Nascar Pro Victory
Score: 90% Developer: Thrustmaster
Function: It's come down to this. You bought yourself a couple racing games for your brand new Xbox, but don't think the standard controller is designed well enough for your liking. Bring on Thrustmaster's Nascar Pro Victory steering wheel. Whether you're sitting in a room by yourself or behind a desk at the office, this wheel has got you covered. You see, not only does the Nascar Pro Victory give you the feel of being in an actual car, but there are two ways to use this device. Grab your desk connector, and you have yourself a solid base. The included pedals add to the realism greatly. If you don't have a desk, don't worry. Thrustmaster has thought ahead and included a laptop mount so you can play anywhere with just as much feeling as if you were at a desk. What's more, the pedals can be detached. So, if you don't have a chair, you can just use the wheel-mounted gas and brake levers. In addition, the Nascar Pro Victory has the added feature of allowing you to re-map any button or axis on the wheel to another. What this means is that you can customize the extra features in games to match your button-pressing style. Finally, the wheel also has a three-way vibration setting, as well as a three-way sensitivity setting, letting you adjust these features to your liking without having to leave your current game for the options screen.
Performance: The Nascar Pro Victory steering wheel has all of the style and performance you'd want and expect out of a specialty device like this. The wheel seems to have high durability, and the included laptop mount is an outstanding new feature. Buttons are all located in accessible positions, so quick button-pressing is at your fingertips. Unfortunately, only the actual steering column and accelerator/brake pedals (and hand levers) are fully analog. None of the buttons are. This means that if any of your racing games take advantage of the analog features of standard controller buttons, you're out of luck. It may be this digital-only interface that actually makes the buttons not seem to respond as well as they should. Programming the Nascar Pro Victory's buttons is very easy to do. Simply press the program button, then press and hold the button you want to re-map to another button. Release, and press the new button. That's it. Now you can shift your car or shoot your weapon with either of the buttons you used. Changing vibrations and steering sensitivity settings is even easier. Simply press the corresponding button and the LED light will change from green, to yellow, to red, letting you know that the settings have changed.
Features: 8-Way D-Pad All Action Buttons (X, Y, A, B, Black, White) Vibration & Sensitivity Buttons Progressive (Analog) Gas & Brake Levers Start & Back Buttons Program Button LED Desk Clamp Laptop Piece with Removable Wings Detachable Pedal Cable
Drawbacks & Problems:: The only true drawback is that none of the action buttons have analog support. If your game requires this, then you may be flat without a spare. Also, re-mapping an analog function (say, the gas pedal) to a digital button won't render that button analog, but it will remain digital. Another worthy note is that the vibration function doesn't seem all that powerful. If you're used to true force feedback wheels (typically on PC), then you will definitely notice the difference. Other than that, Thrustmaster's Nascar Pro Victory steering wheel has a very solid design to it. The included laptop option and detachable foot-feet put this wheel over the top.
-Woody, GameVortex Communications AKA Shane Wodele
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