Best Thrustmaster VG Thrustmaster Ferrari 458 Racing Wheel for Xbox Deals

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List Price: $89.99
Sale Price: $79.99
Today's Bonus: 11% Off

Waiting for this to finally be available after several delays, got it delivered today.

Opened the box and was impressed with how the wheel looked...however it does feel pretty flimsy. Has some nice rubberized grips and the shift paddles are metal and have a nice chunky clunk when you shift them. The pedals and base are a little awkward...unless you have a lot of weight resting on the pad they tend to lift off the ground under heavy brake or accelerator application. The clamping mechanism works pretty well, it stayed securely attached to my table for the 10 minutes I could stomach using it.

In terms of actually in-game use, I'm incredibly dissapointed. I guess part of it is my fault...I knew this wheel had no ForceFeedback but I assumed no one would build a controller without rumble. In the first few moments I realized I shouldn't have assumed this. There is ZERO feedback from games. If you play Forza 4 or F1 2011 in simulation mode, you know how critical it is to have feedback from the tires even if there's no official "Force Feedback". I found myself actually being significantly slower than I am with a regular controller, which is a pretty sad statement. Force Feedback adds a lot of cost to a unit, but for the gains in playability vs cost I can't understand why this doesn't have a rumble feature.

Another huge drawback is the motion of the wheel itself. It has some kind of spring or elastic material that increases tension as you increase steering angle. Right around the middle there is probably a 30 degree "dead zone" where the wheel just effortlessly floats back and forth. Trying to keep a car stable going down the straight at Silverstone on approach to Stowe is essentially impossible...approaches to most corners end up getting you unstable in braking and ruin your turn in. Incredibly frustrating.

If you play Forza or F1 in arcade mode, you'll probably have fun...same with the more arcade-y games like Test Drive/ NFS / etc. If you enjoy the more simulation style games stay far, far away.

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Many people are talking bad about this, but I can see no reason for it. Yes, there is a 10 degree or so area in the middle of the turning radius, but I stopped noticing that within less than an hour. After that this has been pure fun.

Keep in mind you can not play with this wheel in your lap. You have to have a stand for this. I built a cheap stand from PVC and haven't looked back. I picked this up for Forza 4 and could not be happier for the money.

That is where the problems come in for most people. This is much easier to buy than a unit for clutch and shifter, force feedback, and full turning tension. It is unfair to hope for this wheel to do all the things for the $300 plus wheels do. For the money you simply can not beat this steering wheel. It could be better, but it could cost twice what it does too.

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I don't understand why this wheel generally has such a bad rap. I've used it for Forza 4 and Forza Horizon and it made both games a lot of fun. There may be a "dead zone" in the middle where there's no tension but so do real cars, and if you use the cockpit view you can see that movements in the dead zone are still registered exactly as you do them. For the price it's made out of some pretty nice materials and looks more like a big-boy toy than a childs plaything, basically you don't feel the need to hide it when guests are over. The only complaint I have is that the pedal base can lift up in the back when switching from gas to brake, but eventually you don't even notice it.

Just make sure you push the pedals against a wall so they wont move and affix the wheel to a steady surface because the tension at the ends is pretty formidable. Using it in conjunction with a desk and office chair or a low table and a lounge-style chair has been the optimal set up for me.

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My husband and my dad play this every night all night! They love it, and my dad is not a gamer... it makes the experience real!

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I have come into contact with 4 of these wheels. Two of them my friend has and two of them I have owned. I got my first of the two wheels on christmas and was really pleased with how it worked... at first. The first thing you notice when using this wheel is that it has about 10-15 degrees in the middle where the wheel can free float. This makes it really hard to straighten yourself out while racing. Secondly, within 2 hours of total play time with this, the first one broke. I was not harsh with it at all but the buttons on the start-stop selector stopped working. Upset and distraught, I sent it back for a replacement. The second one I got broke within a few days. The paddle shifters stopped working and the D-pad (start/stop selector) stopped working too. I am now sending it back and I do not plan on getting another. ON THE OTHER HANDmy friend who has two of them, has had them for a while now and he hasn't experienced any terrible problems with his. Despite the free floating he likes them a lot.

I would not recommend these because it's just a seriously unreliable investment.

It is fun while it lasts but chances are, it won't last very long.

If you do buy, you better hope you get very lucky!!