I recently bought a Microsoft Wireless Speed Wheel for the Xbox360 and have used it with “Forza 4”. It looks great and feels great. The Speed Wheel does pretty well as a casual gaming racing wheel controller and in that role it certainly allows good steering, braking and acceleration control; it is not, though, for the hard core racer who wants force feedback and much finer control. The Speed Wheel’s main advantage is that its small size allows the device to be easily stored and be more accessible compared to, say, the old Microsoft Wireless Wheel and pedals. To stop my (weakling!) arms from getting tired I mostly use the Speed Wheel by resting it on my lap or on my knees and only occasionally raise it mid-air.
The Speed Wheel has no ports for a headset which I can live with but, most bizarrely, the wheel lacks the Right Bumper (RB) button and Left Bumper (LB) button. These omissions markedly hamper gaming experience (at least in Forza 4); there are workarounds but these are very unsatisfactory. The Microsoft does say this at their website:
Take the wheel for easy motion-controlled racing. With the Xbox 360 Wireless Speed Wheel, experience realistic, accurate steering, and feel every bump in the road with rumble feedback. The Xbox 360 Wireless Speed Wheel is compatible with all your favorite racing games* on Xbox 360, and puts you in total control with intuitive buttons and triggers.
- Intuitive steering with motion sensors
- Trigger buttons for gas and brake
- Buttons for game-specific functions
A,B,X,Y for interactions
D-pad for navigation
Guide including ring of light, start and back
- Rumble feedback
* — Does not contain shoulder buttons which may limit functionality in some games.
Really, what were Microsoft thinking by not including the RB and LB buttons? A flawed product.
Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2011