Going for a drive on the PS2? Has Logitech got a wheel for you.
Written: Jan 24 '02 (Updated Jan 24 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: No better experience for driving simulation games, at least on the PS2.
Cons: Number of compatible titles is still limited, though it's growing; needs a clutch pedal.
The Bottom Line: The best steering wheel experience for the PlayStation 2, and certainly a blast to use.
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| monoblocks's Full Review: Logitech Driving Force |
It's hard to look exclusively at the Logitech Driving Force wheel and judge its merits without first explaining the context I saw it come to be in, however long it may seem (keep in mind, good race prep can never be rushed). For those impatient and want to know if it's good or not, suffice to say IT'S GOOD. For those who want to WHY it's good, you're just going to have to read on...
The Pre-Race Check:
What finally got me to break down and buy a PlayStation 2 back in the spring of 2001 was due solely to a single game title: Gran Turismo 3 A-spec. Having more or less been a life-time electronics gamer on computers from my early days of the Apple II and Commodore 64, through DEC mainframes and then to DOS and Windows PCs (with only a few sour sidesteps with the Atari 2600 and the first couple of Nintendo sets), I hadn't really had any urge prior to this to purchase another dedicated gaming platform. I was one of those who saw little point in owning a single-purpose platform like the original PlayStation or the N64, despite being something of a gearhead. My less-than-thrilling experiences with early consoles, plus the fact that I already owned dedicated CD and DVD players (not to mention having such drives in my Dell), was enough for me to question the worth of owning yet another limited-use device like the then-new PS2.
Then I began reading the online reviews of GT3 and, despite how embarrassing it might have looked, the drooling started.
I'm a big fan of driving simulations. A REAL big fan. And from all of this oozing praise I was reading, I gleaned that GT3 was a sim that at the very least would be a couple of steps up from my much-loved Need For Speed series on the PC (as it turned out, GT3 is MUCH more than that, but that's for another review). From steadfastly not wanting a PS2 only moments before, I went into that often unhealthy 'Gotta Have' mode. Fortunately, PS2s were becoming readily available after all the madness of Holiday Season Y2K, so I didn't have to resort to bidding some obscene amount on eBay to get with the program. A trip to a local Toys'R'Us store took care of Part One (the PS2). Part Two was taken care of easily enough with a visit to Best Buy when GT3 was formally released. But then came the final part: The Controller.
Craving driving sims as I do, every aspect must be as true to the driving environment as possible. So the key emphasis is on the 'SIM' part of the gaming equation. That meant I had to have a steering wheel controller; after all, how often do you use a gamepad in your real car? For the PC, there are plenty of choices for the driving fanatic. But for the PS2, being as new as it was, the options were far less intriguing.
The reviews I read on the existing wheels that were available for the PS2 a year ago did not inspire; many of the products were either adaptations of steering controllers for the original PlayStation or were units for other platforms quickly modified for use with the PS2. I wanted something at least equal to the good wheels available for the PC, but none of the reviewed PS2 offerings seemed to be in that class. Gaming web sites that offered up personal reviews such as these found on epinions ripped apart wheel after wheel. But even more important, GT3 had been written with one specific wheel design in mind, the Logitech Force Feedback system, which on the PC I knew well and have been quite pleased with. But for the most part those steering wheels, as adapted for the PS2, were still only available in Japan and other Far East markets. To make matters worse (at least in terms of my craving), I happened to read a review in my long-time favorite auto monthly, Road & Track, on Gran Turismo 3 which convinced me that I HAD TO HAVE A LOGITECH WHEEL; no other controller would do at all.
The result? I left BOTH the PS2 and GT3 sealed UNTIL I could get the Logitech. I admit it's not much bang for the buck, and I had to endure lots of ribbing from friends and co-workers on my expensive 'paperweights'. However, finding the wheel turned out to be a real challenge. From what I could tell, it turned out there were two Logitech wheels initially available, one a modification to a PC design, and the second, a dedicated PS2 variant called the Driving Force. The latter was the one the ol' crosshairs was focused on. But I found it was tough to come by. Online, wherever I looked, it was always sold out (or offered for sale as a pre-sell). The local brick & mortars were just as bad; I always was at least a day late in showing up for the too-few units that the manufacturer was shipping. This made May, June and July rather unbearable, at least from a GT3 standpoint.
Well, August 2001 came around and, lo and behold, Logitech finally began shipping the DF in quantity. A trip to CompUSA and Part Three of the pre-race check was finally done...
Racers, Start Your Engines:
Can I say if the wait was worth it? Well actually, no it wasn't, because I should've been playing GT3 MONTHS before, if only Logitech had seen fit to supply the North American market with enough wheel units to satisfy demand when GT3 was initially released. I lost out on AT LEAST 3 1/2 months of pure driving simulation heaven! This product combination was and still is simply marvelous. Even though I've begun to buy other PS2 game titles, and some are quite good, no other title and peripheral matches the ultimate expression of 'oneness' as the PS2/GT3/DF grouping. After only a few minutes of playing, you can tell they were designed with one another in mind. I don't know what achieving nirvana is really like, but this is how I would imagine it would be, at least for the driving sim junkie.
The DF wheel itself is much like the mid-priced Force Feedback wheels that Logitech makes for other platforms, such as for Windows PCs. It's augmented by the additional PS2-only controls found on the typical Sony Dual-Shock and clone controllers. There are three main components to the system: the steering wheel housing complete with F1-type shift paddles, a floor pedal assembly consisting of accelerator and brake pedals (but no clutch), and a transformer to supply power for the unit's Force Feedback vibration. An optional lap-use adapter (if you don't want to sit at a desk or table) is supplied as well.
The connection of the wheel is easy: simply plug the DF into one of the two USB ports on the front of the PS2. The pedals plug in the the steering wheel unit, as does the power supply. Plug in the transformer, boot up the PS2 and you're in. All PS2 bootup, game start and memory card controls can be handled from the wheel itself; a regular controller need not be used or even connected to the PS2.
The biggest issue with setting up the Driving Force is the layout of the gaming 'station' itself. It's my opinion that you need a desk or table to mount the wheel to in order to get the most out of it, which is easy to do with the integral, top-operated mounting clamps, though some consideration must be made as to leg clearance under the bottom jaws of the clamps. But unfortunately, a desktop is something that many PS2s are not intended to be located at. For a living or family room setting, there is the supplied lap-use adapter, which in broad terms allows one to use the steering wheel sitting away from a desk, such as while sitting on a sofa. Think of a hard plastic thigh pillow, and you're not far off the mark. The adapter attaches to the bottom of the steering wheel housing and the whole assembly is held between your legs. It's not the most stable mounting platform I can think of, and the spaghetti of wires running off the steering housing to various places becomes an issue. In practice, using the wheel this way I've found my steering motions can be too violent at times, and the inability to keep the wheel steady as a result is too distracting to get the best performance out of me in the games. Consequently, my adapter has been returned to its packing spot in the Logitech box.
My PS2 is generally used on a secondary 20" television; I clamp the DF wheel housing to a low table positioned in from of this TV (which just happens to be on a shelf system fairly low to the floor), position the pedal assembly directly below, and set my behind down on a pillow on the floor. In essence, my sitting position is that of an open-wheel racer except without the seatback, but it works great because the screen is directly in front of me. When I move the PS2 out to the big screen when friends are over or when I want that in-your-face experience, the Driving Force wheel is clamped to our coffee table, and the same seating position is used again. Not for the stiff-jointed crowd unfortunately.
The Green Flag Is Dropped:
Game play is a revelation. For those who are unfamiliar with the Force Feedback system, it's different than Sony's regular Dual-Shock design that's a part of their PlayStation I/II consoles. FF is essentially tactile information modeled and programmed into the game itself. For instance, such things as a rut in the roadway are part of the experience; you feel it everytime you hit it with each lap you run. But the difference from Dual-Shock is that the FF vibration feedback is contoured to an actual condition modeled in the driving environment, i.e., the shape of the rut is in the virtual roadway. The feedback varies significantly on HOW you drive over that rut. Travel too fast or approach it at the wrong angle, the wheel may jerk like mad, even seeming as if it's trying to rip itself from your hands. Hit the hole right, and the wheel still sends the road imperfection through to your hands, but you're no longer fighting to keep the car from flinging into the guardrail along the side of the race course.
You'll end up improving your times because you can now sense the things that slowed you up before and can now adjust your driving style, and you'll remember those sorts of approaches and techniques for the next and subsequent laps. Subtle steering corrections are achievable and, at least in GT3, mean something tangible in terms of faster lap times. Flick the wheel, tap the brakes and hammer the throttle and the virtual car comes around just like in a real car. You really do feel like it's a driving environment, at least as far as your own living room and TV will let you believe; all that's missing are the 'G'-forces. Even situations where the limits of adhesion of your tires are reached is modeled; as the car is breaking loose and entering into a slide, appropriate feedback is sent to the wheel by the Driving Force as the driving condition is experienced in the game. That's cool. So's being able to steer with my right foot (i.e., the throttle), something I certainly haven't been able to master with my fingers using any simple gamepad controller.
Not that this is something that's really new; PC gamers have been experiencing this for some time with the readily available FF units and software for computer platforms. But the seamless integration of Gran Turismo 3 and the Driving Force is unlike anything I've experienced in the past. The level of attention paid by GT3's programmers is to be commended, and certainly makes owning a Driving Force a must if you really want to bring out the best in the game.
The Caution Flag Is Out:
There's not all that much wrong with the operation of the Driving Force itself. With the compatible games I own, it's worked flawlessly, though I would've appreciated if Logitech had included clutch control as well (I do my OWN shifting, thank you very much). Try doing a opposite lock power slide on your standard Dual-Shock gamepad; THAT'S when the Driving Force wheel will be much appreciated. The gaming experience is incredibly enhanced by the Logitech controller. However, the Force Feedback system does introduce limitations because of the necessary programming that game writers have to include in order to make the system work. Many early PS2 driving games aren't compatible with the FF system, and even a fair number of driving games released after GT3 aren't compatible as well.
Moreover, there are a number of driving titles that aren't even compatible with the basic wheel control functions themselves, let alone the FF modeling information. Games like Infogrames' 'Le Mans 24 Hours' or 'F1 Championship Season 2000' by EA appear to be gamepad-only titles; at least I couldn't get the DF wheel to work at controlling their software, let alone their virtual cars. Perhaps they aren't programmed to go looking for a USB controller; I don't know what the problem is but for a sim player it makes for a less-than-appreciated driving experience because it's more the arcade game than a real-world simulation. (The EA title was even more frustrating because the PC version DOES recognize my PC steering wheels, even when going as far back as my ancient Thrustmaster Formula One.)
This was the biggest problem with the DF then and, to a certain degree, it's still one: a lack of compatible gaming titles. For the longest time, there was VERY little information available on which titles WERE compatible with the Driving Force; it was pretty much a hit-or-miss situation, because as I found even the proprietors of the local gaming stores which sold the DF often didn't know themselves when I asked the question. Neither Sony's PlayStation web site or Logitech's Driving Force page listed available titles for the longest time, though Logitech NOW has recitifed the issue by listing the compatible FF titles it's aware of. But it's of little consolation to me when I was playing the guessing game with VISA in hand shortly after I picked up the wheel looking for additional games to play. It's taken a while, but the number of DF-compatible games is growing, even if too many of the titles still aren't interesting enough to satify what I want from a driving game (namely road racing--we do turn right every once and a while in the real world, don't we?).
The Checkered Flag:
Is the Logitech Driving Force a winner? Well, yes it is; I basically said so at the beginning. It's not quite like my Logitech MOMO for the PC, however it works just fine on the PS2 (I admit the leather-wrapped wheel of the MOMO may seem a bit much, but I think it's neat). Its fluid operation with GT3 and Sony's Formula One 2001 has made it quite necessary to me. However I may feel about some of them, there are now more compatible gaming titles available. I do wish I hadn't taken the chances I did and bought some of the other racing games so quickly in order to get more of the experience; it was a waste of money in this simmer's mind. And I would've appreciated the DF being available in quantity when Gran Turismo 3 A-spec was initially released.
Though there was water over the race track, I've now got the rain tires on and I've made up for the lost time.
A definitive RECOMMEND.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
monoblocks
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Location: PacNW
Reviews written: 36
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