Thrustmaster T248 Review (Xbox/PC)

Summary

The steering wheel really is a fantastic bit of kit, I’m not usually a peripheral guy purely because of the space needed and the fact that the money I spend on a wheel, I could buy a few games. Here however I got the opportunity to use a wheel and now I see what all the fuss was about, the build quality is not just solid and sturdy, it’s clean and looks really flashy and expensive. The way they have made it so you can mess with the tension of the pedals, the responsiveness of the wheel, and the many customizable buttons make it so you really can play your way. Yes, it does still require a fair bit of real estate but it is just a wheel that clamps onto a desk and a set of not heavy but not light pedals that can easily fit on a shelf afterward. Now as a new driver in the real world I did find that by default the games I played like Forza Horizon 5 and Wreckfeat were fun but required a lot of tweaking, mostly because of the constant movement needed. No, it wasn’t until I used it with F1 2022 that it really clicked for me. Being an F1 game the movement was not as erratic and common as a Forza, I could tweak buttons and sensitivity sliders but honestly, even in default, it worked so well. Put it this way, with the wheel plugged in I would sit there and play F1 2022 for hours up to n hours, the wheel made every victory a personal achievement, every time I nailed a chicane I would smile and the wheel wouldn’t even bat an eyelid. Now for the safety part, the pedals as said are a tad heavy so they will be fine, the wheel needs to be clamped down as it does have some serious feedback force! They have kept the wires coming out to a minimum, a power plug, a cable to attach the two together, and a cable to hook up to the Console/PC. One of the cables has a breakaway section so if someone catches it will snap open and cause no damage or movement. I really did look forward to the next time I got to use the wheel, I felt a bit cheated that all the cool graphics and LCD displays were not available on any of the Xbox games, it did work on PC but it’s on a game by game basis and again it wasn’t as common as you would like. The plastic used does have grip properties to it but any greasy fingers will leave those horrible marks that take a while to clear. Overall though the sheer quality of it all and the way some games just excel the experience really do make this a must-have for any serious driving fans and in particular F1 fans, I will bang on all day about how good it is with F1 as that is the game that played the best and made me feel like a professional driver. So yes it takes up space and it won’t work on Playstation 4 or 5 and it doesn’t like game pass streaming games but it is a top quality low price entry into a world that you couldn’t experience any other way.