Logitech Driving Force Pro and GT4

I promised a review, but this post is going to end up being an enthusiastic endorsement rather than a criticism. First of all, the wheel is completely useless without something solid to attach it to; in my case this means hanging 30 pounds of weights from the pivot joints of a wooden TV tray. I'm sure duct taping the TV tray to the floor would have worked as well, but the last time I duct taped something to the floor, it took the cat 3 months to grow the fur back.The wheel connects to the USB port of the Playstation 2. There isn't even a plug for the traditional Playstation 2 controller interface. The wheel also has an auxiliary power supply to keep the wheel twisting out of your hands while you car spins helplessly out of control. I wish the pedal base was heavier as it has a tendency to slide a bit. For a first timer, this means your first experience has you kicking the pedals slightly out of reach while the wheel picks up the legs of the TV tray it's attached to and firmly plants it on your foot. I can hereby say this was the best investment of videogaming hardware ever made, because it's just like being at the track. Your first time at the track will have you looking the wrong way down the track with a score of slightly overweight balding Miata owners laughing at your stupidity. Both seem to cause embarrassment; this just happens to have a smaller audience.

This wheel makes Gran Turismo 4 a completely different game. The wheel angle is completely in your hands with 900 degrees of rotation; this allows perfect apexing through the corners. There is also a great deal of pedal play allowing for minute linear adjustment of the throttle. I have to add that this doesn't necessarily make the game easier, because you will soon realize how much the computer was stepping in to save you, even with the assists turned off. After a few hours of lapping a familiar track, you soon realize you need to be correcting and stopping oversteer correction about 1/3 of a second before your instinct had been telling you to. Once you adjust to this you can start practicing lurid powerslides in a higher powered vehicle. There is one drawback to powersliding. This wheel turns 900 degrees. That means if you ever get into a slide, you've got about 200- 500 degrees of wheel motion to correct it. Once rotation has slowed, you then have to return the wheel to it's centered position. If you try the dirt tracks in the game, every corner turns into an arm workout only a Laotian masseuse can identify with. Once you can correct and maintain a power slide without whipping tail first into the dirt, every race has a happy ending.