Thrustmaster T500 RS preview

lunarwolf

lunarwolf

lunarwolf

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nice preview by SRT. that thing is big. can't say i love the no leather on wheel, don't like those rubber coatings.

interesting it is put in same sentence as frexx rather than fanatec/logitech.

i like what they did to pedals, easily inverted if you prefer and that brake mod looks easy to put in

shame about the lack of ff on other games, surely they must patch this

doubt i will cancel my gt2/csp pre-order for this though
 
The wheel does look well made!

I don't like the pedals, the very upright nature in Rally mode does look uncomfortable, and they don't look as well designed/engineered as the CSP's that have a loadcell brake with vibration motor as standard, but still, not too bad..

The Wheel looks well made, but I think the Fanatec GT2 with it's configurabiliy, cross platform and still belt driven mechanics probably is still better all-round, but the metal construction of the T500 RS is nice, and possibly might prompt Fanatec to go down this route one day..
 
lunarwolf said:

nice preview by SRT. that thing is big. can't say i love the no leather on wheel, don't like those rubber coatings.

interesting it is put in same sentence as frexx rather than fanatec/logitech.

i like what they did to pedals, easily inverted if you prefer and that brake mod looks easy to put in

shame about the lack of ff on other games, surely they must patch this

doubt i will cancel my gt2/csp pre-order for this though
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Happily awaiting for me CS GT2 to arrive :), least I can use that on the PS3 & 360.

Lunarwolf you heard when they'll actually start shipping the CS edition GT2's?
 
lunarwolf said:
i sent email to fanatec and answer was early jan, nothing more specific

seems some have ordered pieces seperately and gotten delivery, unfortunately i ordered package on dec 14th, and still waiting for an update on shipping

been keeping an eye on this thread, hopefully we in Uk will get sooner than later
http://forums.fanatecwheel.com/index.php/topic,124.0.html
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Fingers crossed I can't wait, been waiting for this before I play GT5 properly.

This T500 RS doesn't look to bad, just seems bit over priced.
 
JoeBoi said:
This T500 RS doesn't look to bad, just seems bit over priced.
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hehe they're all overpriced toys imo. but at least fanatec is the only wheel if you have pc, 360 and ps3 so was a no brainer in my case. looks good too; which is always a plus in my book
 
cancelled GT2 CS order will get the Thrustmaster when available, pre-ordered for end of month. last place i pre-orderd the T500 sent an email saying that they hadn't received stock yet, was hoping to get it today :(
 
lunarwolf said:
cancelled GT2 CS order will get the Thrustmaster when available, pre-ordered for end of month. last place i pre-orderd the T500 sent an email saying that they hadn't received stock yet, was hoping to get it today :(
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Why did you cancel the GT2 in preference to the T500?? Isn't the T500 a 1 game wheel at the moment with no support from anything other than GT5 and only works on the PS3?
 
lunarwolf said:
cancelled GT2 CS order will get the Thrustmaster when available, pre-ordered for end of month. last place i pre-orderd the T500 sent an email saying that they hadn't received stock yet, was hoping to get it today :(
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I'm gonna wait for my GT2 bit gutted with all the delays ect. Has the T500 had a proper review yet lunar?
 
Fanatec had simliar problems with the PWTS but have you seen the top post on the 911wheel.de blog? PWTS with CS Pedals can be had from a supplier in the UK NOW for £367, if I hadn't been bought the GT2 wheel I'd have kept my PWTS very happily.
 
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J1nxy said:
Why did you cancel the GT2 in preference to the T500?? Isn't the T500 a 1 game wheel at the moment with no support from anything other than GT5 and only works on the PS3?
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true it doesn't have support yet, but they will. They announced they will get PC drivers and working with EA and Codemsaters for full support. Thrustmaster is owned by Guillemot (owners/founder of Ubisoft) so not a one man army and know the video games business/contacts. also Thrustmaster can make quality stuff, remember their amazing HOTAS flight Sim controllers?

I believe that once reviews are out, that it will be a better wheel than Fanatec and Logitech. Initial owners seem to agree, and Darrin from Insidesimrracing (who knows a thing or two about wheels) seemed pretty stoked, in fact he said it reminded him of Frex and ECCI, top sim wheels worth well over £1000. This wheel use Halleffect for FFB, the FFB is supposed to second to none when it comes to GT5 and really give another level to GT5. (obviously turn off driving aids, otherwise may as well use a DFGT)

Also this wheel was developped with mod community in mind. ie wheel is fully detacheable etc... am sure we will see mods to improve the pedals, Perfect pedal on Logitech is hydraulic so like a car and superior to load cells according to the experts - i will buy that argurment. there is no reason that the CSP may be compatible with the T500 in the near future, they are with the G25/27

It doesn't look as pretty as the GT2, doesn't have the cross platform compatibility and the Porsche logo, The wheel itself isn't superior in performance to the G27 in reality (except dead zone in GT5 - I have read credible owners of both say Fanatec and others say Logitech - so fairly subjective and not clear cut), the true benefit of Fanatec is the Clubsport pedals. but I think Fanatec customer service is appalling, and they aren't imune to issues. only 6 people work at Fanatec, so there is no way they can handle everything imo (new product dev, support, firmwares, communications, production, shipping, sales, growing the business, etc...) they say they will make improvements, but they have said this in the past and it's groundhog day all over again - they continually make promises they don't keep - i guess the fan boys still worship, but i think they're having a laugh for the price you are charged.

also simple things like driver support for 64bit OS still don't work properly :eek: that is a pretty huge oversight imo in this day and age. personally i do not care about a porsche logo and on the fly adjustability - which truth be told is kind of useless once you set up your wheel to your liking - let's be honest, I don't see myself changing settings mid race. the only downside as far as i am concerned is no Xbox compatibility, but a new xbox will be around sooner than later. it's been out since 2005, i wouldn't be surprised if we saw new one by xmas 2012 (3d blah blah). imo xbox compatibility is just a temp argument, and i don't really play xbox anymore. probably even less now that mass effect is going multi platform, in reality i will only miss out on Forza 4, since all other decent racing games are cross platform. a sacrifice i am willing to make

here is the first review so far http://translate.google.fr/translate...rt-2812-1.html

i am sure other reviews will be similar, then everyone will realize that this is another level and will all want one or whine about the price ;)

anyway verdict is still not out, but i'll take my chances
 
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I do know thrustmaster very well having owned their stick and throttle system and having owned a couple of their wheels. It just that they have been in the lower end of the market for a fair while recently.

I'm not surprised it works well with GT5 for FFB its the official wheel and they seem to have avoided writing much for any other wheel. Thou it does work when configured properly on the Fanatec and gives pretty reasonable feedback.

I've had no issues with Fanatec on the couple of times I've been in contact and what issue with the 64bit driver? I've been running that for over 12 months with the latest update used in iRacing, GTR, Race, Rfactor and NetKar Pro.

Can you post the original link for the review? as that link has been messed up.
 
true that thrustamaster in recent years decided to make cheap products for cheap prices, but they have decided to come back to their 90s roots of quality, which imo is a good move. this looks like a promising start

quite a few people, even the guys from Insidesimracing, seem to have trouble with win7 64bit/ vista 64bit and fanatec drivers, personally I cannot say what is exact issue since i don't have the wheel/CSP pedals - maybe i am wrong, but i have seen this reported on a number of forums by different people. at least Fanatec have pc drivers which can't be said for T500RS as of yet ;)

maybe you haven't had any issues with Fanatec, I have first hand (i am not gonna go into details since there is a huge thread on it allready) as well as many many others, emails not responded too, lack of support, etc... there are so many it's actually quite sad, esp since they only sell a few thousand wheels a year - their annual turnover is €1.3m

I don't doubt the quality of the fanatec wheel, why i originally ordered it, but people who are lucky enough to have had both wheels seem to say this T500 wheel is better, and i haven't heard a single person say otherwise so far - except those that haven't tried it. couple that fact with crappy service, so to me i't a no brainer which i choose

anyway here is the link for the review in french , (tried to link with google translate but guess it didnt work) http://www.erenumerique.fr/thrustma...gle.fr&usg=ALkJrhjpPlU5Rh8In2QGUvU19ShH32JD5g

PS ofc you are completely entitled to disagree with me, i am no expert :) - I don't play iracing, (just not my thing: too few cars, gfx seem average and monthly sub, but they do have many good tracks) I like F1 and GT5 so the T500 ticks my boxes
 
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lunarwolf said:
true that thrustamaster in recent years decided to make cheap products for cheap prices, but they have decided to come back to their 90s roots of quality, which imo is a good move. this looks like a promising start

quite a few people, even the guys from Insidesimracing, seem to have trouble with win7 64bit/ vista 64bit and fanatec drivers, personally I cannot say what is exact issue since i don't have the wheel/CSP pedals - maybe i am wrong, but i have seen this reported on a number of forums by different people. at least Fanatec have pc drivers which can't be said for T500RS as of yet ;)

maybe you haven't had any issues with Fanatec, I have first hand (i am not gonna go into details since there is a huge thread on it allready) as well as many many others, emails not responded too, lack of support, etc... there are so many it's actually quite sad, esp since they only sell a few thousand wheels a year - their annual turnover is €1.3m

I don't doubt the quality of the fanatec wheel, why i originally ordered it, but people who are lucky enough to have had both wheels seem to say this T500 wheel is better, and i haven't heard a single person say otherwise so far - except those that haven't tried it. couple that fact with crappy service, so to me i't a no brainer which i choose

anyway here is the link for the review in french , (tried to link with google translate but guess it didnt work) http://www.erenumerique.fr/thrustma...gle.fr&usg=ALkJrhjpPlU5Rh8In2QGUvU19ShH32JD5g

PS ofc you are completely entitled to disagree with me, i am no expert :) - I don't play iracing, (just not my thing: too few cars, gfx seem average and monthly sub, but they do have many good tracks) I like F1 and GT5 so the T500 ticks my boxes
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Fair enough, I think you've blown the whole complaints thing a little out of proportion, there have been a few people complain about the delivery which they have admittedly made mistakes with. I was lucky I guess but I did order just the wheel on the day it was released and wasn't expecting it until January but was surprised when it arrived in December.

Given they sold 10,000 PWTS and god knows how many CSP, GT3RS and other bits and pieces is not bad going for a small company...and why aren't you jumping up and down so vehemently given that Thrustmaster and Amazon have done something simliar to you with the delivery of the t500RS?

The 64bit complaints stem from from the initial lack of firmware tool for 64bit which was remedied a fair while ago, not seen anything about driver issues as such and certainly haven't experienced any.

I'll probably give the T500 RS a try when it appears over here dependant on some proper reviews appearing from reputable places as it does look interesting and I can get it for around £380 delivered so might take a punt on it. Does seem a little odd thou that they release the wheel with no shifters so its only supported game can't use the clutch and that they have not developed drivers for the PC yet and have not indicated when they might appear.
 
I said in the other thread i would love a go on the Thrustmaster, it looks amazing from the wheel point of view - not convinced on the pedals and the lack of a shifter is pretty poor.

I have a GT2 and its much better than a G25/7 wheel, much better FFB, belt drive is smoother and quieter and you always have a slight notchiness to the logi wheels IMO and all the onboard adjustment puts it leagues ahead esp in games like GT5 were they have limited how much you can setup the wheel.

I thought long and hard about shelling out for a GT2 and the cross platform compatibility really swung it for me, having said that i havent touched forza in a while...

Mind i think the size of the Thrustmaster would be an issue for me, it is a very big wheel and pedal set and as i dont have a dedicated setup mine has to go away after each session - if i had a dedicated seat and rig i think i would be getting one :o
 
J1nxy said:
and why aren't you jumping up and down so vehemently given that Thrustmaster and Amazon have done something simliar to you with the delivery of the t500RS?
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hmmm maybe because they never lied to me and don't charge me until they ship the order. You think I blow it out of proportions, lol, well tons of customers who pre-ordered are angry as well. only a couple, like you defend them, because they were fortunate receiving their stuff in december. good for you, but please don't be dismissive of other peoples legitimate gripes

I have been told so many different stories from fanatec that i just don't trust what they say. the whole delivery was a debacle, daily lies and now delivery is end feb at best (chinese new year's in feb isn't going to help). I hope you're not seriously trying to convince me that Fanatec offers quality service? for your sake i hope you never have an issue w/ your kit, because then we may hear you sing a totally different tune

you're not bringing anything to the discussion about the T500RS other than flag waving about Fanatec, just because I had the audacity to cancel my Fanatec GT2 order :rolleyes: in favour of the Thrustmaster

anyway could we keep this discussion on topic
 
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