Pros
Leather-topped wheel feels good
Decent pedals
Strong drive suggestions
Cons
Turning and suggestions feels ‘notchy’
Very much like 5-year-old G27
Some will not like bright-coloured buttons
Key Specifications
Review Price: £299.99
900-degree wheel rotation
Helical geared drive suggestions
3-pedal base
What is the Logitech G29 Driving Force?
The Logitech G29 Driving Force is a drive suggestions wheel, one of many few that works with the PS4. Don’t personal a PS4 but? It’ll additionally do the job for the PS3 and PC. This is an effective wheel, one which will radically enhance your enjoyment of racing video games in the event you don’t but personal a drive suggestions wheel. However, it gives solely minor enhancements over the ‘classic’ Logitech G27, a wheel that doesn’t work with the PS4 due to contentious compatibility points.
At £300, anybody considering of shopping for the Logitech G29 additionally wants to think about the Thrustmaster T300 RS and T300 Ferrari GTE. To make the choice trickier, the 2 camps every have their ups and downs, however the smoother really feel of Thrustmaster’s wheel could properly seal the deal for a lot of of you.Xbox One proprietor? Check out the Logitech G920, this wheel’s brother.
Logitech G29 Driving Force: Design and Features
The Logitech G29 Driving Force does its greatest to appear and feel like a ‘real’ steering wheel. And these of you who’ve owned or wished certainly one of these wheels for years will discover it appears to be like an terrible lot just like the Logitech G27, its last-gen brother.
27cm in diameter, with a largely metallic body and completed with leather-based, it has a high-end-enough construct to just-about offer you sufficient ammunition to persuade folks it’s not a toy. Yes, we all know it’s one actually.
The notable half right here is the leather-based. Rival Thrustmaster wheels are coated in rubber as commonplace, and really feel that bit cheaper because of this. The Thrustmaster system gives interchangeable wheels, however when the Alcantara and leather-based ones value £140/150, it’s no pocket cash improve.Related: Xbox One vs PS4The really feel of the Logitech G29 wheel is just about equivalent to the older G27. It appears it’s constructed to resist punishment, and is way hardier than a budget wheels you’ll have used till now. However, the upholstery is just not fairly supercar-grade: there was a little bit of flabby flappiness to 2 components on the rear.
Being a PlayStation-centric mannequin has let Logitech package out the G29 with all of the buttons wanted management the PS4 and PS3, with out want for a controller. Doing so is a cinch. All that’s lacking is the pair of analogue sticks, however you’re not precisely going to begin enjoying non-racing video games with the G29, are you?Related: Xbox One vs Xbox 360We discovered it to be 100 per cent plug and play. Hook up the 3-pedal board to the wheel, then the wheel to the PS4 and also you’re away. It mechanically recognises the wheel, which may then be used immediately with video games like DriveClub and Project Cars. No additional set-up is required.
The one extremely shallow pitfall is that there’s slightly change up on the highest of the Logitech G29 that toggles between PS3 and PS4 compatibility modes. You see, the PS4 talks to an additional safety chip in equipment like this wheel, which is Logitech’s excuse for the older G25 and G27 fashions not supporting the PS4.
This is a dodgy space, as some declare that is nonsense designed to get folks to improve from older wheels, {that a} firmware resolution is feasible, however we’re not going to enter that right here (it’s the rationale for the person evaluate down-voting of the wheel on Amazon).Related: PS4 vs PS3What we are going to say, although, is that we weren’t initially received over by the brilliant and vibrant additional buttons, not discovered within the Logitech G920. Those little blue buttons on the entrance replicate the set off buttons on a controller, whereas the pink dial permits fast tweaking of sure automotive parameters. In all honesty, we didn’t discover a lot use for it.
Whether you like the color injection or hate it, it’s not as if Logitech offers you any alternative. And for one thing that’s going to be consigned to wherever you sport (or, as is kind of probably, the cabinet 95 per cent of the time) does it matter?Related: Best PS4 Games 2015
Logitech G29 Driving Force: Pedalboard
There’s no bonus bling to the pedalboard, and it is without doubt one of the strongest causes to suggest the Logitech G29 over its Thrustmaster rivals. While the bottom is plastic, the board is substantial, needing much less securing than the oldest G-series units.
It’s a three-pedal setup: accelerator, brake and clutch. Each has a distinct pressure type, mirroring what you get in an actual automotive. The necessary enchancment within the G29 is the brake. It’s progressive, with extra pressure on the finish of its melancholy to present you a lot better management over the drive of the brake and a extra life like. It’s an enormous enchancment over the outdated wheels, and the pedal set included with the Thrustmaster T300 RS.Related: PS4 HDD Upgrade – How to improve your PS4 storageSome Logitech G27 homeowners went so far as to emulate this brake really feel by placing a sliced-in-half tennis ball below the pedal, so it’s good to see Logitech has taken this on-board.
If you’re questioning what stand we’re utilizing for the photographs on this evaluate, it’s the Speedblack Evo, an reasonably priced stand that’ll do the job for individuals who don’t need a large chair/body cluttering up their lounge.
Have loads of area? You may additionally wish to contemplate the gear shifter add-on. We haven’t had an opportunity to do this out, but it surely prices £50 and, if it’s something just like the outdated mannequin, will really feel slightly bit flimsier than the remainder of the {hardware}.Related: PS4 Backwards Compatibility – Can I play PS3 video games on my PS4?
Logitech G29 Driving Force: Performance and Force Feedback
Aside from the first rate pedals and the questionable vibrant bonus buttons, one of many neat additional options of the Logitech G29 is the LED show that sits simply above the wheel’s centre. This acts as a rev counter, letting you inform when it’s time to alter gears — significantly helpful you probably have the sound down low.
Gear shifting is completed utilizing racing-style paddles behind either side of the wheel. They’re agency, clicky and product of metallic, getting you simply the correct of drugs change motion.Related: Best PS4 Games 2015The wheel itself turns round 900 levels. This permits two and a half turns earlier than the wheel locks. While the Thrustmaster wheels play ‘features Top Trumps’ with 1080 levels of rotation, we’re completely proud of what Logitech gives.
What’s not fairly as excellent is the drive suggestions. Or, to be extra exact, the dearth of marked enchancment over the 5-year-old Logitech G27.
Before we tackle this correctly, we have to take a step again. The Logitech G29 has nice drive suggestions. Playing Project Cars with none customisation, the drive is powerful sufficient to trigger arm ache after 30-40 minutes play, a transparent signal that the wheel has highly effective motors working for it.If you’ve not used a correct drive suggestions wheel earlier than, we predict you’ll like it. It offers you a way more direct sensation of management over a automotive, the place with a gamepad you’re left counting on visible and audio cues to evaluate when a automotive is about to understeer or oversteer. With drive suggestions you possibly can really feel it, as a result of when correctly programmed it enables you to really feel how the automotive (and the street) is working in opposition to you. It works very with DriveClub, and even higher with the extra life like Project Cars.
Wheels just like the Logitech G29 Driving Force make driving video games way more partaking, maybe an excessive amount of for these days while you simply wish to allow you to mind quietly vegetate after a anxious day of labor.We love drive suggestions wheels. However, we’re additionally slightly disillusioned that Logitech hasn’t accomplished extra to handle the granular ‘notchy’ really feel to the G-series’s wheel flip motion and drive suggestions.
The twin motor system is geared, which is what results in this less-than-smooth really feel. Most similar-price rivals from Fanatec and Thrustmaster use a twin belt system that’s each quite a bit smoother and barely quieter. Using the Logitech G29 with the metallic Speedblack Evo was a reasonably noisy expertise, the impression of the suggestions engine nearly sounding like somebody was tapping on the metallic sheets that make up the not-100-per-cent-solid stand.
This minimises the advantage of the pretty cool operation of the geared G29. Where belt-driven suggestions wheels have a tendency to make use of followers to keep away from overheating, and usually get quite a bit hotter, the passively-cooled Logitech can be utilized for a reasonably very long time with out actually getting too heat in any respect.
Logitech G29 Driving Force vs Thrustmaster T300RS
Here’s the large one, the query any potential wheel patrons must reply: Logitech or Thrustmaster? On Logitech’s facet, its pedals are higher and we favor the texture of the leather-topped G29 to the rubbery T300RS.
However, returning to the gear-driven Logitech after the belt-driven T300RS seems like a big downgrade. Any drive suggestions wheel provides an enormous dollop of authenticity to a racing sport, however a smoother response feels that rather more actual. It’s an enormous issue to think about in the event you’re on this for the enjoyable of the expertise fairly than the seconds a wheel could shave off your lap instances.
If cash’s no object, Thrustmaster additionally gives ‘upgrades’ that’ll repair all of the T300RS’s shortcomings. For £150 you may get a formidable set of T3PA-PRO pedals, and one other £150 will get you a leather-based or Alcantara wheel. That’s proper, we’re speaking about an almost-£600 spend.
Logitech G29 vs G27 vs G25
We think about a few of you can be homeowners of older Logitech G-series wheels questioning whether or not you need to improve or not. If you’re after PS4 help, the outdated wheels will do you no good. They don’t work with the console, regardless of a 20,000-strong petition to get Logitech so as to add PS4 help (which some declare could be attainable).
The Logitech G27 and G29 are each much less ‘notchy’ than the G25, and have the LED rev indicator that the granddad wheel lacks. Given the 5 years which have handed because the G27 arrived, the variations within the G29 are pretty minor.
You get the additional controls on the faceplate, plus a brand new really feel to the brake pedal. There are most likely tweaks to the internals, however these are the primary variations we famous.
Should I purchase the Logitech G29 Driving Force?
If you’re actually into your racing video games, you need to a minimum of discover a strategy to check out a drive suggestions wheel. And for PS4 players, now that each Project Cars and Driveclub are out, there’s sufficient content material to feast on to justify it too.
Is this the most effective PS4 wheel? Right now there are not any excellent choices, and just some excellent ones. The Logitech G29 sits amongst them, with a pleasant leather-upholstered wheel and loads of PS4 particular controls.
However, it’s fairly noisy and its drive suggestions, whereas highly effective, isn’t as {smooth} feeling because the belt-driven competitors from Thrustmaster and Fanatec (we’ve not had an opportunity to make use of these extensively, although).
Verdict
An awesome wheel, however one with out many large enhancements over the outdated G27.