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Ferrari F430 Pro Force Feedback Racing Wheel
Author: Rhys Published: August 3rd, 2009 11:44 AM Category: Peripherals,Reviews
Testing and Conclusion
To test the Thrustmaster Ferarri F430 I gamed with it in Race Driver: GRID and Colin McRae: DiRT. On both these games the steering wheel was very simple to configure and I did not run into any problems at all.
However, out-of-the-box, the steering wheel did not perform very realistically as it was much too sensitive and the force feedback wasn’t strong enough for my liking. Using the included driver software, you can easily adjust the wheel until its perfect – although this does take some time.
In terms of performance I cannot fault the F430, it’s very accurate and the pedals feel very realistic. The vibration and force feedback are also very strong and precise; they can also be changed in terms of intensity, which is good, as they can be very forceful at max settings.
The comfort of the controller is fine with the rubber texture over the main parts of the wheel. However, during a long gaming session, these inevitably come quite sweaty and become slippery. This isn’t really much of a drawback though as it can simply be wiped. The gear shifters ergonomically fit into the racer’s hands and feel natural when changing.
To sum everything up, this steering wheel really is quite impressive with all the features and performance it offers. Also, at just £75 it’s a very worthy choice over the highly popular Logitech G25. It has similar features to the G25 and the performance is also quite similar after some slight tweaking.
My only concerns are that it does need some tweaking to be perfect out-of-the-box and its steering wheel angle cannot be adjusted unlike some other racing wheels. But for £75, this is an ideal inexpensive alternative to the Logitech G25.
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