So, In order to finish the installation, I connected the power supply, the pedals and I was ready to go. Although I had the option to use the Force RS with the serial connector, I didn’t bother and went directly with the USB one.

I turned on the computer and when Windows was successfully loaded I inserted the USB plug of the Force RS into one of the UBS jacks. Immediately Windows showed the “New Hardware Found” screen and asked me for the drivers, then I just put the CD that came in the packet and that was it. To verify everything was working ok I went to the Control Panel and opened Game Controllers, status of the device was fine, also I tested the force effects, everything went ok.

Now, the steering wheel, the first thing I noticed is that the wheel has got synthetic leather grip, it felt very comfortable, you can’t even compare it to those wheels you play in arcade systems for a few bucks.

The Force RS has got seven buttons in the front which can be programmed for any function depending on the game, they work pretty much like in a gamepad, however because of the position of them they are not intended to be used in the middle of a race when you are driving at 190mph.

Also the behind the wheel are located the F1 style gear shifters, they work as button 1 and 2 so they can be used in any game easily. In the middle of the wheel is located an 8 way d-pad which is supposed to be used to switch cameras but because of its uncomfortable location I see it as an unusable feature.

Finally there are some other buttons in the panel of the wheel but they don’t have any function. I read in the manual that those are for the RS model which hasn’t got any Force Feedback effects, the same happens with some little indicator lights which only work in consoles, apparently ACT Labs didn’t bother making different cases for the models of the wheels.

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