Racing wheel kits with force feedback and paddle shifters have been around for years. But sets that come with a 6-gear stick shift and a pedal set with a clutch–like the one on Logitech’s G27 set–looks downright fun to try out if you’re a gamer looking for a bit more realism.
The G27 is a three-piece kit that includes a wheel, gearbox and foot pedals for driving games. All three come with grip and clamp mechanisms to keep the stable on the table and floor for dealing (or struggling, as the case may be) with force feedback effects. The dual-motor force feedback system with “helical gearing” (whatever that is) lets drivers feel traction loss, weight shifts, and road textures smoothly and accurately. To add realism, the G27 also adds a couple of features that take it a notch above usual driving kits: the aforementioned stick shift and the clutch pedal.
Most driving kits usually employ either F1-style plus/minus paddle shifters behind the wheel, while some come with a separate gearbox, but act as up/down shifters. The gated 6-position gearbox on the G27 makes shifting feel more realistic—certainly more “real world”, since most of us will never get to drive an F1 car anyway. It also works pretty well with the clutch pedal (common driving sets usually come with brake and gas pedals) for realism.
The steering wheel also features a 900-degree rotation, offering up to 2.5 turns from lock-to-lock that adds realism and some extra room for error—another improvement over average wheels that go from one side to the other within a turn. The wheel also has a set of LED lights above it that act as an RPM/shift indicator to help with shift timing, and a pair of paddle shifters behind it to use if you don’t like the stick—even if you don’t use them for shifting, they’re still two extra buttons that you can program in. The entire kit has 16 programmable buttons, plus a d-pad that can be set for various game functions.
The G27 is priced at $300—a bit steep, but multiple game platform support (PC, PlayStation 2 and 3 games) gives it a little more value for money.
Tags: Gaming Gear, Logitech
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