Racing games feel more realistic when you have a wheel and pedals, but if you’re after the most realism, Logitech’s latest peripherals could make a dent on your games and wallet.
We can’t all be millionaires with a heap of land, our own personal race track, and a fleet of high-speed race cars to choose from, but video games can get us some of the way there. While you probably won’t afford your own personal race car, with the mere addition of a recent race game, a decent screen, and some solid sound smarts, you can bring that experience to you, all from your room.
To make it more realistic, you might want to add a peripheral or two, and that’s where dedicated racing controllers can make a dent. There’s nothing wrong with gaming using the standard gamepad, but a racing wheel recreates the steering motions of in-game car, while a pair of pedals can complete that look and feel, and these days, they’re better than ever.
In fact, the most recent pair may end up adding more realism and feedback from games than we’ve seen prior, as Logitech introduces a pair of accessories ready for the most ardent of racing gamers happy to spend up big to make their game racing experience as close to the real thing as possible.
That’s what’s coming in the Logitech Pro Racing Wheel and Pedals, two distinct gaming controllers that arrive with features designed to emulate a real car, completing the feel, and to a degree, the look.
In Logitech’s Pro Racing Wheel, there are paddles for the flappy paddle digital gearbox using magnets to make them feel like a real car, plus a proprietary force feedback tech that can apparently recreate in-car physics and the feeling of road conditions from the direct drive motor on the wheel. Meanwhile, the Logitech Pro Racing Pedals can register degrees of pressure, making the pedals respond the way a car might, with steps of pressure used as you drive and brake.
One thing worth noting, however, is that the Logitech G Pro Racing Wheels and Pedals are made specifically for the console you’re buying for, with an Xbox edition and a PlayStation edition distinctive to each. Regardless of which one you opt for, they’ll work with Windows 10 and Windows 11, but the Xbox edition will only work with Xbox One and Series S/X consoles (plus a Windows PC), while the PlayStation model will work with the impossible-to-find PlayStation 5 plus the much more common PS4 (and Windows PC).
That could be an issue simply because neither model is cheap, hitting $1499.95 in Australia for wheels, and then $599.95 for the pedals after that. All up, that’s roughly $2K at recommended retail price for a set of pro wheels for either model, PlayStation or Xbox. We’re told this is because each consoles has their own security chip, so a model that works on both isn’t actually possible, it seems.
If that means you have both and you still want the Pro Racing controllers, we’d suggest picking the console you use for racing games most, because while $2K is already a significant amount to spend on game controllers, doing both for $4K is just that much heavier.
