Just switched to PC and am looking into buying a racing wheel. I like playing Horizon but prefer regular Forza. In my opinion Horizon feels arcade like and while I know Forza is far from sim it is way more sim like than Horizon. I’m looking at the Logitech and also Fanatec. My question is do I spend the money on the wheel for Forza and simulators or does the controller work just fine.
Try the controller first if you have one, but a good wheel provides a far more immersive experience. Each brand has their own nuances and budget is usually the gating factor for which wheel folks get.
If you like driving games with physics, you should own the wheel. It is completely other dimension in comparison to controller.
The problem is, because of greedy Microsoft and Sony who decided to code force feedback and charge wheels producers a hefty amount of money for decoders, today there is no decent unexpensive racing wheel like DFGT.
The cheapest good racing wheel is Thrustmaster T300 RS (but make sure it has 3 pedals block), which is not cheap at all. Logitech wheels have old gear based technology wich is inferior to Thrustmaster belt driving, and priced just a little less than T300 RS
Do not use the wheel for this game unless you know how to use third party software to make them actually playable.
If you are looking for an actual wheel racing experience this isn’t the game for that.
Simulators 100% require a wheel to play properly since the wheel actually functions in those games and unlike in a game like forza, a single speed loss on corner exit could be the difference of losing 100-400 ms, and that’s per corner.
I use a Logitech G920 for Horizon 4 and Motorsport 7 and it’s a good experience in both games. That said, it is something you’re going to have to take time to learn, and moving from a controller to a racing wheel can feel like learning how to drive all over again. It’s just up to you whether you want to put the time into having a more authentic experience.
A tip for free though? Drop the outer deadzone of the wheel to ~60%. Even though the wheels support 900+ degrees of rotation, having to turn so much to get full lock makes countersteering much harder than it needs to be, and I don’t think it’s even realistic for a lot of racing cars.