I'VE GOT THE FANATEC WHEEL - SECOND OPINION!!!
Hi guys, The Fanatec Porsche Wheel arrived today to Beta test on my door-steps. First I thought I should use the other thread to share my thoughts about the Porsche wheel but some info might get lost, so here I go...
I only testet the wheel for a few hours on Forza3 demo and Forza2.
To start with, this is a very luxury package The Porsche Fanatec Wheel, when you open it you really feel special, like you just bought a Porsche for real...they even send a screwdriver in the package
On top of the package it says: "Take a deep breath"..., next "Relax", after that "Not yet..." and "Go Go Go". This kind of gets you really in the mood for racing
The package weight is 10kg, pretty heavy and everything feels solid!
Next stop, hook it up...it took me about 10minutes, I had to work with the shifter to mount it on the side of the Playseat, otherwise it would take propably 3 minutes.
The Pedals: They are on par with G25 (I do own a G25 which I will be selling now), the Clutch has a good stiffnes(strength), the Break is much stiffer as it should be, the gas is a bit too light for my taste but it gets the job done well. The quality feels good. You don't have the option to change the pedals, make them stiffer or lighter.
On testing the pedals on both Forza3 demo and Forza2...the pedals are not combined which means you can't use heel-toe. Either you break or gas maybe there will be a setup for this on Forza3, let's hope so
The Wheel: The wheel is BIG, when you race you almost feel like you are driving a real car. I really really like it. You have almost all the buttons of the controller on the wheel and you got some options to change your driving settings on the fly directly from the wheel.
1) You got 5 setups you can save...5 different games or 5 different setups example: 1 for Racing, 1 for Drag and 1 for Drifting, very good feature.
2) Sensitivity, 210-270-540 and 900...on the fly, even when you are in a race, you can change it...no problem
3) FFB, you can change the FFB strength both in the game and on the wheel 33%, 66% and 100%.
4) Shock sensitivity, this is the strength of the rumble in the wheel.
The Shifter: This one was the biggest surprise. On the pictures it didn't look nice but they are! Unlike G25 shifter you actually have to use FORCE to change gear (Thanks Fanatec, very much appreciated )
It works like a dream and when you mount it, it is very solid.
FFB in game: One word, Awesome! I allways felt that the MS wheel was to light but the Fanatec wheels FFB strength is an ANIMAL
It is very strong at the same time it is very smooth...you really feel the weight of the car in Forza3 demo, you feel if the car slides, back-front, the friction, everything. It works great with Forza2 and Perfect with Forza3 demo.
It works very very good on Forza2, but there is something speciall when you drive Forza3 demo with this wheel. You don't know what you are missing until you use this wheel!
I used the Clutch on Forza3 demo and I got 1,5 second faster time with the Porsche wheel on my third lap, the clutch and the shifter works perfect. You even have neutral support on the shifter...in case you want to save some gas when you're racing downhill on Fujimi
There is no delay in Forza3 demo!!! On some of the E3 videos I saw some delays between the actual racer and in the game movement but that's all history, no delay
Offcourse, everything isn't perfect with the Fanatec!
1) The Shifter pads behind the wheel are too small for my hands. They work fine, just gotta find them so I can shift
2) The price...even though I think it is worth every penny, a wheel at 330 euros can be a bit too high for some.
Tomorrow is a new day and I will test the wheel further with Forza3, Forza2 and some other games
All in all, I was very surprised that the Fanatec wheel works this damn good....esspecially the FFB, I love it
!
