Saturday, September 11, 2021

Thrustmaster Ferrari 458 Spider Racing Wheel

 The Thrustmaster Ferrari 458 Racing Wheel is an entry level racing wheel for the Xbox One game console. It was released on April 14th, 2014 with a retail price of $99 USD. It's a good controller for the Xbox One racer looking for a more realistic experience than a gamepad, but doesn’t want to shell out $$$ on a high-end racing wheel. 

The wheel has a solid feel, but lacks the force feedback feature of higher end wheels. There are also only two pedals instead of 3. This is fine if you drive with auto shifting turned on in your game. The wheel base features a ‘Bungee Cord’ mechanism, offering linear resistance and automatic centering. The wheel base has an adjustable clamp so it can be attached to a table or something solid. The pedal base stays firmly in place on a carpeted floor. The pedal resistance is firm and it is easy to loose track of how far your foot is pressing down. There are only a few tracks that let you run full throttle. On most tracks you need to let up on the throttle in the turns. Using the wheel will helps you get through traffic. But, racing games are won and lost on the turns, which still requires some degree of driving skill. You can now find them on Ebay for less than half of the retail price. I suspect they are plentiful because gamers start with this wheel and then upgrade to a wheel with direct-drive and force feedback.

This past week, China applied limits on how many hours kids could play video games each week. The restriction allows only 3 hours per week. Kids are allowed one hour for gaming, from 8 to 9 p.m., on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So, they can't pick one day to play for 3 hours. It's a 1 hour limit per day. Previously, they were allowed to play games for 1½ hours a day and 3 hours on public holidays. This applies to people under 18 years of age. So, it applies to kids, not adults. Users are only able to log in using their real names, and all online games must be registered through China's state-run anti-addiction program. The new rules are intended to curb "gaming addiction." I haven't heard much about gaming addiction in the USA recently. But, I'm sure its a big problem here too.

No comments: