Logitech G29 Racing Wheel and Pedals

Updated 11/8/22: Took off a few stars. After less than a week of using this I'm heavily considering sending it back. The dead spot in the middle just makes it too difficult to be precise when you're cornering, and it has gotten worse already. When I first got it there was deadspace out to between 1-4 degrees on each side before resistance from the gears kicked in (you can see the alignment in Logitech's G hub software). In less than a week it has gone up to 8-10 degrees. That's on one side, so counting for both sides you have about 20 degrees of movement where there's no resistance. That means 20 degrees where you get very imprecise, jerky movements. Not ideal for racing games. You can set the deadspace in-game to compensate, but then you don't get any movement at all up until that point where the wheel catches the gears. It's not any better. I've got "center spring strength" set to 100. This determine how heavy the resistance is, and how quickly the wheel returns to "center" when you let go of it. Again though, it never returns to center because the middle is loose. So it returns anywhere from 4-10 degrees on either side. Just too inaccurate for racing titles. Works good on slow-paced drivers, like American Truck Simulator. ORIGINAL REVIEW: First things first, I was waiting by my front door when the Amazon delivery guy came. He slammed the box on the concrete step in front on my porch. Didn’t drop it, didn’t “whoops! Slipped a bit!” Just straight up slammed it down. I had my door open and was standing there, but the screen was closed, so I’m guessing he didn’t see me or he probably wouldn’t have done that. I said, “Well… thaaanks…” in response and he just turned around and walked away. Reason for bringing that up is this wheel has no protection inside. The actual wheel rests on the bottom of the box, and even with an outer box it’s pretty much taking the full force of any impact. Unfortunately, in this case it was the side that got slammed down. WHEEL: With that out of the way the wheel has a pretty major dead zone in the middle. I’m not sure if it’s Logitech or fault or the delivery guy’s now. Doing a bit of research it has seemed to happen to some people and not others. But basically when the wheel rests at center it’s always off by a few degrees. There’s no resistance for 2-3 degrees. In-game that means any slight movement left or right causes wobbles, which makes it hard to be as accurate as you want to be while driving straight. I’ve spent probably 3 or 4 hours messing with settings in-game, in Windows and on Logitech’s (crappy) software to get it as good as I can. It’s not perfect, but it useable. Honestly though, at this price point it’s hard to expect perfect. This is definitely an entry-level set up. I do love the force-feedback though. I had a wheel when I was a kid (Gran Turismo 1 days), and it wasn’t as technologically advanced. There was no resistance when you turn so it wasn’t as easy to judge corners, and everything was plastic and cheap. This one is nice because you can feel the resistance on the road enough to lock yourself into banks, allowing for more precise cornering than you’ll ever get with a controller. There’s weight to the wheel itself, but it also gives the vehicles weight as well. PEDALS: The pedals are nice. Everything stays planted and doesn’t slip around when you’re pressing them. In fact, if your chair has wheels you’re more likely to push yourself backwards than you are to push the pedals forward. The accelerator feels smooth and responsive. And there are settings in games to let you adjust it even further. Playing Forza 7 I took the initial dead one down to zero so as soon as I touch the pedal the car starts moving. The brake is as stiff as the reviews say. I had to turn the end deadzone (where it considers the pedal fully pressed) from 100 down to 70. Otherwise you’re pretty much having to put all your weight into it if you want to brake fully. Basically, on default settings if you push the brake all the way down, it only reads as 75% breaking power, so you have to push even further than that to get it to register 100. It feels very unnatural. Even turning the brake sensitivity up to max in Logitech’s software doesn’t really help. But if you calibrate it in Windows game controller settings it will bring it down some… and then of course, messing with the in-game settings as well. So basically to really tune this thing you’re changing options in 3 different places. To make things worse these problems get exaggerated the faster the car is that you’re driving. So the steering wheel center wobble becomes more and more touchy the faster you’re going. Clutch feels good. It’s about as easy to press as the accelerator. SHIFTER: I bought the shifter bundle. It feels like a toy, honestly. Very small, and the throws are tiny. I’ve mostly been using the paddle shifters and those feel perfect. The clicks are satisfying, but they also feel light and responsive. SET UP: This was a pain in the ass to set up properly. I had G Hub on my computer already. It tried to update when I opened it and I got an instant blue screen of death. After a restart I attempted to uninstall it. It kept saying uninstall successfull but it never actually left my computer. So I had to jump through a bunch of hoops on Logitech’s forums and delete hidden folders.. but it still wasn’t uninstalled lol. I reinstalled it anyway and it repaired the corrupted files, and I finally got it to register the wheel. After that, as I mentioned, it was just a bunch of fine-tuning. Quality: Overall quality is good. I spent $400 total with CA inflated tax prices. The wheel and pedals were $250 or so. I think that’s around the right ball park for what you’re getting and the quality. It’s not the best, but it’s not cheap plastic either (at least not the parts that matter). Overall this beats a controller by miles, but don’t expect it to be completely useable straight out of the box. Take the time to set it up and fine tune and you’ll be fine. Will update as time goes on. For all I know this thing is a ticking time bomb after being slammed on the ground the way it was. Hoping it doesn’t quit right outside of warranty.