For quite awhile now, I’ve been telling anyone that would listen (a rapidly dwindling group, as you can imagine) that the only real difference between commonly available 3D games, available on both the venerable PC and the new-fangled consoles, and video arcades such as Dave & Busters is the quality of the input devices. High resolution graphics being pumped to your retinas at substantial frame rates? Got that at home, thanks. Multiple monitors? Well, I don’t have that, but I could if I could find a way to convince the CFO that such capability is both desirable and necessary. Multi-player battles, races, whatever? Yep, no problem. Force feedback steering, three pedal control, six-speed gated shifter? Well, not so much. Until now, that is.

Don’t get me wrong: I’ve gone through any number of force feedback (FF) steering wheels on my PC. I’ve worn out the best of them. The closest I ever got to a full driving experience was with the Act Labs Force RS system with the optional pedals and shifter, but it too eventually stopped working, as did Act Labs itself as it ultimately turned out. My most recent wheel was the excellent Logitech Momo Force. Electronically, it held up well; it was a physical failure of the plastic case that sent the Momo to its final resting place atop the mountain of defunct controllers that I’ve created down in my basement.

I was gathering my pennies in hopes of buying a replacement for the Momo when I was offered the opportunity to try out Logitech’s new G25 FF wheel. Was I enthusiastic about that offer? Well, let’s just say that no one had to swing by the house and twist my arm to convince me to give it a spin. In fact, the days spent waiting for the new wheel, shifter, and pedals to arrive were reminiscent of those weeks of counting down the days until Xmas back in my younger days. Or course, with no electricity or indoor plumbing back then, and my 15 mile walk to school everyday (up hill BOTH ways!), I was…. oops, drifted off into old-fart speak there for a second. The (heavy!!) box finally arrived, and I enthusiastically ripped into it.

What greeted me when I finally removed enough packaging material to get a look at the new wheel and accessories was a beautifully designed, aesthetically pleasing, and robust set of controls that would most certainly have been right at home attached to a game at the arcade. The stitched leather on the wheel and shifter knob, the brushed stainless steel of the clutch, brake, and throttle pedals and shifter paddles on the wheel, and the overall heft of the components all indicated a high degree of quality design and construction. Given the street price of nearly $300 for the G25, this was most certainly a gratifying feeling!

Having been without a steering wheel for a number of weeks, I was anxious to get the G25 plugged in and working. Fortunately, it was a simple matter to install the drivers from the included CD-ROM and plug in the components. As with the Momo before it, the pedal unit plugs into the back of the wheel, and the USB cord from the wheel plugs into the PC. There is also a power supply to supplement the little bit of power available from the USB port – the two force feedback motors would surely draw a lot more juice than provided through the USB port! New to the G25 from the Momo is, of course, the addition of a clutch pedal, resulting in a three-pedal floor unit which also plugs into the base of the whee...