I had a bit of money burning a hole in my pocket so my son & I took a trip to GameStop. I’ve wanted to buy the new Formula One racing game but I’ve never been very impressed with the Xbox 360 controller when it comes to driving games. Then I found the Xbox 360 Wireless Speed Wheel and everything changed.
I checked out a few reviews online and found a lot of positive comments on the performance of the Speed Wheel. It’s not cheap ($59) but it’s a lot less expensive than the wheel/peddle setups that cost several hundred dollars.
The Speed Wheel has a nice design and all the necessary functions are where you would expect them to be. It’s missing the 2 shoulder buttons found on the Xbox 360 controller but I have yet to find a game that needs them. The triggers are a lot larger than on the regular controller and they allow a very precise application of the accelerator and brakes.
Since the Speed Wheel is wireless it relies on you holding it in front of you while you use it. On long racing sessions this can get a little tiring. As far as performance goes, this thing is very accurate and steering inputs are immediate with no perceived lag. In fact, if you are using the in-game camera view that shows the steering wheel it mimics your movements exactly in real-time.
Unfortunately the Speed Wheel does not measure forward and backward motion which would make it a great controller for flight simulators. It’s only purpose is for driving games and it works very well for that purpose. If you’ve been as frustrated as I’ve been with the regular Xbox controller you should definitely check it out.