The Competitors:

Microsoft SideWinder Force Feedback Wheel
The latest thing from the team at Microsoft. A compact, all black unit with the smallest footprint both for the wheel and the pedal unit.

Logitech Wingman Formula Force
A racy, red and black unit that makes you feel like you are taking the reigns of a Ferrari F355 even before you start playing.

Act-Labs Force RS
A very different-looking product from the Great White North, it's middle name is versatility.

The Test
We set the wheels up on Pentium II 450 machines under Windows 98, and played with a variety of different games: MS Monster Truck Madness, MS Cart Racing, EA's Need for Speed III, and Sierra's Viper Racing.

Microsoft SideWinder Force Feedback Wheel

Game Bundle
Microsoft was kind enough to include full versions of Monster Truck Madness II and Cart Precision Racing with their wheel, which we promptly used to test the hardware.

Installation
The Microsoft wheel set up extremely easily, as did the other wheels we tested. Load the driver software and reboot. The hardware itself connects via the game port, so it doesn't require an IRQ. The best thing about setting up this wheel, though, was attaching it to the desk Microsoft has fashioned a single-screw clamp with a kind of tensioner lever that makes putting the wheel on and taking it off a snap (literally!). You simply snug up the screw clamp, then snap the lever up into place, tightening the wheel to the desk. This means that you only have to adjust that screw clamp once. As long as you keep using the same desk, the lever motion alone will allow you to slip the wheel on and off the desk with ease. Why hasn't anyone else thought of this? Maybe the same reason we didn't

Ergonomics
As stated before, the SideWinder is a very compact unit, but Microsoft has taken steps to make sure that it fits the hands well. There are deep grooves on both sides of the wheel to accommodate the user's thumbs, and the short-throw paddle shifters on the back are placed exactly where your fingers sit. The six buttons on the wheel spokes are right within reach. It feels almost like a steering-wheel-shaped flight yoke, which makes it feel fast. This machine is also the only one with a button on the center of the wheel to toggle the Force effects on and off (the others use a toggle in the driver menus). The wheel portion of the unit feels heavy and durable, and no wacky sounds emanate from it while playing, unlike one of the others we tested. Unfortunately, the foot pedal portion of the unit doesn't seem to have been designed or manufactured by the same people. It is so lightweight that it slides easily across the floor. That would be okay if it wasn't so smooth on the bottom. But it is. That would be okay if it had a pad on the left somewhere so that you could use your foot to hold it down. But it doesn't. That might even be okay if it were constructed so that you push down on the pedals, instead of forward, pushing them away from you across the floor. But it isn't. The net effect is that you are chasing the thing across the floor. And if you are unfortunate enough to be playing on carpet, you will spend most of the game either looking for the unit under your desk, or laying out like you are really driving an F1 car, straining to reach the errant pedals. In short, they aren't great.

Force Feedback
The Force effects on the SideWinder were great on the Microsoft games we tried, especially MTM II, but not quite as good on the other titles we played. The wheel feels a little too mechanical sometimes, like it is making a myriad of little clicks as you turn it, rather than going in one fluid motion. That said, there is a wide range of customizability within the drivers, and a large margin between minimum and maximum force effect strength. We just felt that we had to set it pretty high most of the time. The translations were quite good, the wooden bridge felt like a wooden bridge, etc. It wasn't any better in that respect than the others though they all performed well.

Price
The bottom line and this is where this product is weak. At $209.00 (MSRP), this is the most expensive of the three wheels we tested, $70 more than the lowest priced unit. We didn't have time to test the long-term durability of these wheels, so maybe time will tell that the Microsoft SideWinder is worth the premium price. It's a good product, but it should be a better one for that kind of money

Logitech Wingman Formula Force

Game Bundle
The Wingman comes with Gremlin Interactive's Motorhead, and UBIsoft's F1 Racing Simulation. It also includes a light version of I-Force studio, which allows you to customize the Force effects. You just can't save them to a profile, like you can with the full version.

Installation
The software on this unit was as easy to set up as the others: run the setup program, reboot, play with the sample force effects. Piece of cake. The clamps on this wheel are a bit archaic, two c-type pincer clamps with rubber nubs on the ends to protect the underside of your desk and keep the wheel from sliding around. Adequate, but no break-through technology here. However, the fact that it can connect via the USB port or a serial port is a little more up-to-date than the futuristic-looking SideWinder. The only drawback of the serial port connection is that you must set aside a COM port and an IRQ. If you have a serial mouse and modem, you might have to opt for the USB connection. Additionally, we didn't notice much difference in performance between the two.

Ergonomics
The Wingman Formula Force is a slightly larger unit than the SideWinder, and the steering wheel doesn't fit the hands quite as well, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. The Wingman looks and feels more like a real steering wheel: All black except for the bright red rubber wheel. Four easily accessible metallic silver buttons, and paddle shifters that look like they were lifted from an F355 F1. All in all a very nice looking, ergonomically sound unit. The shifters aren't as conveniently placed as the ones on the Microsoft SideWinder, but again, what the Wingman lacks in precision it makes up for in realism. The motion is smooth-as-silk, as is the Force resistance, the nicest feeling of the group. The foot pedals are clean looking, heavier than the Microsoft ones, and press down rather than forward. A little real but a lot more practical in this case. The only problem with them is that there is almost no pedal resistance, and very little throw to them. You have to be pretty careful of your foot position to apply and maintain the correct amount of throttle or brake pressure. There is even a great footpad on the left side to further help in keeping the pedals in the right spot.

Force Feedback
The Wingman has the smoothest, nicest feeling Force effects of any of the units that we tested. That not only makes a difference in the realism of the game, but can even help you play better (no, really!). You can actually get a better 'road feel' from the Wingman, and any driving enthusiast will tell you the importance of being able to feel the road. The effects are subtle when you sideslip across a lane of highway, and shake your desk when you roll over. It is also very customizable, with some great sample effects to help you test out your settings.

Price
The Logitech Wingman Formula Force checks in at $179.95 (MSRP). That's a pretty strong price tag, but the Wingman is a pretty strong product.

Act-Labs Force RS

Game Bundle
Act-Labs has included UBIsoft's F1 Racing Simulation with the Force RS. Also included is a full version of Immersion's I-Force Studio, which allows you to customize your Force effect settings and save them to profiles. You can then organize these profiles so that you have a different one for each game, user, whatever.

Installation
Well, no surprises here. The software installs in a snap, reboot the machine, add the controller in the control panel. Physically, this unit is held on the desk by a heavy clamp on either side of it. The clamps spin on easily with dials located directly above them. It connects to your computer by way of a serial port, and therefore requires an IRQ. Again, this may be bad news for those of you with modems and serial mice.

Ergonomics
The Act-Labs Force RS is truly a different looking animal. The steering wheel is large and wrapped with a stitched dura-buck type, tan-colored artificial leather. It looks like it has the most expensive construction of the bunch, and maybe it does. The wheel has three spokes, which hold seven buttons, all within easy reach and separated by just enough space that you won't accidentally hit two at once. The wheel's design has one really high point and one really low point. The high point is a four-position hat switch (in the shape of a subtly-contoured disc) sitting right in the middle of the wheel. This would be great for a flight game to change your point of view, and works very well in NFS III to steal a quick look behind you. The low point is the terrible paddle shifters. They are long and thin, with ovals on the ends... in fact they look like two plastic teaspoons stuck in either side of the steering shaft. They are flimsily attached, rocking up and down as well as back and forth during operation. The other really odd thing about them is they appear to be designed to be tapped from the front as opposed to being drawn inward from the back, like the other two. This arrangement doesn't work particularly well, and we eventually abandoned them in favor of using two of the buttons on the wheel spokes. This may be a non-sequitor as Act-Labs is releasing a gated (Ferrari-Style) shifter that will work with the Force RS. When that happens, the major weakness of this wheel may be eliminated (with the dropping of a few more dollars). The foot pedals look very much like the rest of the unit: expensively constructed, heavy, durable. The gas and brake pedals go down as opposed to forward, and they have a fair amount of resistance. You can actually rest a lot of your foot's weight on either pedal without pushing it all the way down. There is a huge footprint to this pedal array, so much so that you can rest your left foot on the pad on the left, or below the pedals in the center. If not for the brutal shifter setup and the loud noises that accompany turning the wheel, this thing would be darn near perfect. Lastly, we have to mention a special feature of this product that doesn't quite fit in to any category but has to be mentioned somewhere. So here it is: The Force RS doesn't wire directly in to the serial port of the computer. The wheel end of the connection is an affair that looks like an over-sized Super Nintendo cartridge. Act-Labs calls it an 'engine' and it allows you to interchange your pc engine with the other engines that are available (N64, Playstation, Saturn) for a mere $25, and use your Force RS with whatever video game console you happen to have!

Force Feedback
Well, not only is the wheel itself strong, so are the shakes and vibrations. Of the three wheels tested, the Act-Labs unit has by far the strongest available force effects. An easily customizable driver setup allows you to vary the effects from barely noticeable right up to earthquake-strength (and the I-Force Studio lets you save those settings to a profile so that Grandma doesn't sprain her arm when she jumps on the machine for a quick game of Motorhead). The effects were pretty even over the games we tried, except for MTM II, where the Microsoft seemed to be stronger at the same relative setting.

Price
Here's the kicker, folks. The wheel that looks like it cost the most to produce (and has some great special features that the others lack) costs the least to buy. The Act-Labs Force RS retails for a modest $139. Great machine, great price!

Conclusion
So, who's the king of the castle? Well, we rated these machines out of 100 based on several subjective categories like 'feel' and on some objective ones like 'price' and 'build quality', and here's what we found:

Third Place - Mirosoft SideWinder Force Feedback Wheel
Make no mistake, this wheel is a very good product. It came last of the ones we tested, but we only tested the cream of the crop. If not for the crummy pedals and high price, this would have been right up there with the second place finisher, maybe above. We just felt that for over $200 you should get a premium quality, feature-rich unit. That's only partly true with the SideWinder.

Score: 85/B-




Second Place - Logitech Wingman Formula Force
Of the three wheels we tested this had the best overall 'feel' while playing, and the smoothest force effects. But it doesn't have much to offer in the feature department, and it could use a few more buttons on the wheel itself (I hate looking for the 'S' key to drop the spike strap in NFS III). The pedals (and the price) were good, but not great.

Score: 88/B




First Place - Act-Labs Force RS
When you first look at the Force RS you think "Wow, this thing is wicked but I bet it's gonna be expensive!" After all, with a stitched faux-leather wheel in place of rubber, a ton of buttons, and heavy-duty construction the Force RS is a pricey-looking unit. And Act-Labs is proving that they are going to support this product by providing several available engine cartridges and planning a gated shifter unit that will work with it (who ever heard of a peripheral having peripherals of its own?) On top of all this, the Force RS will give you some (very pleasant) sticker-shock when you go to pay for it: for less money than the price of the Microsoft SideWinder, and only $10 more than the Logitech Formula Force, you can purchase the Force RS and have it upgraded to work with your PC, your little brother's Playstation, and his buddy's Nintendo64 (not that you'd be stupid enough to loan it to your little brother's buddy). This doesn't have it all, but it comes pretty close. Well done Act-Labs!

Score: 94/A




This review was co-written by: Greg Hanna

We would like to gratefully acknowledge Microsoft Corporation and Act-Labs for sending us their hardware for this test.