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Great steering wheel/racing game

H

herbage11

Senior member
Looking to buy a steering wheel and driving game for my PC. I really dont want to spend that much and $100 total would be about the limit for game and wheel combined. Nascar Racing Season 2002 looks good. Anyone help me find a good reliable steering wheel. Have any of you played this Nascar game? Thanks for the help all. 🙂
herb
 
Nascar 2K2 is a good game, Need for Speed Porsche Unleashed is probably the best game to start out with and the system requirements aren't as high.

I just wrote an indepth guide on steering wheels that you can check out here:

http://www.richleader.com/drivers_ed.htm

I can make more specific suggestions once you narrow it down to spring or force feedback.
 
I would have to agree with richleader that NFS😛U would be a good driving game to start out with. The graphics are very good and car physics are somewhere between arcade and true sim so control won't be too difficult. The online multiplayer is the best part of the game and can be quite addictive. Nascar 2002 is designed as a true sim, so control can be a bit difficult for the newbies(like me.) The Nascar 2002 demo can be downloaded for free, so you might as well try before you buy. Nascar Heat may also be a good alternative. Lots of new cars,tracks, mods going on with this game right now. Under the standard install it's not too difficult to drive and down the road you can switch to hardcore mode and race the new road courses. The International Sports Car Heat mod will let you race something other than the standard Nascar cars.
For a budget spring loaded wheel the MS Precision is hard to beat at $50 after rebate. I prefer a quality spring loaded(not MS, Logitech,Thrustmaster) over a ff model anyday. Just my $.02 Hope to see you in the pits very soon.
 
Thanks you 2 that helps a lot. I am not really into force feedback. I had a joystick and it was cool at first then a little annoying after that. Thanks again.
 
Since you're not sold on FF, why don't you check out the TSW2 stock. I know it's over budget but they are garaunteed for life and are fully upgradeable. TSW2 link They can sometimes be found used at the racesimcentral forums. There is also lots of good info on the web about building your own.
 
That wheel does look awesome. But I think that is a little much for me. I have never even played a racing game online or w/ a wheel yet. Just looks fun and I know people have a blast racing Nascar online. thanks again maddmax. How about other games? Medal or Honor? Wolfenstien? Max Payne? I know not racing but I am looking to fill some time this summer while my wife is away.
 
CompUSA this weekend has the Thrustmaster Precision Pro 2 for $29 after rebate. I paid $20 for the Pro 1 about six months ago and it was a great starter wheel (I decided to move up to force feedback) and the 2nd edition is even better (better wheel surface, shifters are placed further back).

You can pick up porsche unleashed by itself for $15, but you can also get it in a four pack of games for the same price, even though the games are outdated (Need for speed 4: hot pursuit) and in some cases, suck, the motorcycle and 4X4 games, you might as well get them too because the four pack is the same price.
 
Thanks Rich. That Trustmaster looks like a good wheel at that price. Appriciate the help. Any of you play Nascar, Heat, or Need for Speed online? Looks fun ! Thanks
 
I'm a Need for Speed freak. Look for "cul8ter" on the EA servers. Mostly race the GT1 on Autobahn and Zone Industrial tracks. On that note, you will need tuned cars to be competitive online. There are some races that are stock only ,but they are the minority. You'll either need to race Evolution mode or find a saved game to be able to tune your cars. An asterisk behind the car denotes that it is tuned/owned. I've never raced Nascar Heat in multiplayer other than on my local network. There is a patch for Heat called IRF (Internet Race Finder) but have not tried it as yet. Good luck and see you in the pits.
 
Thanks for the knowledge and info. you 2. Appriciate that. I played Need for Speed a lot on PSX. Great game and I am sure the PC is better yet. Hope to see you in the pits as well.
 
http://www.richleader.com/drivers_ed.htm

I can make more specific suggestions once you narrow it down to spring or force feedback.
Click to expand...

I read you article (it's a good one, thanks) and then I scratched my head and though, yeah, but what do I buy? 😉. That's the nature of an unbiased informative article I guess. I'll tell you what I'm looking for: My wife is totally mesmerized by GTAIII, and now she thinks we need a wheel for it. Since I'm always excited to get a new computer peripheral with my wife's blessing, I'm kind of into the idea too.

But here's the deal. GTAIII is not simply a racing game. Part of the game is spent walking around, getting into fights, etc. So setup is going to be a pain, because the non-car parts of the game are going to rely on keyboard input (I think). Does anyone have experience with this situation yet? Wondering how it pans out.

Oh, and looking for wheel recommendations for GTAIII.

 
Originally posted by: Maetryx
http://www.richleader.com/drivers_ed.htm

I can make more specific suggestions once you narrow it down to spring or force feedback.
Click to expand...

I read you article (it's a good one, thanks) and then I scratched my head and though, yeah, but what do I buy? 😉. That's the nature of an unbiased informative article I guess. I'll tell you what I'm looking for: My wife is totally mesmerized by GTAIII, and now she thinks we need a wheel for it. Since I'm always excited to get a new computer peripheral with my wife's blessing, I'm kind of into the idea too.

But here's the deal. GTAIII is not simply a racing game. Part of the game is spent walking around, getting into fights, etc. So setup is going to be a pain, because the non-car parts of the game are going to rely on keyboard input (I think). Does anyone have experience with this situation yet? Wondering how it pans out.

Oh, and looking for wheel recommendations for GTAIII.
Click to expand...
Please don't tell me that Heather likes beating the prostitutes and bums to death. I just bought it last night and love it. Funny thing is that half the reason I bought it is because a lot of people seem to be having problems with it and I wanted to see if I would have any problems. No problems.

 
Holy smokes! A voice from the distant past! You don't post very often, do you? Heather (GrimmX around these parts) *does* like to beat bums to death. So I think she'll like GTAIII too. 😉
 
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