Are steering wheels fun?

The_Arbiter

The_Arbiter

The_Arbiter

Soldato
Joined
2 Jul 2019
Posts
2,637
I haven't played racing games since PS1, and that's the style of game i'm looking at too. Are there racing games about, sim/rally/chase/whatever that have the same 90s style dance/dnb/electro of old? ..that can also be paired with a steering wheel and maybe pedals for fun? Console or PC.

But also are steering wheels actually fun and not gimmicky, i seem to recall in PS1 days they maybe were a bit turd? Haptic feedback, delay, feel, etc... i'm not looking for a sim standard, just arcade fun i guess.
 
I think Forza Horizon might be the sort of arcade feel you are looking for. As for wheels i bought a half decent one a few years back was half decent thrustmaster. I found i was quicker with a controller so i sold it.
 
The arcade type games are generally better with a controller as there isnt much FFB support or it isnt a priority given its not a complex physics model.

When it comes to sim type games though the steering wheels have come on staggering amounts with the advent of low cost DD wheels now, the level of immersion is excellent now.
 
wheels are amazing. mine is proper old hat now and probably rubbish by today's standards (fanatic Porsche gt2 with clubs port pedals) but I would not be without it.

arcade wise they are less important however (this is on the Xbox so I admit I haven't played the pc versions on wheel) but I had a LOT of fun with sega rally revo I think it was called as well as need for speed hot pursuit with my wheel.

I have a feeling the pc version of NEed for speed HP didn't have great wheel support but I would hope the remaster does (but not tried)
 
bigmike20vt said:
wheels are amazing. mine is proper old hat now and probably rubbish by today's standards (fanatic Porsche gt2 with clubs port pedals) but I would not be without it.

arcade wise they are less important however (this is on the Xbox so I admit I haven't played the pc versions on wheel) but I had a LOT of fun with sega rally revo I think it was called as well as need for speed hot pursuit with my wheel.

I have a feeling the pc version of NEed for speed HP didn't have great wheel support but I would hope the remaster does (but not tried)
Click to expand...

That's reassuring. NFS HP getting a remaster sounds great! Can you tell me about, or a good link, in regards to general wheel support with PC or console? Ideally i just want to plug and play to begin with, otherwise i'll end up not buying one as trying to boost my mood right now.
 
NFS HP has already had a remaster. it's probably about 3 years old now.

store.steampowered.com

Need for Speed™ Hot Pursuit Remastered on Steam

Feel the thrill of the chase and the rush of escape behind the wheels of the world’s hottest high-performance cars in Need for Speed™ Hot Pursuit Remastered– a heart-pumping, socially competitive racing experience.
store.steampowered.com store.steampowered.com

in truth it's not that much better than the older version on PC at least (which was already a lot nicer than the Xbox 360 one) however hopefully it supports a wheel where as the original pc version didn't. (god knows why as like I said the wheel support on console was superb)
 
Last edited:
I don't want to be a downer, but I don't get "arcade" racing games at all. It's not about "realism", it's about the depth of the gameplay. It's so much more involved, and thus satisfying, to pull a fast lap out of iracing or lmu or whatever, than it is to just hold the gas in mariokart and just whip around. I'd never get a wheel to play like uhh, the arcade forza from a few years back? But gran turismo or even the simcade forza would be worth it, if you enjoyed them.

But yea, if you're looking to just play some arcade racing, it's not worth the wheel. They aren't cheap exactly. Nothing is these days.

But for sims...

Until you feel a direct drive wheel, you have no idea how fun it is and how impressive things are nowadays in the simworld.

I have a quest 3, a full steel frame with a leather seat from some hyundai that I got from the autowrecker, a 11 NM DD wheel and loadcell brakes, and it's still mind boggling to me that whenever I feel like it, I can go race cars. They might not get each car exactly right, and you have to rely a bit more on visual cues and the steering wheel than an IRL racer would since they can feel in their body when the car slips, but all the simracers who also race IRL say that the big sims more or less get it right, albeit with their own little metas to getting the best times.

Now with that said, lots of people spend lots of money building a rig assuming they are gonna love it, and then it just collects dust.

I started off with the generic logitech belt and gear wheel, the G29? for like 300 bucks, attached to my desk - I was curious, and didn't know if I'd enjoy it or not. After a few months, as I started to be able to get within like 7-8 seconds of pace, I knew I liked it enough to get better stuff. And switching from a 3NM belt wheel to a 11 NM direct drive one is one of the biggest hardware upgrades I've ever had, it was just night and day, like switching from a 1060 to a 4090.

Racing sims are a pretty unique experience, honestly, you get to experience a lot of what a real racer does. The nervousness at the start, the elation of finishing in the top 5 or 6 of a 30 car grid, the relief of surviving the race. I love that feeling, being in like 2nd, with 2 laps left, with the first place guy a few turns ahead, and the 3rd place guy a few turns behind, so you just get to enjoy those last few laps as a couple of victory laps. Or the raretime you get to win (I'm only ~2000 irating, I'm bad, but just high enough that there's always a couple of people with real pace per race) or even rarer, you disappear off into the horizon as the endboss of the race, never to be seen again.
 
to each their own, not all games are for all people.

I have no idea of your age but it probably doesnt matter as there have been arcade racing games you will of heard of throughout your life

be it pole position outrun, super monaco GP, rad mobile, power drift, virtua racing, sega rally, daytona usa, ridge racer, outrun reboot..... the list goes on through every gaming era and every single one of them is far far better playing on a wheel than on a joystick or worse still KB/M.... (i doubt many people would pay money to have played them on a stick in the arcade)

of course if you do not get arcade racers that is fine.... i know a lot of people who do not get sim racing as well... personally i like a bit of both. The skill is different for sure but nailing a corner or getting a perfect lap in ridge racer is just as satisfying to me as nailing on in Assetto corsa (I spent many hrs beating the final black car in Ridge racer on the PS1 back in the day, you had to do 2 pretty much perfect laps and the satisfaction when i did it was as good as anything i have done racing wise in gaming - and that was on a digital gamepad - i would have loved a wheel back then!).

I do agree most arcade racers are at least enjoyable on a pad so a wheel is optional (i cant always be bothered digging out the wheel) in a way that sim racers tend not to be, that said, some do play even sim racers - to a point - on a gamepad.
 
Last edited:
Funnily enough, I found a wheel to be counter-productive in the old arcade style racing games. Used to love NFS Hot Pursuit 2 back in the day. I tried it with a FFB MS Wheel and it was rubbish - because the physics were built for fun, not realism, I was constantly fighting the wheel, and the experience was terrible. Swapped back to my MS Sidewinder FFB Pro joystick and it was amazing. The Feedback meant you could feel the acceleration through the stick (a hugely underrated immersion tool imo), and they even coded in the feel of the road surface, so when you went from cobbles to road you felt it, likewise, transitioning to snow and the stick went limp and loose! I will never forgive the patent trolls who destroyed the original feedback implimentation! :mad:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom