360 Racing Wheel and Dirt

After reading about the release of Nascar 08 coming at the end of this month to the 360, I decided to do something crazy and buy a Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel. It was a gamble being that I've never owned a gaming wheel before but I hadn't bought a game in some time and felt like splurging.

While I was at Best Buy picking up the wheel I decided to grab a copy of Dirt along with it. I had played the demo and it was a beautiful game. After hooking up the wheel, I was shocked at how much more fun my racing games were... and Dirt is just plain incredible! I played it so long I had to peel my fingers off the wheel at the end of the night. It has both force feedback and a rumble effect so when you hit a rough part of the road, the steering wheel is almost jerked out of your hands. It's very effective but not exacly "real" feeling. It feels more like you are driving a go-cart of some kind but it definitely gives you a nice "in control" feeling that the controller doesn't. I usually play racing games at a third-person angle but with the wheel, it is much more fun to drive first-person, looking straight out the windsheild.

All-in-all I give the Xbox 360 Racing Wheel a big thumbs up. It's a bit expensive at $129 but for the racing buffs it's a must have.