A steering wheel for XBOX one X for FH4 - is it really a bad idea?

Forza Horizon Legacy Horizon FH4 Discussion
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Hi Everyone! My son is turning 11 and he’s a FH4 fanatic!! (plays it around 8 hours a day on his XBOX ONE X ).

For his birthday I promised him that I’ll get him a steering wheel (I was thinking about the TMX Force Feedback) but when looking for it online I’ve been reading more than a few reviews which claim FH4 is NOT a good game for a steering wheel and that getting a wheel for that game is worthless and a waste of money.

What do you guys think? he’s been waiting for that wheel for ages and the last thing I want to do is to buy him a useless present for his BD… is it really that bad for an 11 Y/O??
(and if there are any suggestion for other entry level wheel or opinions about that TMX Force Feedback) it would also be great :slightly_smiling_face: Thanks!

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I’m playing on a PC, so it might be slightly diffrerent for XBox, but I think a wheel is perfectly suitable for FH4. In fact, in my experience, it’s a lot better in FH4 than it is in FH3. I’m sure some wheels are better than others, though. I’m using a Thrustmaster T150 and I seem to be happier with it than my friend is with his Logitec G923., for whatever that’s worth. One thing I will say, though, is that it took me a while to get the wheel settings tweaked to where it felt right for me because the default settings weren’t very good. If your man has the patience to play around with the settings, I’m sure he’d get a lot of use out of the wheel. In my opinion, it’s a lot more fun than a regular controller, even though it has a steeper learning curve. Also, I suspect that a lot of the people who say that FH4 is useless with a wheel gave up pretty quickly on trying to get the settings right.

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Get the wheel. I own the TMX and FH4, I also own a more expensive TM 300 setup that was actually stolen from me by my 11 year old at the time (now many years older)! Worked out great.
FH4 is one of the best games for using a wheel…the variety is amazing and you aren’t limited to tracks like you are on most sims.

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I have a Logitech G920 and as others have said it can take quite a while to get it set up the way you like it. It’s so much more immersive for general gameplay, but the reality is you’ll struggle to be as fast with a wheel as you are with a controller unless you put many, many hours in. I’m not a fan of drifting but I think that’s quite a bit more challenging than with a controller too.

My kids have loved spending time with the wheel, and despite not being as quick I had way more fun with a wheel. So your/his mileage might vary, but I’d say go for it!

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I wouldn’t get a wheel for his BD, you need another plan. Think of something else that he might like for the same price.

Ibanez Mikro guitar for example. You will need an amp.

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Don’t believe everything thing or for that matter anything you read online. Most of it is nothing but opinions. I use a wheel on FH4 and have on all games for the last 15 years or so. I have owned some very expensive wheels also. Once set up correctly a Wheel works fine with FH4. I currently use a Logitech TX leather edition. At first I had issues with the way it felt around center very vague and was not giving me the feed back wanted. But the problem was not FH4 but my drivers not being updated. My well was older and I had not used it in a few years so we very outdated. Once updated and reset to FH4 defaults it took just a little time to get it dialed in for what I like. It works very good now and he will really enjoy playing with a wheel.

Even if you buy a new one check the firmware when you set it up. I have bought new wheels before that were several revisions down right out of the box. Each manufacture will have a support section on there web site you can download the latest drivers from. You will have to hook up to a PC to update the drivers. Also look to see if they have recommended starting setting for each game. It is better then looking at forums for so called perfect set up. The settings are personal in what you perfer. It is found by trail and error trying different things to find out what works with your driving style. Kind like the tune on a car in the game a lot is how you drive is what kind of tune you need. Same with the wheel, Do you like more feeling of understeering/Over steering, do you like a lot of center return spring or lighter, do you like 900 degrees of rotation or something less?

I can tell you this that for FH4 it is harder to drive the cars with a Wheel until you learn how. A lot of the assists they have built in for the controller are not present for the wheel. So you can’t just drive all out and get away with it. You have to learn the difference. What is hard for younger kids to understand is the slow in fast out cornering is actually faster then coming into a corner and blowing the apex as you are getting on the gas later. Yes you might pass someone going in but you will get passed by the end of the next straight. If you think he will stick with it then it will be worth it and he will learn a lot and enjoy it.

I am almost 60 and I have been driving with a wheel on games from the time the first wheel was available. Now my Son (now grown) never liked the wheel even though I always had one set up. Even built my own stand years ago with a seat for a car just like you see now available to buy. If he really enjoys the wheel that is what he will want next.

Hope this helps you make your decision on what to do.

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Thanks everyone for the smart suggestions and opinions - I’m definitely gonna go for it :slight_smile:

Worst case scenario - I’ll just have a new toy for myself (and get the kid something else for his BD :wink:

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Hi all! Me again :slight_smile:

So eventually we went for the TMX force feedback and the kid absolutely loves it!! Thanks again for everyone’s help!

One thing that we still didn’t completely figure out yet is how come every time we stop playing for a while, the pedals are no longer being recognized (especially the gas pedal) and the only way we are able to play using these pedals again is by disconcerting its cable from the actual wheel and then reconnect it.

Is anyone familiar with that problem and the way to hopefully solve it?

Thanks :slight_smile:

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Not had that happen.

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So glad to hear that your son loves the wheel. Now get him F1 2021 so he has some variety to play.

I am not sure if that is the same issue I have seen but if I turn the xbox controller on for something like taking pic’s or working through tuning a car, I will get either a flaky feeling peddles like more on and off then a range of engagement. I notice it more on the gas since it applys to much coming out of a corning and spins. But I have also had other buttons completely quit working too. To fix this I have to either unplug wheel from xbox or hard reboot xbox. It has something to do with having both on at one time.

The wheel does not have enough buttons on it to map everything so it can be pain since some functions I do not use like chat and rewind make me map them anyway. So for the horn and Telemetry I map it to my clutch peddle since I do not use it anymore for a clutch. I switch it in settings depending on if I am tuning a car or playing Eliminator.

Hope this helps and so glad he is loving the wheel.

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Yeah, I also us a TMX and I experience the same thing,. I use a USB extension cable and power extension cable so I just unplug both, re-plug both and the wheel re-calibrates and usually the game will detect it again. Worst case just reboot the game (shut it down and restart it).

PS: If you are having trouble with the wheel keeping the cars on the track, the default wheel settings kind of suck :slight_smile:

Try these tips:

  1. Make sure your wheel is in the correct rotation mode:
    Setting the wheel in-game to 900 degrees on xbox (the lowest slider in the advanced wheel menu) is part one, the second part involves holding down the little button on the wheel above the xbox button on the base of the wheel, front lower-right on mine. If you hold that little black button down and click the left shifter paddle (together) you will set the wheel itself (the hardware) into one of 4 settings. You will find that as you rotate through these 4 settings the wheel is either in 900 degree mode, 700, 500 and I think 260 or something like that. This is independent of the in-game slider setting.

You want the one where turning your wheel matches the in-cockpit turning of the wheel, then they are in sync.

  1. Turn off wheel dampening. you can literally leave all the other settings alone but turning off dampening is going to make things feel more natural with the TMX wheel. Worth a try if he’s struggling.