Controllers

If you want to get the best out of the latest racing games you’ll either be looking at a wheel or a gamepad. As a rule of thumb, the more arcadey the game the more it needs a gamepad over a wheel. For example, Need For Speed: Underground 2 can be played to its full with a gamepad and is actually trickier with a wheel. On the other hand, GTR or Grand Prix Legends are near impossible with anything other than a wheel and set of pedals.

Most wheels will come with a separate set of pedals and if not, look elsewhere as you will really benefit from them. Pedals offer the chance for progressive acceleration and braking which is infinitely preferable to the digital on/off that a button on the wheel will give if you don’t get any pedals. Simulation racing games will have you spinning off all the time of you have the digital equivalent of a lead foot. Similarly, braking is much more efficient and satisfying if you can ease them on rather than stamp your foot down, which is what the game will think you’re doing if you use a digital input for the brakes… so get a wheel that comes with pedals, okay?

Whether to go for force feedback or not is a bit of a no brainer here too as a wheel without it gives you no idea what the car is doing in the game. With force feedback you’ll feel the wheel lighten up if the front of the car is slipping (understeer) and you’ll be able to react quicker. Similarly, the wheel might well start sawing left and right if you hit ice at high speed or even snap back in your hands if the back of the car steps out as you accelerate out of a corner.

Driving is a very tactile experience and real drivers get as much information through their hands, feet and bodies about what the car is doing as they do through their eyes and ears. Playing a game you can’t feel the car rumbling through you seat but you will be able to through the wheel and any feedback will help shave seconds off you lap times.

A decent wheel will have either a separate gearstick mounted on the wheel console, or preferably F1 style paddles mounted behind the wheel itself. Go for the paddles if you can as this means you’ll never have to take a hand of the wheel to snatch the next gear. Also check how the wheel mounts to the table and look for a good, secure mounting, the last thing you need when cornering at Brooklands at 150 Mph if for you wheel to judder itself off across the desk. A bonus if they have it is adjustable tension on the pedals, but you may only find this on the top end serious hardcore set-ups.