Finally the beast has arrived. Ever since I have joined Techenclave, I have always drooled to have something that is neighbors envy owners pride. And everytime I made a purchase, either I ended up with the wrong product, or ended up with something high end, but COMMON. Today I am a proud owner of Logitech G25, the first in our small forum.... drool:bleh:
Now before I begin the review of the product, let me first inform you of the exemplary service offered by Logitech India. My special thanks to Moninder who heads Logitech India and Singapore. Its only due to his efforts that the complete Logitech team got behind me, to ensure that I become one of the few owners of G25 in India. Not only did they offer great service, they offered me a tempting price that I couldnt resist. Kudos to Logitech for having such great leaders heading them. I am sure as our government relaxes tarrif Logitech lifestyle products would become even more competitive.
Ok so without further wait, let me tell you today I recieved my Logitech G25 and have spent the last 3 hours play GTRII. The product came from Singapore, was held up for customs for a few days. But Logitech promptly called me to pick up the steering as soon as it was delivered. The billing was done through Rashi peripherals. Rashi executives were very supportive of our communities. And promised to offer GOs in the lifestyle products, provided we have enough orders and interest.
The steering arrived in a brown box:
Sorry for the quality of the pictures, taken from the old Samsung 1.3 megapixel camera phone.
Upon opening the box, here is the real deal the Logitech boxes I have gotten used too, nice color scheme:
Inside the box was nicely packed and neatly arranged:
The next step was unpacking the whole stuff... here is why they say, put the pedal to the metal:
The pedals are simply awesome. Takes quite a lot of power to get them moving, but thats covered later for the review.
Next up was the gear lever. A little note here, the gear lever is nicely wrapped in leather, however its perhaps the weakest link in the armor here. As the build is not as great as the rest of the materials. Nonetheless a huge improvement than the momo. In addition another great thing about the gear lever is that it can be attached to the left or the right of the steering, which is great for ppl used to right hand drive.
I had been tired after full days work so it took a while to setup the whole steering to the desk. It took me 10 minutes to assemble the whole thing... If I had the energy I could have done it in a minute
hyeah: .
This is how this looks like on my desk, forgive the clustered wiring, tooo lazy to arrange stuff.
Now that the formality of pictures is behind is. Here comes the real part. I already own Formula Force EX steering from Logitech which is no slouch, and have been playing GTRII, LFS online for an year. I spent a good last 3 hours playing with this new setup and here are my observations.
Steering:
The steering is FRIGGIN AWESOME, the fresh smell of leather, the great grip. It just feels right. No rattles, no shaky flaky, just rock solid grip. It has only 2 buttons unlike the Momo or the Formula Force, it has two silver gear lever knobs only. But the gear shifts on the steering give a nice click and have awesome feel. The steering itself is absolutely PERFECT! I no longer have to fight the car, or compromise with low Force settings, but I can now set the force settings to MAX and still have perfect control over the car. The 900 degrees motion is accurate and the dual motors provide you the precise feel of the tarmack. I can virtually feel when I loose grip and traction. The great difference over Momo or Formula Force is, that I am in charge. I am not fighting the wheel, but I am telling it what to do. Precise, Perfect, and Playable!
Gear Shift:
The gear shift is where you have all your buttons. Its a six speed gear box. Which can also be configured in upshift-downshift mode. It has nice leather grip. It would take time getting used to using the buttons on the gear shift as opposed to the steering, but I am not complaining.
Pedals:
They look MEAN!!! When I saw them in Dubai earlier this year, I literally wanted to buy this, but the PRICE gave me a heart attack. However after recovering from the heart attack, thanks to the mouth to mouth from my fiancehyeah: I finally had enough moolah to buy this steering. The pedals have been made friom real metal. I am not used to them. They require more power than the ones I am used to, perhaps I need to wear my shoes. They are precisely like our regular cars. The brake is tighter than the clutch and the accelerator is the lightest. All in all, drool, drool, drool!!!
Game Play:
I have been playing GTRII for last 2 hours. I have been setting up my best times so far. Finally I am in total control of the car. It looks like I have added extra wing/downforce to the car, just by changing the steering. I am not used to the gear shift or the clutch, so it would definitely take more time getting used to. All in all it has been great so far.
Verdict:
At Rs.16000/ this is competitive compared to the price its sold for in the rest of the world. You do get a lot of " This guy got a steering for 16k, he must be crazy looks" but than again you only live once. This is one peace of hardware that any gamer would dream off, specially if you are into real simulator games like GTRII, LFS. This steering is definitely not for a Need for Speed kind of racer. Even at this price, this steering offers an experience that one can only get in 1000 dollar simulators. It immidiiately improved my lap times. Logitech has finally made a product that is the GOD of all force feedback steerings and it works with PS3 too :clap: . This is perhaps as close to me driving a Ferrari would get, at least I can do this in virtual life.
If you do crave car sims, have a lil moolah with you, than you definitely cant go wrong with product. It has been made with passion and it shows. Lastly, the service support of Logitech is excellent and thats just another feather to this steerings cap.
P.S. - My former Logitech Formula Force EX is available in the market section at a throw away price. Its the most VFM force feedback product.
Now before I begin the review of the product, let me first inform you of the exemplary service offered by Logitech India. My special thanks to Moninder who heads Logitech India and Singapore. Its only due to his efforts that the complete Logitech team got behind me, to ensure that I become one of the few owners of G25 in India. Not only did they offer great service, they offered me a tempting price that I couldnt resist. Kudos to Logitech for having such great leaders heading them. I am sure as our government relaxes tarrif Logitech lifestyle products would become even more competitive.
Ok so without further wait, let me tell you today I recieved my Logitech G25 and have spent the last 3 hours play GTRII. The product came from Singapore, was held up for customs for a few days. But Logitech promptly called me to pick up the steering as soon as it was delivered. The billing was done through Rashi peripherals. Rashi executives were very supportive of our communities. And promised to offer GOs in the lifestyle products, provided we have enough orders and interest.
The steering arrived in a brown box:
Sorry for the quality of the pictures, taken from the old Samsung 1.3 megapixel camera phone.
Upon opening the box, here is the real deal the Logitech boxes I have gotten used too, nice color scheme:
Inside the box was nicely packed and neatly arranged:
The next step was unpacking the whole stuff... here is why they say, put the pedal to the metal:
The pedals are simply awesome. Takes quite a lot of power to get them moving, but thats covered later for the review.
Next up was the gear lever. A little note here, the gear lever is nicely wrapped in leather, however its perhaps the weakest link in the armor here. As the build is not as great as the rest of the materials. Nonetheless a huge improvement than the momo. In addition another great thing about the gear lever is that it can be attached to the left or the right of the steering, which is great for ppl used to right hand drive.
I had been tired after full days work so it took a while to setup the whole steering to the desk. It took me 10 minutes to assemble the whole thing... If I had the energy I could have done it in a minute
hyeah: .This is how this looks like on my desk, forgive the clustered wiring, tooo lazy to arrange stuff.
Now that the formality of pictures is behind is. Here comes the real part. I already own Formula Force EX steering from Logitech which is no slouch, and have been playing GTRII, LFS online for an year. I spent a good last 3 hours playing with this new setup and here are my observations.
Steering:
The steering is FRIGGIN AWESOME, the fresh smell of leather, the great grip. It just feels right. No rattles, no shaky flaky, just rock solid grip. It has only 2 buttons unlike the Momo or the Formula Force, it has two silver gear lever knobs only. But the gear shifts on the steering give a nice click and have awesome feel. The steering itself is absolutely PERFECT! I no longer have to fight the car, or compromise with low Force settings, but I can now set the force settings to MAX and still have perfect control over the car. The 900 degrees motion is accurate and the dual motors provide you the precise feel of the tarmack. I can virtually feel when I loose grip and traction. The great difference over Momo or Formula Force is, that I am in charge. I am not fighting the wheel, but I am telling it what to do. Precise, Perfect, and Playable!
Gear Shift:
The gear shift is where you have all your buttons. Its a six speed gear box. Which can also be configured in upshift-downshift mode. It has nice leather grip. It would take time getting used to using the buttons on the gear shift as opposed to the steering, but I am not complaining.
Pedals:
They look MEAN!!! When I saw them in Dubai earlier this year, I literally wanted to buy this, but the PRICE gave me a heart attack. However after recovering from the heart attack, thanks to the mouth to mouth from my fiance
hyeah: I finally had enough moolah to buy this steering. The pedals have been made friom real metal. I am not used to them. They require more power than the ones I am used to, perhaps I need to wear my shoes. They are precisely like our regular cars. The brake is tighter than the clutch and the accelerator is the lightest. All in all, drool, drool, drool!!!Game Play:
I have been playing GTRII for last 2 hours. I have been setting up my best times so far. Finally I am in total control of the car. It looks like I have added extra wing/downforce to the car, just by changing the steering. I am not used to the gear shift or the clutch, so it would definitely take more time getting used to. All in all it has been great so far.
Verdict:
At Rs.16000/ this is competitive compared to the price its sold for in the rest of the world. You do get a lot of " This guy got a steering for 16k, he must be crazy looks" but than again you only live once. This is one peace of hardware that any gamer would dream off, specially if you are into real simulator games like GTRII, LFS. This steering is definitely not for a Need for Speed kind of racer. Even at this price, this steering offers an experience that one can only get in 1000 dollar simulators. It immidiiately improved my lap times. Logitech has finally made a product that is the GOD of all force feedback steerings and it works with PS3 too :clap: . This is perhaps as close to me driving a Ferrari would get, at least I can do this in virtual life.
If you do crave car sims, have a lil moolah with you, than you definitely cant go wrong with product. It has been made with passion and it shows. Lastly, the service support of Logitech is excellent and thats just another feather to this steerings cap.
P.S. - My former Logitech Formula Force EX is available in the market section at a throw away price. Its the most VFM force feedback product.
