May The Force Be With You - - Logitech GT Force Wheel
Written: Aug 09 '01 (Updated Nov 07 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: First Force Wheel available on a game console. Works on your PC too.
Cons: Limited software, cost, non-adjustable parameters, needs software interface, and no couch potatoes please.
The Bottom Line: Is the Logitech Wheel worth the money? What if you already have a PS2 compatible wheel, would you buy one? I did.
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| Yarborough's Full Review: Logitech GT Force For Gran Turismo 3 |
Updated to include information on how to use the GT Force on an IBM compatible PC with active USB ports.(Reason 5 Below)
Another update because Logitech adds some Playstation controller buttons. See Buttons and Control below.
Finally, an update to add some more compatible games.
The Logitech GT Force Wheel was designed by Logitech, the makers of my favorite mouse, in conjunction with the Gran Turismo 3 (GT3) project. I will be explaining how this wheel interacts with the GT3 game.
Of course, anyone without a PS2 compatible wheel would be overwhelmed with the realism and control that a non-force wheel adds to the experience of a driving game, in comparison to a hand controller. My problem, before I purchase this product, was that I could not find any review where the author already had a PS2 compatible non-force wheel. I was interested in how this new wheel would stack up against one of the better existing wheels, like the Interact Blue Thunder. Since I own the Blue Thunder, I can now review the GT Force from that perspective.
Buttons and Control
The GT3 booklet shows a visual of the GT Force. Markings designate some “during game” functions like, the left pedal is the brake and the right is the accelerator (duh!). What they forget to tell you is how to use the wheel to control game operation and menus. The game can be controlled with the wheel whether a standard controller is connected or not. Figuring out how is the challenge. The wheel has buttons labeled “Y”, “B”, “A” and “X” (Huh!). Didn’t the Logitech people ever pop in to say hi during the GT3 development? Don’t they know about X, O, square, triangle, Start and Select? “X” on the wheel has nothing to do with the PS2 “X” button.
During a recent visit to my local EB store, I saw boxes of the now second generation GT Force Wheels. The picture on the box now shows a full compliment of the familiar Playstation buttons. In the space just above the right thumb hole of the wheel, arranged in a triangular pattern, are the very familiar X, O, triangle and square buttons. Just above the left thumb hole, there is now a D-pad and just below the hub, to the left is a Select button and to the right there is a Start button. Did they see my review? Did they figure this out on their own? Obviously, this rework is the reason that the wheel has been a stock outage from the beginning of August until late October. The Wingman PC version have also been sold out, probably being used on the Playstation 2, as well. This second generation wheel now makes the PS2 version, a much better deal over the Wingman.
With some experimentation the wheel buttons can be figured out. That was my first assignment. I can save you some trouble. “A” is the Start button, right pedal is “X”, left pedal is back up menu like the triangle, moving the steering wheel left or right is arrow left and right and the shift up and down buttons are arrow up and down. For GT3, the wheel needs to be connected to the top USB connector of a horizontal PS2.
GT3 can play with only the GT Force connected to the USB. You may also connect your standard controller simultaneously for added game control between races and many might feel more comfortable using it than the GT Force.
Reason 1 to buy the GT Force wheel – Steering Accuracy
The first thing I noticed about the driving control using the dual shock, was that I was constantly correcting the steering with little right-left pulses on the analog stick, to keep a car going perfectly straight down the track. When switching to the Blue Thunder wheel, I found myself doing the same thing by pulsing the wheel right-left again to keep a car going perfectly straight. This is a factor of GT3 itself because there are many other driving games where this does not happen, like Nascar Heat 2002 and MotoGP. Set it straight and it will stay straight. Although this was no big deal, I was hoping that the GT force wheel would fix this. Fortunately it does. The wheel not only returns faithfully to center, as it would in a real car, but it also will track a nice straight line without correction. The force wheel gives a very smooth steering control at all times under all conditions. The reason I mention this is because this is exactly how you would check the alignment and balance of your steering and tires on a real car. You would bring it up on a highway and see how well the car will track straight with little effort.
Reason 2 to buy the GT Force wheel – Brake and Gas Accuracy
When preparing to start a race, I’m sure you have tried to hold a steady RPM before flooring the accelerator. This is sometimes difficult to do with the Dual Shock and also holds true for the Blue Thunder gas pedal. With the GT Force gas pedal, this is easy to do, meaning it has very good analog range and precision that gives you more accurate speed control during a race. In fact, if you wanted to hold a car right at 60 MPH around a track, you can.
Reason 3 to buy the GT Force wheel - Force Feedback
This is a wonderful feature compared to the lame vibrations of the past. What you felt before as a rumbling vibration now has an added realistic intensity. For example, when you drive over one of those red-white corner rumble strips you will know it for sure. It feels just like it does when you drive over those breakdown lane grooves that have been added to some Interstate highways to wake up drowsy drivers.
The wheel exerts a good amount of resistance when cornering, but not so much as to wear you down. If you bump something or someone bumps you, the wheel will realistically react with a jerk.
The strength of the resistance is dependent on what kind of car you are driving. A wimpy car has wimpy steering. I happened to win an F1 racer on an endurance race. Driving the F1 for the first time was not only incredible but scary too. You can somehow feel the power and torque within the wheel and feel at one with the machine. It is a one of a kind experience that I had never had before. The feel, the speed, the shifting and the cornering, was simply fantastic. There is ample and justifiable resistance to overcome when bring one of these monsters around a corner at 80 MPH.
Rally racing? You've never had it like this. Not only do you hear the crunch of the dirt but you actually feel it under the tires. You can feel the grooves in the road and the feedback as the tires break loose and grab again on cornering. When you corner off the dirt and on to pavement, you need to be ready because the wheel is going to react just as it would in car. How DO they do that?
Reason 4 to buy the GT Force wheel – It is just so much fun
I have played many F1 and CART racing games in the past, with and without wheels. This was better than I ever expected. Heck, I would have spent $150 for a wheel that can do this, since racing games are my forte'. Just don't tell my wife because she would slap me in the back of the head if I did. If someone ever develops a G-force seat, and you get a bloody nose when you slam into a wall, it would be as real as it gets.
I had over a weeks experience driving GT3 with the dual shock controller. The GT Force improved my times and accuracy, and added a level of realism and fun to a game that is a simulator. Let's face it, would like driving your real car down the road with a Sony Dual Shock controller or steering wheel and pedals?
Reason 5 to buy the GT Force wheel – It can perform double duty as a force wheel on your IBM compatible PC
On the suggestion of Epinions member billservo, Top Reviewer in Games, I tried some GT Force PC connectivity and tests. This required going to the Logitech website and downloading the 9 MB Wingman Formula Force GP control software version 4.0 for Windows 95/98/Me. This software would come on a CD with the Wingman PC model. Double clicking on the downloaded executable starts the installation and, of course, it then wants to reboot your PC. The installation continues on start up by asking you to now connect the fully wired and powered GT Force to the USB connector on your PC. Windows detects the new hardware and the installation completes.
The Logitech Wingman software contains calibration and test routines. The GT Force passed all of the tests on the buttons and pedals and examples of forces were sent to the wheel. Explosions, tire blowout and engine vibrations are some of the samples.
Next I blew the dust of my very old Microsoft CART Precision Racing and loaded it. This game is crap compared to GT3 on the PS2, but this is all I had to complete the test. It worked fine and the game is too old for any more of a review.
The Logitech software also included a Profiler that can launch your game software as well as send setup profiles. Profiles for your favorite PC games are also available as a download Zip file from the Logitech site.
So the bottom line is, the GT Force seems to be a Wingman Formula Force GP with blue hand grips instead of red, along with some Gran Turismo markings.
Ergonomics
The wheel has a place to put your left and right thumb, forcing your hands into the 10/2 position on the wheel. The middle fingers of each hand rest on the up and down shifting buttons. No matter how the wheel is turned, the two middle fingers on each hand are always on the shifters. The other 4 buttons can all be reached, naturally, with your thumbs, while your hands are in this position. If you are a slush bucket driver, now is the time to get into manual shifting for true control. This wheel makes it so easy with only a squeeze of the hand to shift. Your hands rest on the soft blue rubber portion of the wheel. The remainder is hard plastic.
The wheel attaches to a table only, with a left and right screw clamp. It will not work for the couch potato. A negative here is that the clamps are so close to the forward edge of the table that the wheel will dip downward a bit in use, as though it was on a tight spring. I hope nothing breaks over time. (What about road rage?) In comparison the Blue thunder has a leg that reaches much further under the table for stability. It also has a quick release.
The pedals are sturdy, but they did not stay in place on a floor with wall to wall carpeting. I solved this problem by attaching the hook and loop portion of Velcro to the bottom of the pedal base. It now stays put nicely.
(No charge for the suggestion, Logitech)
Apparently the limited supply (remember the PS2 saga) of wheels were a sell out at $100 with a free (yeah, sure!) active stereo speaker system with subwoofer. The week after the release of GT3, I happened to be away on vacation. When I returned, each store I tried had sold out. They did not expect more until some time in August. I almost missed out until a local Target happened to receive a few late shipment units. The wheel was to launch again on August 20th without the free speakers, but I have not seen any yet as of August 27th. It should cost at least $10 less. I wonder why free speakers seem to cost $10 or more?
Currently, GT3 may be the only game that works correctly with the GT Force wheel on the PS2. Yes, there are 3 others listed on the side of the GT Force box that claim to work. Those games came out before the wheel was released.
I have Nascar Heat 2002 which will let you use the wheel to drive but you can not control the game or menus with it. A standard controller must be installed at the same time or the game will not even come up. Forces on the wheel are not correct. It initially has force as you turn off center but then is goes loose. If not held tightly, the wheel will oscillate back and forth. I prefer my Interact Blue Thunder over the GT Force on this one.
I also have Tokyo Extreme Racer Zero which allows driving and game control, but there is no force on the wheel making it wimpy, unnatural and too easy to turn. The wheel must be connected to the lower USB port, just the opposite of GT3 but don’t look for the booklet to let you know.
I expect games that are released in the future, designed for the wheel, will work correctly as it does on GT3. Making things more difficult is the fact that there are no markings on the rear of the game cases of GT3, Nascar 2002 or Tokyo that indicate compatibility with the GT Force wheel.
As expected, more games have been released that do work just as well as GT3 with the wheel. Nascar Thunder 2002 works great with good feel. It has no wheel calibration, but seems to be fine without it. F1 2001 by EA works equally as well, and does have full wheel calibration. In fact, I also tried the 989 Formula One 2001, which has no calibration, but returned it because EA's version worked so much better with the wheel. With a $100 investment in a force wheel, I had to go with the game the works the best with it. Once again, none of these games have any marking on the box to let you know that they are Logitech Wheel compatible.
All of the features of the GT Force wheel are at the mercy of the controlling game software. If the software house does a bad job, the wheel will work like crap.
The Interact wheel is independently programmable with an on board microprocessor. It will not be put out to pasture because it mimics a standard game controller and can be used with any appropriate PS2 or PS1 game. Both wheels are 10 inches in diameter but the GT Force has a much smaller desk footprint.
User Guide
For your reading enjoyment it comes in 3 languages so that it can be 3 pages instead of one. Mostly pictorial, it covers the high tech aspects of this wheel like, how to turn the knob on the clamp and how to not swallow the plastic clamp extensions. Ironically, it demonstrates how to plug it into the wrong USB slot for playing GT3. And of course, the suggestion to take a nap after each hour of play. Warranty is 1 year. Save the receipt, that clamp could let go in the heat of battle.
My real bottom line
Many will say that this wheel cost too much. But if you compare it to the price of "Force" wheels built for PCs in the past, this one is less expensive. The price should drop on the next release. And now we know that it can be used on a PC too. If you are into racing games and can afford it, go for it. This matched set is a combination of one of the best driving simulation games with the first TRUE force feedback racing system for a game console. You'll love it. I do.
Now, what do I do with yet another subwoofer speaker system?
Epilog - No need to read beyond this line
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Congratulations on finding reviews on the "Logitech GT Force for Gran Turismo". You have passed the test. You must have used a search engine external to this site.
This site has carefully hidden the product under "Computer Hardware / Input Devices" so that you will have maximum difficulty finding it, so that you may make a wise and informed buying decision.
Strategically, this Playstation 2 accessory is not listed anywhere under Playstation 2 accessories.
Knowing that you might try to use the site search engine, keywords such as "Logitech Wheel", will not locate the product. You WILL find a Wheel Mouse though and two Logitech wheels, but not this one. "PC Game Controllers" Wrong again. "Racing Wheel game controllers" will bring up dozens of wheels, but not this one.
Seems strange to me and I'd let them know, but a means to do so is not provided. Thank you for reading my review on the product that almost didn't exist.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Yarborough
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Member: Herb Yarborough
Location: Coventry, Rhode Island, USA
Reviews written: 16
Trusted by: 37 members
About Me:
Hey! Where did all the Fun go? :(
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