A gamepad is great for racing sports games.
A gamepad is great for racing sports games.
After playing racing games like Forza or Dirt on Windows 10, what should I get? I know the keyboard and mouse are not it. If a gamepad is better for these sports-style games than a controller, which one do you need to pick that works with my PC?
Grabbing a steering wheel and pedals would be great for racing sims. But using an Xbox One controller makes the best choice when playing racing games. Mechanical keyboards with optical switches do help too. How much money can you afford, where are you living, and which site is your favorite place to buy?
I would pick quality over price when buying a gamepad. I mostly use Amazon. Yes, I looked at a racing rig before and it got too expensive. I was hoping to buy the Thrustmaster Racing Rig, but on Amazon there isn't a better controller for sports-type racing games where small adjustments matter a lot. I tried the Logitech F710 after lots of research, but it didn't sound great.
It really depends a lot on the familiarity and preferences of the player. Some of us have only ever played on PC with keyboard and mouse, so not having grown up with gamepads means we suck at using them. Plus keyboards get you used to instant response in steering, which makes adapting to the slower, analog feel of gamepad toggles all the harder. You start to feel like you're snaking back and forth trying to correct too slow reactions to the slower response, and eventually it starts snaking too far and you can't keep up, when in reality, the slow toggle reactions can't keep up to what a keyboard player is used to. However, there are definitely problems with keyboard racing as well. The main problem is you cannot feather gas and brake, it's just full on, or full off. This is why most keyboard players have to repeatedly tap gas and brake at times. The game coding if schemed properly for keyboards can help with steering, by adding algorithm filters to turn in an arc via holding down the steer keys, but taps are still needed when the arc press is not initiated precisely, or the size of the arc just doesn't fit the turn. Not being able to brake gradually before turns and accelerate gradually out of them is a huge set back for keyboard players. However it's not nearly as noticeable in games arcade enough to allow for power slides. Even optical actuation KBs (mine is one of the fastest with lasers), cannot overcome the inability to feather gas and brake. In fact it only makes the on/off effect more instant and likely to cause tire spin while accelerating, and wheel lockup while braking. This is why most whom race on KBs need to use driving assists in games that have them. Sadly though, some race games, even popular ones like the Need For Speed series, do not support arc steering via holding down a steer key anymore. I find Codemasters is better at supporting this than EA, however now that EA owns Codemasters, we on keyboard may never see a KB friendly game from Codies again. And unfortunately the pressure sensitive keys concept for keyboards never took off, which could have certainly helped with this problem. Regarding the gamepad question, not too terribly long ago I saw what appeared to be an ingenious gamepad that likely would have worked extremely well for racing games. It was designed like a pivoting parallelogram, so your hands would move like they would on a steering wheel. The pivoting was the steering, and it had triggers for gas and brake, and buttons for shift, boost, etc . It was designed by a guy in Australia, but I can't remember the name of it or find anything on it in my search attempts. He claimed it could adapt to work with any game though, and some pro race drivers were raving about it. The parallelogram gamepad even worked well for shooters, because it made moving and aiming more natural. If anyone happens to know the name of it or can manage to find it via searching, please post a link to what you find, because soon I may need to start looking for KB alternatives for race games.
I finally decided to get a G29. But wait, I saw a game called Assetto Corsa on Steam. There are two versions: the first one says "buy Assetto Corsa" and the second one is "buy asseto corsa ultimate edition". So do I need to buy the first one before installing the last one? The last one costs more money, but is it okay with my G29? I use Windows 10.
The first question seems redundant. I looked at the Steam page for the game and it's clear they sell the standard and ultimate editions separately. Just choose "Buy Assetto Corsa Ultimate Edition" if that's the one you want. As for how well the G29 works with the PC version of the game, expect it to have full support. All you needed to do was visit Logitech's support page for the G29 to see Assetto Corsa is one of the games with both "Trueforce" and Dual Clutch support. https://www.logitechg.com/en-us/products...wheel.html Note that Trueforce and Dual Clutch are new features for G923 that are not yet widely supported. Here's a review on G29 vs G923. Here's a comprehensive review on the G29. It's basically one of the best budget starter wheel/pedal sets you can get. It's very commonly used and well supported. Fanatec and Thrustmaster make a bit better products, but cost more. There are also tons of videos on YouTube showing how well it works with Assetto Corsa, some even in 4K, and some with the latest Ferrari DLC, so take your pick and watch a few.