Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel

This is the second Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel I have purchased. I enjoyed the first one so much I needed to get this for my wife. We use them for Forza 3. We race online with 5 other friends and family members.Positives:*The "force feedback" provides a feel reasonably similar to the tension on a steering wheel in a real car.*The pedals provide a more accurate way to adjust speed (other than stop and full) than using the trigger on standard controller.*The wheel provides far smoother control of the car than a standard controller. (one of our friends uses a standard controller and we can all visably see him making jerky adjustments compared to ours = big advantage).*The surface of the wheel is comfortable to grip, even during long races.*Our first Wheel is over a year old now and has stood up to a lot of use without breaking. It is a piece of electronic equipment so I don't suggest physically abusing it, but it has been sturdy for me.Negatives:*While it is not as big as a real steering wheel, it is still quite big and you need to have room to store it.*On occassion during a race, the software will screw up and the wheel will automatically stick in a turn one way or another. You can finish the race, but you have to fight the wheel and over correct, it will reset immediately after the race is over no need to do anything technical to fix it. This is very rare, maybe 1 race out of 100, but annoying when it occurs.*Need a stand to put it on. A standard TV dinner stand will work perfectly, it has a clamp that won't damage furniture that will hold it securely. It is also designed to be used on your lap: don't bother it is not comfortable and won't be the proper distance from your shoulders to make holding the wheel comfortable.Need to know:*To use the force feedback you must plug the controller into a wall jack for power. The power cord is sufficient in length for most situations. You can use batteries instead, but force feedback will not be available, and that is pointless.If you are going to race on an Xbox 360, I suggest you track one of these down. Unfortunately they are out of production, but they are the best controller for racing.*This review is biased by one factor: our group is all 30+ years old. We have many years experience in driving real cars. Because of that the wheel is intuitive for us. If you are not of driving age yet and have been using a standard controller for years, then it may not be as intuitive as a standard controller might be for you.

Reviewer background-Mid-20s grad student with quite a range of gaming experience (consoles and computer games, I play racing, fps, and RTS games). I bought a used wheel to see if racing games would become more realistic/enjoyable and I didn't have super high expectations. Just started playing Forza 3 and Project Gotham Racing 4 on the Xbox 360.Pros-Easy to setupWireless connection to Xbox 360Force feedback helps quite a bit with driving ability after some practice, feels awesome, and makes Forza 3 so much more enjoyable and rewardingBrake and acceleration pedal provide some resistance which somewhat simulate real pedalsCons-I've heard that the force feedback can break within a couple months and that the calibration can get messed up... I don't know if this is true yet or not, but I will update my review if my wheel breaks or has issues. As of now, it works just fine.Suggestions for using the wheel-1. In Forza 3, you can adjust the force feedback in the advanced controller options. Mine is currently set at 35% of max, this allows just enough force feedback that I can feel when the tires lose traction around turns or when they gain grip after hard acceleration. Force feedback at 100% was detrimental to my driving ability, since it prevented me from making sharp turns quickly enough. Also, I adjusted the inside turning deadzone to about 5% (originally 0-2%) to prevent my car from swerving on straight aways due to minor turning adjustments and the outside turning deadzone to 80% (orig 100%) to assist in making sharp turns without having to turn the wheel 90 degrees left or right.Basically, make sure to play around with the settings to see what works best for you.2. In Project Gotham Racing 4, I couldn't find any advanced options for adjusting the force feedback or deadzones. So far, I haven't enjoyed using the wheel for this game. Perhaps the game isn't realistic enough or maybe its because I don't like force feedback at 100%, either way, just realize that the wheel performs differently between games. So read up before you buy the wheel based on what racing game you have or will be using and see if it is necessary to play around with the sensitivity/controller.3. When you first use the wheel, start with a slow car and work your way up. You will hate your wheel and think its useless if you jump in a supercar and expect everything to go flawlessly the first time.Need to know before you purchase-1. Force feedback only works with the AC adapter plugged into the wheel. The official AC adapter has 24V, 1 amp output; however my wheel didn't come with an AC adapter so I have been using a 12V, 1.5 amp output adapter which works just fine.2. If you use the AA battery pack, you don't get vibration of force feedback. I found driving very difficult without any vibration or force feedback, I didn't know when I was losing traction, if the car was swaying or not, or if my counter steering was correcting enough.3. Not all sellers include the AC adapter, read the item description to see if you will need to purchase one.Final thoughts-->I would purchase this wheel again for $70 but I am not sure if its worth $125-150. The value kind of depends on the long term durability of the product, which I cannot comment on, and how much you want vibration and force feedback. For $70, it has enhanced my racing/gaming experience tremendously. It is now addicting to play Forza 3 with the racing wheel. I like the solid feel of the wheel and pedals, and I don't feel like either of them will break anytime soon due to daily use.

This is the first time I have had a problem with any product I have ordered from Amazon. This is obviously NOT Amazon's fault, however. The install disc was not included in the packaging from Microsoft. The rest of the unit is in perfect condition, but is not usable because my system cannot recognize it. I have spoken with customer service for Xbox and there apparently is no way of downloading the software. If anyone has a fix, let me know. I will update my rating once I have been able to use the controller.