Review Fanatec Speedster 3 ForceShock - Xbox
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04.07.2005 15:05 Uhr

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Review Fanatec Speedster 3 ForceShock
By: Dale Nardozzi - "Legba"

May 7th, 2005

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Ask anyone that own an Xbox about its shortcomings and they will probably have a hard time thinking of any. Now, pose the same question to the racing game crowd and the immediate response will most likely be: No force feedback! There are differing opinions as to why the Xbox does not support force feedback, and none of them revolve around the difficulties associated with programming it or its relative cost. The lack of force feedback support has kept many peripheral companies from producing wheels for the harder core population of race fan. You couldnt even buy a premium wheel if you wanted to for the Xbox, that is, until now. The Speedster 3 ForceShock by Fanatec was created with one goal in mind: To provide the most realistic racing game experience while working around the lack of the Xboxs force feedback support. Has Fanatec succeeded where others have failed, or havent even tried? We put the Speedster 3 ForceShock through the ringer, and below are the track results
Features Programmable force feedback effect Connection for Communicator and memory unit on wheel Can be mounted on table with included bracket High-quality rubber coating on steering surface Formula 1- style manual shift lever Analog-mode acceleration and braking with pedals or gear levers Ergonomic, non-slip pedals Twelve buttons (2 programmable) plus steering column and start switch Tuning function with configurable dead zone/sensitivity/vibration/force feedback effect/resistance Four programmable memory settings for tuning $149 MSRP
Setup The first decision you need to make with the Speedster 3 ForceShock is if you are going to affix it to a table or similar surface or attach it to your quads. Table mounting is straightforward with the included plastic clamp. The clamp must be manually installed in the Speedster 3 ForceShock for table mounting but its basically an insert and snap into place affair; no tools required. As with most wheels table mounting systems, the Speedster 3 ForceShock does not function well on a surface that is overly thin. You may have to shim the table or mounting surface with scraps of wood, or cardboard to build up some thickness for a secure clamping force. The Swedes like their furniture thin, so for our offices Ikea table, we used the newer slim-line PS2 as our shim, and it performed admirably in its new, under-the-table role. Similarly, this wheel will not work perfectly with the GameRacer Pro sit-down unit (due to the steering plates thickness) that we love here at the offices. Weve already contacted the crew over at GameRacer about this situation; hopefully they will come up with a solution that lets both units worked together perfectly.

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http://hardware.teamxbox.com/articles/xbox/1137/Review-Fanatec-Speedster-3-ForceShock/p1/

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XBOX MOVIES If you would rather play with the wheel sitting on your thighs, Fanatec has you covered there too. The Speedster 3 ForceShock was ergonomically designed to replicate a real race car cockpit as best as possible when the sitting on a gamers legs. Two side flaps can be folded out which are meant to keep the wheel from moving laterally. These flaps, however, will need to be folded in if table mounting is your method of choice. The Speedster 3 ForceShock isnt like most wheels you have setup for the Xbox since it plugs into the wall like the PS2 force feedback wheels. This doesnt make the setup much harder- just plug the power adapter into the unit and the wall- but it does say a bit about the strength of the motors controlling the Speedster 3 ForceShocks feedback and resistance effects (more on this later). The foot pedal unit plugs into the wheel and the wheel then plugs into the Xbox, and thats about it for the setup of the physical unit. Once the console is turned on, the Speedster 3 ForceShock wheel will sweep through its full clockwise and counterclockwise range of movements, then center itself, which lets gamers know its time for business.sweet!

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04.07.2005 15:15 Uhr
The final step in preparing the Speedster 3 ForceShock for battle is customizing it to the racing game that happens to be in the Xboxs tray. Since the Speedster 3 ForceShock was released at the same time as Forza Motorsport, you know that both Fanatec and Microsoft Game Studios had something up their sleeve. The game designers for Forza Motorsport worked closely with the Fanatec crew to ensure that a harmony between the two products would exist. The result is a preconfigured setting that was designed to work flawlessly with Forza Motorsport. A simple press of the Tuning button will allow a small L.E.D. display to show the various setting possible for the Speedster 3 ForceShock. Using the D-pad, gamers can scroll to the pre-set configuration 53 which is the factory settings for Forza Motorsport. There are also pre-set configurations for Need for Speed Underground and ToCA Race Driver 2. One slot has been left open for you to completely customize settings for a different title, or if you want to come up with your own combination for one of the three pre-set titles for a sideby-side comparison. To tune your own setup (or tweak the factory setups) youll have to use the D-pad in conjunction with the L.E.D. readout to cycle through the customization options. Left and right on the hub D-pad will cycle through the pre-sets, and up and down on the pad will change the configuration for each. Here is a rundown of the options when tuning the Speedster 3 ForceShock: Dead Zone adjustment range +3 to -9 This is probably the single most important feature for the Speedster 3 ForceShock wheel. Most wheels dont have this as a setup option, and most games have no way of adjusting it either. This is why most wheels are useless for the Xbox, other than the NASCAR wheel for NASCAR games and any of the wheels with ToCA Race Driver 2 since it has dead zone adjustments in its setup. Now, you can adjust this with the wheel and dial in the precise amount of play in the wheel before car movement occurs. Most games need a healthy dose of dead zone for the steering to feel like a real cars rack.

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Sensitivity adjustment range 0 to 5 The Sensitivity setting works along with the Dead Zone setting to achieve the proper feel of the steering rack. The Dead Zone is about mimicking the lag of the mechanical process that is actually turning a real steering wheel (no steering by wire out there that I know of, but Mercedes does have braking by wire) and sensitivity is more about rack ratio and scaling. If an actual cars 15:1 rack ratio (a ratio based on a complete pinion revolution and the movement of the wheel) moves the wheels an inch with every inch that wheel is turned then it will be important to try and achieve the same ratio (re-scaled) in the game. If youre a real nut-job, then you could probably even figure out the actual scaling necessary for you car of choice if you have the rack ratio data. The range of adjustment with the Speedster 3 ForceShocks Dead Zone and Sensitivity settings pretty much gives you the ability to match the wheel feel to the car of choice; ultra-quick for the supercars and boat-like for the crappy production cars, and everything in between. Steering Resistance adjustment range 0 to 3
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Yet another attempt by Fanatec to make sure that the overall feel of the steering is matched to your liking and/or the car that you are using. The Resistance setting has to do with the force necessary to move the wheel- this helps to mimic some of the feel experienced in a true force feedback-type setup. The force it takes for a driver to turn a real cars wheel has to do with a myriad of factors including drive configuration (FWD vs. RWD vs. AWD), method or lack of movement assistance (hydraulic, hydraulic with electric assistance, manual), rack configuration, vehicle weight and center of gravity, tire grip and contact patch, and. While three ranges of settings arent going to cover the resistance for every car on the market, the feel still can be customized to get you in the ballpark, especially when the Dead Zone and Sensitivity have also been properly set up. Force Feedback Force adjustment range 0 to 3 The feedback force basically tells the motor how hard to work for a given input signal. The force feedback feature of the Speedster 3 ForceShock is really a system that responds how the vibration of a controller would respond, but with a different motor and system controlling the result. A vibration system works by the distorted harmonics of two motors whereas the motor used for the Speedster 3 ForceShocks force feedback is actually rotating the wheels shaft. Keep in mind youre not going to actually feel a certain type of feedback resulting from the g forces pulling your wheel in a certain direction around a turn; this is the programming component that is lacking from the Xbox hardware/software. You will, however, feel a bumpy road surface jerk the wheel a bit left and right as it would on a real car going over a similar surface, or have a bit of shudder occur when a vehicle is traction limited. Depending on the force of the collision or signal, vibration effects may also be blended in with the force feedback outputs. A big collision will cause the wheel to move on its own in either direction, and will also cause the vibration motors to kick in some shake that vibrates the complete wheel assembly.

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Force Feedback Filter - adjustment range 0 to 4 Theres a great deal of data being sent to an Xbox peripheral when playing a racing game, or any game for that matter. In respect to a racing game, everything from a big burnout to a big crash, and everything in between is fed back through the peripheral as data. The Speedster 3 ForceShock takes this data and processes it into steering wheel movements via a motor on the wheels shaft; Just how much feedback is given can be adjusted with the Force Feedback Filter. A low setting means that the wheel filter out nothing, so every tire squeal, road bump, and car-to-car tap will be met with a jerking wheel. The higher setting will only allow the wheel to move on its own when a major collision occurs. Vibration adjustment range 0, 1, 2, 3 Two motors send an overall vibration effect to the entire wheel assembly, just like pretty much any controller on the market. The vibration effects can be set for four levels with 0 being no vibration effects and 3 being 100% of the systems capacity. The Vibration effects are used in conjunction with the force feedback motor to replicate feeling of being in a wreck or traversing over bumpy surfaces. Programming This feature allows the reprogramming of the factory wheel setting to match a certain game or your liking. Most games utilize the paddles as up and down shifting like an F1 car, but these can be mapped to something totally different with the Speedster 3 ForceShock. You may, for instance, want the e-brake on the right paddle in a game such as Rallisport Challenge 2 or the nitrous activation switch to now be at your left fingertips when playing SRS Street Racing Syndicate. Theres also the option to re-map the foot pedals to work as a function of the right analog stick instead of the right/left triggers. In some titles, the analog mapping of the right stick allows for more precise car control than when the triggers are used. The Speedster 3 ForceShock will permit gamers to separate the up inputs on the right stick as down movements on the accelerator and down movements on the right stick as down movements on the brake pedal. Of course these settings (and those mentioned above) will have to be correctly reflected in the games settings as well.

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Feel For an MSRP of $149, you should expect an extremely high level of craftsmanship in your wheel peripheral, and the Speedster 3 ForceShock delivers. Even though Fanatec is based out of Germany, you didnt actually expect the wheel to be manufactured there did you? It seems as though Asia is the only continent where electronics can be produced where costs to the consumer are low and the profits for the company are high. Yeah, the Speedster 3 ForceShock is made in China (big surprise), but its in the upper echelon of quality when it comes to 3rd party peripherals. One sure-fire way of knowing the relative cost of production on a peripheral is through looking at the materials used in its manufacture. The Speedster Force Shock uses at least four different material types in its construction, which is always more expensive than doing a single run in ABS or similar and using it throughout. The business surfaces of wheel have been vulcanized with an extremely grippy rubber which is probably the best feeling feature of the whole setup. The rest of the wheel is a pretty dense plastic, but no biggie, as you shouldnt be spending much time touching those portions anyways. While we dont mind the hard plastic on the wheels non-playing surfaces, the flashing (where the two halves of the wheel join) could have used a bit
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more attention in our test model; this really only comes into play if you grip the wheel a little higher than the 3-and-9 position. The wheel case is made of hard plastic but is smacks of quality manufacturing and intelligent design. Two colors of plastic come together for the shell that is ergonomically designed around those who want to play with the unit on their thighs. The pedal assembly has a massive piece of super-soft rubber in the area where the heels usually rest and a multi-color configuration for a bit of aesthetic flair. The pedal surfaces are of plastic which is a bit of a bummer, but they do look like real racing pedals down to the holes and silver paint. The best feature of the pedal set is not the color scheme, however, but the way in which the brake has been given a stiffer spring than the accelerator. The brake actually feels like a part of a hydraulic system whereas the accelerator feels like a part of a mechanical linkage component; correct on both accounts.

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The buttons of the wheel unit are contoured beautifully to the wheel spokes profile, and are made of a softer plastic that is used for some of the doodads on higher line automobiles. The buttons are even marked in a way that smacks of BMW, or in Fanatecs case, Germaneering, which is their trademarked term for the quality and design built into the Speedster 3 ForceShock. Even the D-pad has been though out- placed smack dab in the center of the wheel and built perfectly round, as if to mimic a horn button. Fanatec even went so far as to include 5 black, metal Allen bolts (which could even be functional) which represent the standard hub mounting system from well known wheel manufacturers such as OMP, Momo, and Sparco. The paddle shifters have been given a faux carbon fiber pattern and lightening holes which, in this case, are used as grip holes. Rounding out this showpiece is a silver start button that has been placed on the base unit to represent the pushbutton start of a race car and a green L.E.D. read-out for programming that looks like it could be a purposeful part of an actual modified vehicle. We would have preferred German Engineering on a wheel built in Germany, but one out of two aint bad. Youll be hard pressed to find a wheel with this quality of build and design at this price-point on any console or PC, and you definitely wont find something at this level for the Xbox. Play The first thing that reaches out and grabs you when playing with the Speedster 3 ForceShock is how the feedback motor allows resistance to be added to the driving experience. This is about as close to true force feedback that Xbox gamers are going to get. The resistance is half of the sensation, and at the highest setting (3), the wheel is resisting your inputs with its motor strength a good bit. This goes a long way in replicating the feel of a real car, especially when tweaked along with the Dead Zone and Sensitivity settings. The actual force feedback effects are kind of a toss up as far as how they help or hinder the driving experience. At their highest setting (full force, no filters), the feedback effects are in motion almost full-time which is definitely worth the experience. You may not be able to get around the track as quickly, and the effects may not be occurring always at the right times, but it still delivers a unique sensation. Your forearms will definitely be tired after a few laps which speaks of the motors strength that runs the show. The force it takes to resist the motors power simulates portions of real racing quite well, but the lack of a programmed force feedback system is apparent. The Fanatec force feedback system is a nice magic trick nonetheless, pushing what can be done without true force feedback to its very limit. The magic with the Speedster 3 ForceShock really lies in the customization of the steering feel, which doesnt rely on true force feedback. The ability to tweak the Dead Zone, Sensitivity, and Resistance makes this will useful with every game on the market and nearly perfect with Forza Motorsport. Even the factory setting for Forza allowed us to set lap times as fast as we have been with the Controller S, which is no small feat right out of the box. You can still tweak some of the settings even further but for the most part, the steering feel will be dead on. We had no qualms with the Need for Speed Underground or ToCA settings either, but even if we did there would be no worries due to the fully customizable configurations this wheel allows. Setup is well over half of the battle with a wheel peripheral, and setup is where the Speedster 3 ForceShock shines. Couple the plethora of setup options with a high degree of quality and German design, and we have not other choice but to deem the Speedster 3 ForceShock the S class of the current Xbox wheels.

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The Bottom Line If you think that your $149 is going to magically buy a wheel with true force feedback built in; forget it. The problem isnt the wheel. But, if you want to experience the hands-down best wheel ever produced for the Xbox, and dont mind paying just shy of $150 for this experience, then theres no way else to go but with the Speedster 3 ForceShock. The synthetic Force Feedback effects are commendable, the quality and feel are excellent, and its ability to mimic the feel of a any vehicles steering response is uncanny. If you own more than two racing games and can justify appropriating a portion of your Xbox 360 funds for a peripheral then buy the Fanatec Speedster 3 ForceShock wheel- your purchase will pay for itself the first time you set a new lap record. Overall 9.8

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28.06.2005 08:40 Uhr
Speedster 3 ForceShock Recommended Settings
Speedster 3 ForceShock Xbox Speedster Pure Speedster 3 ForceShock Features Press Reviews Compatibility Recommended Settings Speedster 3 GameBoard Controller Game Burnout 2 Burnout 3 Publisher Acclaim Acclaim -7 -3 yes program gear lever in wheel in wheel Tested Version PAL PAL Select Colin Mc Rae Rally > Masthead colin mcrae rally 04 DTM / TOCA RShe Driver / V8 Superstars Flatout Formula Formula 1: 2003 Codemasters -6 Codemasters -4 Empire Interactive SCEE SCE in wheel in game PAL PAL Codemasters -3 in wheel PAL "steering wheel" Comments

Recommended Settings

yes no
in wheel select S3 in wheel PAL select "analog controller"
Gran Turismo 2: rally Gran Turismo 2: street Gran Turismo 4 Gran Turismo Concept 2002 Gran Turismo3: rally Gran Turismo3: street Indy car series 2005 Midnight Club II Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2

SCE SCE SCE SCE SCE SCE

-9 -9 -8 -6 -6 -6
1 yes in wheel in wheel in wheel in wheel in wheel in wheel in wheel in wheel
PAL PAL PAL PAL PAL PAL PAL PAL PAL Controller "Typ 2" Turn vibration "on" 1 1
Codemasters -5 Rockstar Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Ubisoft Infogrames BigBen InterShtive Infogrames TDK SCE SCE -6 -4
Need for Speed: Underground Endor AG Fanatec is a brand of Endor AG

in wheel

Pro Rally 2002 Stuntman Super Trucks V-Rally 3 World rShing WRC WRC III

-4 -6 -6 -6 -6 -4 -6

in wheel in wheel in wheel in wheel in wheel
PAL PAL PAL PAL PAL PAL PAL
"controller setup 3" Select

http://www.fanatec.de/

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