Test Setup
Our test setup involved a 27″ BenQ XL2730Z, the MSI X99 Test Bench and the DX Racer King Series chair just to top off an optimal environment. The test setup was indeed the duck’s guts and racing games will never be the same for me again.
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Gaming was limited to only a few titles due to a combination of compatibility and what we had in the Steam / Origin libraries. We tested with Project Cars, NFS (2016) and DiRT Rally. We had multiple gamers rotating through the titles using the G920 and another controller, (either keyboard or XB360 gamepad) to see what they thought. Typically we used the Logitech X533 speakers up loud but there were times when the Kingston Cloud headset was the audio of choice. Overall, the experience was very immersive with visual, audio and tactile response all covered, the only thing missing was the smell of fuel and burning rubber.
Project Cars
This is the more serious of the titles we chose. Our difficulty was set to moderate and most of our driving was in a practice lap scenario to try and eliminate variables for our lap times. There were a few things that made the G920 feel completely different such as setting the weather to wet or changing the car from a typical car like a Lancer Evo or BMW to something like a supercar where mashing the accelerator caused the wheel to fight us all the way. It took a couple of laps to really get a true ‘feel’ for both the car and the track – you don’t get the same experience from a controller or keyboard. We’d change cars and then have to re-learn the track. Working to beat a lap time is one thing but when you have to pass other cars, avoid collisions, fall back into line or even push through while trading a little paint, the feedback on the G920 really brings the game to life. The damage model on Project Cars also feels more ‘real’ with the force feedback and a car will handle in an altered way if it’s been banged up earlier in a race. Whilst the damage model makes the races more interesting, it also makes finishing a race in a crippled car after a late hit more rewarding. The G920 enhances all of this.
Need For Speed (2016)
Whilst not as serious as Project Cars, Need For Speed is more ‘fun’ to play. The game takes place in a fictional city of Ventura Bay and has five different styles of game-play. You can choose Speed, Style, Build, Crew or Outlaw with story lines that cross over. I enjoyed the visual customisation, got a bit lost in the mechanical tweaking that you can do and tolerated the cut-scenes. NFS is one of those games where you rock from the start – everyone loves you and keeps telling you how ace you are at the beginning. As long as you do well, you will progress through the story line to the end. The game has real-world identities and recognisable actors such as ‘Amy’, played by Faye Marsay (the Waif in Game of Thrones).
Anyway, the nocturnal graphics are really pretty with brilliant lighting effects and very shiny cars. I don’t want to say that the force feedback isn’t as well implemented in NFS but it does feel very different to Project Cars – and it probably should as these are completely different takes on the racing genre. The racing experience of NFS felt more casual but it also got pretty serious a few times with some gamers who got into it. The music, lights and fast action makes this an enjoyable experience with the G920 and once again, I found that I was crashing less and picking the gaps more with the racing wheel than the game pad or keyboard. The variation and ‘open world’ makes for a more casual experience too in that you can choose what corners to take and if you just want to cruise, then you can do that too. Outlaw mode provides the thrill of the chase. Different game modes create varying driving scenarios and this is where the G920 probably shines the most – depending on the mode, the game can be pretty smooth or very rough and erratic.
Depending on your preferred style of racing, the G920 matched with both NFS and Project Cars is a good combination and means that you can just have some fun street racing or get serious and take on some real world tracks in high performance racing vehicles. I struggle to see myself getting sick of either of these titles with a G920 but on keyboard, the novelty of the games would probably wear thin in a few weeks.
Overall
Whilst it’s hard to quantify if something is ‘worth’ the asking price, we had a look at lap times and did the G920 make us better drivers in the games. The answer was yes across the board as nobody was able to beat their best G920 lap time with another peripheral. One seasoned racing gamer came close with the XBox controller but also admitted that they still felt there was a lot of room for improvement on their G920 lap time if they had more laps under their belt. The thing that I found most interesting was when watching gamers in Project Cars and how quickly people adjusted to the G920 and the improvement that we saw over just the first 5 or 6 laps – despite the different skill, age and experience levels, everyone seemed to make a rapid improvement initially. The first lap involved more crashes, then less crashes but slower top speeds, then a steady increase of speed and a decrease in lap times until after about 5 or 6 laps we started to see drivers pushing the boundaries a bit and clipping walls or going off the track on sharp corners due to excessive speed.
One thing to note is that the Logitech G310 keyboard is the perfect companion here too due to the smaller amount of desk real-estate that it needs. If you want to use this but still play the non-racing games, a smaller keyboard is definitely the go.
We were also using a DXRacer King series chair and although the experience was awesome, depending on the floor surface, it might move around on the castors as you work the pedals. As we were testing on carpet, nobody had this issue but I can see how it might happen on polished boards or tiles. A carpet square under the chair and desk might be worth looking at if you have a hard floor.
After 2 months, the pedal set didn’t seem to have any negative effect on the carpet and the spike strip underneath seems to be just ‘spiky’ enough for stability but not long enough to do any damage.
All of the feedback from our guest gamers was positive and we saw either a big smile or an intense look of concentration as our test subjects gave the G920 a working over. Last year we attended Melbourne’s RESPAWN LAN with a pair of Logitech G27 racing wheels for a showcase and the demo PCs didn’t get a moment’s rest. Although we had time to experience the G27 in all its glory, the event was only a day so our opportunity was limited. After spending two months with the G920 and racking up many hours of both Project Cars and the latest Need For Speed, we were able to fully appreciate the latest racing setup from gaming peripheral kingpin Logitech.
