Earlier in the year, I took a look at ActLabs RS racing wheel system. This time I take a look at their force feedback variant, the Force RS.

Aww, the passion of racing in real life, there's no feeling like it. Your blood pressure rises, you sweat heavily in anticipation of the next maneuver, the sounds, smells and the constant vibration as man and machine begin to break the threshold of speed. PC racing simulations can give you somewhat of a perspective of what it is like to go battle head-to-head on the track with your adversaries on the track. These simulations can be so closely modeled that professional racecar drivers use these simulations to get them rhythm and what lies for them at an upcoming track. Yet, the only problem with any simulation, is the lack of feedback in the area of feel or inertia. You know the loads or G's that the driver feels as he drives on the track or when in flight. So basically, simulations give you a two dimensional perspective, unless you are the fortunate few to have really raced on track. In order for success with these simulations, is to have the ability to have a "sixth sensory sense" in knowing how exactly your car is reacting to the situation at hand that is on your monitor screen. But you really can't get this "sixth sense" without really getting familiar with simulation. It's going to take some time for you to get accustomed and when I mean by time, it can vary from a couple of days to months or even years!


Is there a faster way to get a better feel?

In layman's terms, yes. The currently there is force feedback. But majority of the developers feel that the current API is not up to par in the area of simulation realism. Remember, if you are going to implement force feedback into a sim, rest assured that there are going to be people to wanting these sensations transferred to the device as realistically as possible. Diehard fans will cry and bitch if a game really doesn't model properly.

With the current crop of the auto racing genre, there aren't much that really model a car's physics correctly. I feel that Viper Racing by Sierra Sports gives the best sensations of a car to date.

When ActLabs sent me their Force RS for review, I was very excited to be given a chance. Since my experience with their RS racing system was a good one.


So what comes with it?

Besides a beautiful box that was well organized internally, the following goods could be found inside:

• ActLabs Force RS steering unit
  
• ActLabs PC Cartridge: connection is done via serial port, you can get another cartridge if you decide to switch to USB
  
• ActLabs Force Pedal unit
  
• ActLabs Force owners manual
  
• FULL Version of EA's Need For Speed III
  
• Demo of Ubisoft's Monaco Grand Prix Racing Simulation
  
• Power supply
  
• Drivers CD and software