Reviewed in Canada on October 21, 2024
Look, I don't want to say this wheel is all bad. For the price range, there's a lot of good that can be said about it. The build quality of the wheel itself feels actually pretty good. It feels good in the hand, it turns so well, there are lots of buttons that are easy to use.
But I can't ignore the problems I've had with this. First of all, let's talk mounting. When you have a big ol wheel like this, you want it to be secure in place. Unfortunately, depending on your desk, this might not be possible. This wheel is the ONLY product I've ever seen that has desk clamps where the flat, circular portion simply comes off. It doesn't take a lot of force whatsoever to do it, either. Any bend will simply pop the little disk off of a round joint. This is hugely problematic if you're not able to get the disk FULLY flat against the underside of whatever surface you're putting it on. Basically, what this means is that any desk that isn't completely flat on the bottom- such as desks that have supporting frames underneath, will not be able to be mounted properly with the clamps. If you even try to tighten it with the disks on while even a little hangs off the edge, the entire thing will pop off of the disks and fall off the desk. The clamps can't open enough to get over the supportive frame of either of the tables I tested it on, either, which means the only way I was able to mount the damn thing was by, unintutively, removing the plastic disks that distribute the force to simply rely on the ball joints themselves. This is not ideal, if my desk wasn't made of very solid hardwood I would be worried about the joints digging in and damaging it.
The clamps themselves are also woefully cheap. Even the cheapest of cheap boom mic arms I've owned have all at least had metal clamps. This one is entirely plastic, and not very durable feeling plastic either. The suction cups on the bottom aren't much better, either. If you think you can use those to keep your wheel steady, good luck. It will stop the wheel from moving up off of the desk, but it will do nothing to stop it from sliding this way and that, making it unusable. This same set of problems is present in the shifter as well, but actually the pedals themselves have a great amount of grip. With them also being able to fold out to increase the grippy surface area. I didn't have any problems with it sliding on my floor while using it, which was great, as I've had problems with foot rests and exercise equipment sliding on the same floor.
Secondly, there are some functionality problems I've experienced with this wheel. Primarily a single one. Sometimes, the wheel will suddenly start telling the game I'm playing that I'm turning REALLY HARD LEFT even while centered. This has caused me to crash multiple times, and won't resolve itself until I unplug and replug the wheel, or switch it from Dinput to Xinput and back. This is a really frustrating issue and I can't figure out why it's happening or how to prevent it- it's seemingly totally random.
Add to that the fact that the manual, even the online one, do a pretty poor job of telling you how to set any of this all up, and the fact that the quality of the pedals and shifters are far below that of the wheel (especially the cables, which unlike the wheel are not hotswappable either, meaning when they fail, they'll be useless).. And I can't justify giving this 4 stars. If it weren't for the control issue, I might have been able to do it. It's not impossible to set up a different mounting system, there are entire products just for that purpose, and for most people who have a flat desk, you won't even have the problem. But when the gameplay itself suffers so heavily.. I can't give it more than 3 stars. Who knows, maybe they already fixed the problem with some firmware update.. But given that I can't even find out how/if I'm able to install that due to the obtuse documentation, I'm unable to find out. So for now, 3 stars it shall be. It's not a completely unsalveable product- you could very well enjoy it.. But there are likely better options.
