My G25 Mini-Review

[panjandrum]

I picked up a G25 friday and had a VR racing party Saturday evening after we hit one of the local auto-cross club's last race of the year for some real-life fun during the day.

The G25 is a nice product, but Logitech's quality control obviously still has a way to go. The left paddle was slight bent toward the wheel (toward the driver), so it hit the stop before activating the shift function. The little Logitech emblem was held in place so weakly that it fell off as I removed the protective plastic! Better than going through 6 sets of pedals to get 2 that worked properly like we had to do with the DFP however...

I fixed both issues easily and got on with racing.

- The leather grip is slippery compared to the DFP, but easy to adjust to. It also doesn't feel or smell like real leather...

- The feedback actually seems slightly reduced, but not enough to be bothersome.

- The pedals are much easier to modulate, which might be the nicest feature of the product in the end.

- When you have the shifter in sequential mode (necessary for GT4), if you accidently push down on it while shifting it gets into a mode in which the shifter doesn't work properly, and the paddle shifters also stop working! DOH! Makes you wonder if anyone at Logitech ever bothered to use the product. Stick with the paddles and use the stick as little as possible.

- In the end, The G25 feels very much like a smoother, quieter, ever so slightly bigger (about 1") version of the DFP. In ways, this is good, as you can have 1 DFP and 1 G25 and they basically feel and drive the same.

There is no doubt it is the better wheel of the two, and at $199 it would be a good deal. At $299 you definitely get the feeling you are paying too much.

 

[trivium]

Hey nice way of spending your're money, but my question to you is, does gt 4 reconise a clutch ? I can't remeber reading anywhere about it, or does it just block the shift function when unpressed?

 

[DQuaN]

No it doesn't. That is why panjandrum had to use sequential mode with the stick.

 

[daan]

- The feedback actually seems slightly reduced, but not enough to be bothersome.

That may be down to the larger wheel.

 

[Gabkicks]

or maybe the game? try in live for speed and see if it feels weaker?

 

[MustangSVT]

Does anyone know if Race Driver 3 for PC can use the clutch and H-gate shifter? Or is it only the special sim games like GTR, GTR2, GT Legends, rFactor, LFS and such that can use it? Also can you use with Richard Burns Rally? Thanks.

 

[panjandrum]

Hi all. Sorry I didn't post this initially, I thought it would be common knowledge:

- The clutch does not work with GT4

- The shifter must be used in sequential mode with GT4

After driving for a few more hours last night with the G25, I have to say, despite the faults, I do overall like the wheel better than the DFP. They really should have bug-checked the shifter though. Here is the problem:

- Pushing the shifter down is 1/2 the necessary steps to change the shift from gated to sequential. The other half is turning a knob with your other hand.

- If you accidently push down on the shifter while shifting it unlocks whatever mechanism they've used to limit the shifter throw for sequential mode, which causing all sorts of problems. You kind of end up half-way between sequential and gated mode. Darn annoying!

 

[Amaxx]

So other then the little shifter annoyance, everything else has been good so far?

 

[ken2903]

same thing happened to me with the logitech badge thing on the wheel and it does feel "weaker" in the feedback to me, though maybe there is settings in GT4 to change this, i'm not sure.
sorry have to disagree with you about the leather. mine feels and smells like real leather, maybe one of the cows they used was different or something

also, i wish when logitech was throwing the metal around (wheel & paddles) they had continued this with the shifter, on the knob and the backing area that the buttons are on.
i agree, with a rrp of $500AUS it does seem a little pricey, but overall i am pretty happy with mine.

good work on the review

 

[BreakerOhio]

Can the clutch be used? I'm not asking about clutch functionality with the shifter lock out...does the clutch map to a button that exists like triangle, square, L1, L3? If it's possible to map the ebrake function to the clutch pedal?

Can you see if you can configure the clutch to be the ebrake?

 

[Eric.]

Can the clutch be used? I'm not asking about clutch functionality with the shifter lock out...does the clutch map to a button that exists like triangle, square, L1, L3? If it's possible to map the ebrake function to the clutch pedal?

Can you see if you can configure the clutch to be the ebrake?

I highly doubt it.

 

[panjandrum]

Can the clutch be used? I'm not asking about clutch functionality with the shifter lock out...does the clutch map to a button that exists like triangle, square, L1, L3? If it's possible to map the ebrake function to the clutch pedal?

Can you see if you can configure the clutch to be the ebrake?

No, unfortunately Logitech doesn't provide any kind of "program" button on this wheel, or on the DFP. It is one of my minor gripes with both products. Even the inexpensive Mad Catz wheel has a way to reprogram most of the existing buttons to perform different functions....

Drove a couple more hours with it this weekend. I'm definitely liking the wheel a lot. With a little use the leather feels more supple, and more like actual (albeit inexpensive) leather, and now that the overpowering plastic odors from the wheel are dissipating, it even smell like leather.

 

[BreakerOhio]

No, unfortunately Logitech doesn't provide any kind of "program" button on this wheel, or on the DFP. It is one of my minor gripes with both products. Even the inexpensive Mad Catz wheel has a way to reprogram most of the existing buttons to perform different functions....

Drove a couple more hours with it this weekend. I'm definitely liking the wheel a lot. With a little use the leather feels more supple, and more like actual (albeit inexpensive) leather, and now that the overpowering plastic odors from the wheel are dissipating, it even smell like leather.

Logitech may not provide hardware programming on the wheel itself, but going into Options you can configure and remap what function is attached to which button on the wheel. For example...I can remap the ebrake / camera view change / shift et... to be any other button on my DFP. On this note, is there anyway of mapping to the clutch pedal?