under-statement. I felt like I was driving. I swooped around the track many times, improving my times, and becoming more familiar with the attitude of the wheel. Also I had to re-learn the track. Which was nice, as I found a better line to take. I switched back to the DS2, and compared times.
Slightly faster with the DS2, but given experience, I figured I'd eventually be faster with the wheel. I have months of time on the DS2, but after 30minutes on the wheel, I was only off pace by 0.1XX seconds. not bad, considering I was turning fairly slow laps in the stock miata. Feeling like I was getting better, I jumped into my New Calsonic Skyline and headed for the Grand Valley 300km enduro.
To familiarize myself with the track, I decided to run a number of qualifying laps. Figuring I had to re-learn the track, I settled in for 30 or so laps. Nearly half of the enduro, but I needed to learn the track. I was able to trim my qualifying time down to match the First place AI. so I went for it.
It's amazing how much changes when you go from running alone to running in the pack. In the first 2 laps I was spun 3 times, settling me about 35 seconds out of first place. Too many to make up. It was about now, that the Shift paddles started to malfunction. It would randomly not let me down shift. I began loosing time in the corners. Restarted. Skipped qualifying, and started racing. Got spun by the AI once each in the first two laps. Restarted. Still off pace, and couldn't gain time. Frustration set in. After 2 more restarts, and 5 more spins, I lost my cool and now need to replace an end table ($15 at K-Mart). I calmly packed up the blue wheel and returned it to Circuit city. In all honesty, I feel that I could definately get better times with it, just that at 78% I didn't want to waste all that time relearning each track.
On a good note, My wife tried it out, and she thought it was fun. So inorder to continue my GT3 playing, I'll be picking one up after I hit 100% (and restart for a fourth trip through the game).
All things considered, I would recommend getting a wheel, and giving yourself about a month to relearn all the tracks.
My 2 cents, and hopefully an unbiased appraisal of the Blue Logitech wheel.
AO
