MadCatz Official Xbox 360 Force Feedback Racing Wheel Review

In the box, we have everything you expect, mounted pedals that come with an attachable foot rest, power adaptor, desk clamp and leg rests, gear stick, oh and obviously a steering wheel.  The first thing I noticed about this setup is that it looks fantastic, I was really surprised by how small the motor housing was, which left me a little sceptical about the power of the force feedback, more on that in a moment though.

The main unit has a really nice weight to it too, by which I mean its fairly heavy, a light wheel tends to rattle too much and will tend to rock about a lot when using the leg rests, but this isn’t the case here.  The part metal construction means that the centre “T” part of the wheel and the gear paddles feel great, with a slight brushed metal finish applied to them, which really helps provide both a quality look and feel, there is nothing worse than cheap plastic gear paddles that bend under your hands when changing gear, which certainly isn’t going to happen here given they are made of 5mm thick metal.

The wheel edges are finished with a very grip happy rubber coating, which is firm enough to keep your hand in place, but not so rough that you end up with blisters after a few laps of Nurburgring.  The top and bottom parts of the wheels construction however do feel like they’re made from the plastic of a cheap TV remote, don’t get me wrong, they are plenty robust, but at this price range, I would have expected a slightly better finish on all parts of the wheel, although while actually racing your hands don’t really make contact with this part part of the wheel, either way it is not really a major issue.

Everything else on the wheel is where you would expect it to be, the Xbox home button in the centre, surrounded by the Select and Start buttons, one thing I really liked though was the ABXY buttons, which have been raised slightly from the body of the wheel to provide easy reach and they also have a really nice finish on them, it all just makes it more comfortable to use when you need to fire off some nitrous, tap the handbrake or even just change the camera.  The D-pad is there too, which has a slightly deeper concave shape to it that a standard Xbox controller, meaning your thumb sits nicely over it even through some of the more demanding corners, plus its handy for navigation of menus.

At the back of the wheel you can see the very sturdy shifting paddles, which are finished in a soft brushed texture, giving your finger tips just enough grip.  Just behind the paddles you can also see the well hidden L3 & R3 buttons, not many uses for them in some racing games, but its better to have them and not need them.