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PlayStation.com Forums :
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Driving Force Pro review
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Driving Force Pro review
[ Edited ]
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Spec Op
Posts: 8241
Registered: 09-02-2000
Message 1 of 12
Viewed 6,588 times
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When a controller peripheral has an MSRP that's the same as the system it's used for, it had better darn well be worth it, and I'd want to know if it is before buying it. Well, I'm telling you now that Logitech's new Driving Force Pro steering wheel was definately worth it to me (though I got it for $115 on Amazon, $35 off of the MSRP). This peripheral might not be for everyone though. If you just have a couple of racing games in your collection and aren't a serious racing fan, you won't really appreciate having an expensive steering wheel controller. But people like me who really enjoy racing games will find a lot of worth in this Pro wheel. Unfortunately, the only game that can really use this controller to its full potential hasn't been released yet, but more on that later.
Before you buy a steering wheel such as this, you need to make sure you have a good place to set it up, and a good stand to mount it on. While it's generally best to have a $300 setup complete with steel frame and racing seat, that's a tad expensive. I personally discovered that a TV tray does the trick acceptably, although I could definately stand to have something sturdier, like a kitchen table. But a kitchen table isn't easily set up in my living room (and it would be a chore to move it back and forth), so I live with the TV tray. Not that a TV tray is a bad wheel mount, it's just that it sometimes actually moves around during more agressive maneuvers. It's tolerable though, so if you have a good TV tray, it will work as a wheel mount. The clamps on the wheel are very versatile, so you can mount it on just about anything. Oh, and don't worry about the pedals. The pedal assembly has both rubber shoes and a retractable "Carpet Claw," so it's not going anyplace much no matter what surface it's on. The other consideration for your set up is cables. It needs to be within reach of the PS2's USB port, AND a power outlet with enough room for an AC adapter.
Once you have it set up, you'll want to try it with one of your games. Ideally, that game would be Gran Turismo 4, but unless you've imported Prologue, that's out of the question for now. (Before you jump into the game, make sure you're familiar with the buttom scheme for the wheel, as it is different than the controller scheme.) In my collection, I found that the best use of the wheel (besides GT4) came from Burnout 2 and Gran Turismo 3. I wasn't able to test the wheel with Need for Speed Underground, but if it's anything like Hot Pursuit 2, it doesn't make good use of force feedback. I found the force feedback effects to be very weak in Hot Pursuit 2. Even on the 100% feedback setting, it went lock to lock with little effort at all, and barely gives any feedback at all. It's still quite fun to play the game with the wheel, but the feedback effects could have been done much better.
Burnout 2, on the other hand, has some truly outstanding feedback effects. Driving on dirt vibrates the wheel, it gives feedback for hitting stuff, crashing, and firing a boost, and it has a good amount of resistance when steering, which even goes slack when getting air, as it should. And the feedback effect for drifting is excellent: The wheel naturally has a tendency to counter steer the drift, so when it's time to come out, you can let your hands follow the wheel. It's a truly amazing effect, and doesn't feel contrived at all. However, for some reason the wheel doesn't do its auto calibration properly for this game, and starts out off-center by about 10 degrees. Fortunately, it corrects itself after a few rounds, but a manual recalibration option in the game would have been nice.
Similarly awesome is Gran Turismo 3. It has similar effects to Burnout 2, but where GT3 stands out is the dirt races. In a GT3 rally race, you feel every little bump on the track, and you almost have to have a death grip on the wheel to keep control. You're fighting the wheel around every turn, and it's a truly fabulous experience. There is one minor problem though, and that is you'll have to reassign a few buttons to use the paddle shifters properly. This is simply a problem of the Pro wheel having different paddle-button equivalents than the older GT Force wheel, and is easily fixed (I don't think any other games I tried had this problem). As an aside, replays look subtly better since the car's wheels are making smoother turns.
On the other side of things, I didn't like Midnight Club 2's feedback effects so much. They're nice and strong, but so violent that it's hard to control the car. It's truly hard to drive in a straight line, and you can't be nearly as precise as you need to be in the game. Dodging traffic and other obstacles is a chore, and you're better off playing with a DualShock. It's also hard to use weight transfer with the wheel.
Now we come to Gran Turismo 4 (Prologue). This is the game the Pro wheel was designed for. This is where the Pro wheel truly shines. This is also, ironically, where the few inherent problems with the wheel are exposed. This is the only game that can properly use the 900 degrees of rotation, and the only game that can properly use the sequential stick shifter (or at least, use it at the same time as the paddles). (FYI, the sequential stick shifter is basically a lever to the side of the wheel that you click up or down to shift.) So first of all, lets talk about how the 900 degree steering works. Unlike other games where wheel rotation basically imitates input from the DualShock controller, wheel rotation in Gran Turismo 4 is completely different. It really, truly works like a real car. If you turn the wheel all the way, the wheels of the car in the game turn all the way, no matter what speed you're going, whereas the DualShock steering can only move the car's wheels a certain amount depending to how fast you're going. This means that you have to go hand-over-hand around hairpins, and you have to be careful with how much you steer at speed. Steer too much, and you lose traction. Steer to little, and you're not getting enough out of the car. It's a whole new level of realism, and provides a videogame driving experience like no other. There are a few problems with this though. Primarily, the wheel's small radius doesn't quite do the full rotation justice. The Driving Force Pro's steering wheel is about half the size of a normal car's steering wheel, and it makes 900 degree steering feel a bit awkward at first. It is possible to modify the DFP to have a full sized steering wheel, but it takes a bit of doing. Using 900 degree steering also makes it awkward to turn yourself around using reverse, as you have to press the triangle button and turn the wheel all the way around at the same time. You can bind reverse to the sequential stick, but the stick is almost essential for shifting in 900 degree mode since your hands are often all over the place, not on the paddles. A similar situation exists for the handbrake, if you're into drifting or doing spins. The feedback effects for GT4 are just as impressive if not moreso than GT3's, and dirt races are especially good. The trouble with dirt races in GT4 though is that it's extremely difficult to correct drifts. If your car starts oversteering in a turn, you've got to spin the wheel two full rotations to correct it, and that makes it very hard to do quick corrections. Thankfully, you can manually disengage 900 degree steering and go with 180 degrees on the dirt. This makes the feedback more violent, but not excessively so, and you can control the car much better. I was doing 3 minutes at Grand Canyon with 900 degrees, and then I got 2'35 with 180 (a good time is 2'28). 180 degrees does not affect how the steering works, just how far you have to go lock-to-lock, so a quarter turn will still put the car's wheels at full lock no matter the speed. This makes 180 degrees dangerous to use on tarmac tracks. But you know, I bet if I were using a sturdier mount that didn't move around so much under agressive maneuvers, 900 degree steering would probably be easier to use on dirt.
Using a Driving Force Pro won't magically make you a better driver. I've had it for almost a month and I still haven't matched my DualShock times. But it's definately a heckuva lot more fun than using a joypad. And I can't help thinking that using it with Prologue will improve my skills as a real racer for when I get an SCCA license. Having a Pro wheel is like having an arcade machine in your living room for each racing game you have, and it renews the experience for each one of them. And considering how many quarters you can dump into arcade machines without a second thought, this steering wheel is definately worth the price of admission. It's just too bad that the only game that fully supports all its features won't be out for another 6 months. If you're thinking about buying a wheel, buy this one, and then do yourself a favor by importing GT4 Prologue. Any other wheel you buy will be obselete when GT4 is out, and you'll regret having spent the money.
Final grade: 9/10Message Edited by Sven on 05-28-2004 02:25 PM
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Folding@Home nearly 24/7 since April 2007, over 2500 work units completed. What have you done to cure cancer recently?
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05-28-2004 12:32 PM
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Re: Driving Force Pro review
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Spec Op
Posts: 8241
Registered: 09-02-2000
Message 4 of 12
Viewed 6,560 times
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MIA Philly wrote:
i hope you got paid to write all of that.
haha, I wish.
MIA Philly wrote:
it seems as if (from your well thought out and detailed review) that the only game this is good for is gt4 because its so closely simulates a real (stearing) wheel.. well do you suggest that a person that only will have that one real racer and all others will be arcady (nsfu/mc2) style?
Oh, no, I simply mean that GT4 is the only game that can use this wheel to its full potential. The wheel is fabulous for other games as well, but for them it just works the same way as the old Driving Force, which is significantly cheaper.
MIA Philly wrote:
also with the wheel, does it make you let up off the gas before you shift like in real life, or is it just at the right rpm you change with no loss of acceleration?
You don't have to let up on the gas, the game does that for you. Weather you lose accelaration depends on if you're driving an SL55 AMG or not 
I have heard of Paris-Dakar Rally, but I've not played it.
MrGT, it's generally best to use 900 degree steering for anything on tarmac, including the "Coffee Break" cone tests.
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Folding@Home nearly 24/7 since April 2007, over 2500 work units completed. What have you done to cure cancer recently?
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05-28-2004 02:24 PM
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Re: Driving Force Pro review
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Master Ninja
Posts: 27506
Registered: 10-22-2003
Message 5 of 12
Viewed 6,552 times
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Sven wrote:
MIA Philly wrote:
i hope you got paid to write all of that.
haha, I wish.
MIA Philly wrote:
it seems as if (from your well thought out and detailed review) that the only game this is good for is gt4 because its so closely simulates a real (stearing) wheel.. well do you suggest that a person that only will have that one real racer and all others will be arcady (nsfu/mc2) style?
Oh, no, I simply mean that GT4 is the only game that can use this wheel to its full potential. The wheel is fabulous for other games as well, but for them it just works the same way as the old Driving Force, which is significantly cheaper.
MIA Philly wrote:
also with the wheel, does it make you let up off the gas before you shift like in real life, or is it just at the right rpm you change with no loss of acceleration?
You don't have to let up on the gas, the game does that for you. Weather you lose accelaration depends on if you're driving an SL55 AMG or not
I have heard of Paris-Dakar Rally, but I've not played it.
MrGT, it's generally best to use 900 degree steering for anything on tarmac, including the "Coffee Break" cone tests.
cool thanks for the review and the answers to my questions..
I'm here to help. If you have a question feel free to pm me. Idling on IRC is for noobs.  
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05-28-2004 03:03 PM
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Re: Driving Force Pro review
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Button Masher
Posts: 238
Registered: 10-13-2005
Message 6 of 12
Viewed 5,693 times
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I've found it next to impossible to get the rally times close to what I could do with the controller. Granted, its really close to being life-like, its really hard to stay consistant on gravel, and especially snow and ice. (maybe its because I'm from Texas and it rarely snows there, but that is entirely another story.)
Now as for driving on the tarmac in GT4, was a gratifying experience. It took myself about 2 weeks to get used to the Driving Force Pro, but after that, the total immersion of the wheel is just great compared to the dualshock controller. I thought it was way worth the money!
________________________________________________________________
Gran Turismo is incredible! I've been playing since GT2 came out on the Playstation.
You have not experienced GT4 without the Logitech wheel!
I've been a gamer since 1993! (I was 7, and I got my first game boy)
A recent study shows 92% of the teenage population likes rap music. If you are part of the 8% who listen to real music, put this as your sig.
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10-16-2005 04:35 PM
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Re: Driving Force Pro review
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Time Splitter
Posts: 1864
Registered: 03-15-2003
Message 7 of 12
Viewed 5,684 times
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tomauto wrote:
I've found it next to impossible to get the rally times close to what I could do with the controller. Granted, its really close to being life-like, its really hard to stay consistant on gravel, and especially snow and ice. (maybe its because I'm from Texas and it rarely snows there, but that is entirely another story.)
Now as for driving on the tarmac in GT4, was a gratifying experience. It took myself about 2 weeks to get used to the Driving Force Pro, but after that, the total immersion of the wheel is just great compared to the dualshock controller. I thought it was way worth the money!
Where in Texas? I live in East Texas, near Tyler. I agree that the DFP is the way to go. Best wheel out there, IMO. Welcome to the boards. 
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10-16-2005 06:30 PM
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Re: Driving Force Pro review
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Sniper
Posts: 3176
Registered: 01-19-2004
Message 8 of 12
Viewed 5,676 times
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tomauto wrote:
I've found it next to impossible to get the rally times close to what I could do with the controller. Granted, its really close to being life-like, its really hard to stay consistant on gravel, and especially snow and ice. (maybe its because I'm from Texas and it rarely snows there, but that is entirely another story.)
Now as for driving on the tarmac in GT4, was a gratifying experience. It took myself about 2 weeks to get used to the Driving Force Pro, but after that, the total immersion of the wheel is just great compared to the dualshock controller. I thought it was way worth the money!
I too have never driven on snow/ice and have done barely any driving on dirt at all. At first i thought rallying with the DFP impossible, but after a while i got the hang of it and now find it pretty easy really. So much of rally driving, for me anyway, is about feel. Feeling where the car is going through the feedback the wheel is giving you.
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10-17-2005 02:29 AM
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Re: Driving Force Pro review
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Time Splitter
Posts: 1758
Registered: 11-16-2004
Message 9 of 12
Viewed 5,656 times
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Where's your shovel? Must've taken forever to dig up a post as old as this. 
------------------------------------
PSN ID 1- futuresealsnipe
PSN ID 2- blue_solace
FFVIII>FFVII
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10-18-2005 08:47 AM
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Re: Driving Force Pro review
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Sniper
Posts: 3176
Registered: 01-19-2004
Message 10 of 12
Viewed 5,645 times
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Wasn't me, it was Tomauto
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10-18-2005 03:32 PM
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