MC2 Wheel Review

With so many great racing games on the Xbox, racing wheel peripherals are becoming more and more popular. Not all wheels are created equal, however, and finding a wheel that has the right balance of value and performance can be tricky. Unless you try each and every wheel out there you can’t really be sure that a given wheel is right for you, but I can say that the Mad Catz MC2 wheel is among the best and is definitely worth checking out.From a construction aspect, the MC2 Universal wheel is very well made. The wheel and gearshift have rubber grips which keep them firmly in your grasp. There are also retractable leg supports that do a good job of keeping the wheel on your lap. Suction cups to attach the wheel to a table are also available, but I recommend using the leg supports and your lap instead. The pedal unit attaches to the steering wheel with a 9-pin connection and two screws and once you hook it up it is very solid. What is most impressive about the entire set is just how solid it all is. You can’t be too rough, obviously, but you also don’t have to baby it. This set is extremely well put together and will stand up to hundreds of hours of abuse.

Once you have everything set up the way you like and are out on the track, the MC2 Universal wheel performs like a dream. Every single aspect of the wheel works flawlessly. The pedals provide very smooth acceleration and braking and the wheel gives you very precise control. To be honest, I don’t have any problems at all with the performance of the wheel. It delivers a great racing experience with tight, accurate controls, so what more could you want.

I have used the MC2 Universal wheel with Need for Speed Underground 2, Burnout 3, NASCAR 2005, Project Gotham Racing 2, RalliSport Challenge 2, Gran Turismo 3, and a number of other racing games and it worked great with all of them. It takes a lot of practice to get really comfortable with using the wheel, but even when you are slamming into walls when you first start out the whole experience is significantly more fun than it is with a standard controller. Racing fans owe it to themselves to play games with a steering wheel because it is absolutely worth it.

Overall, the Mad Catz MC2 Universal wheel is highly recommended. It also comes in console specific versions for a little less money, but most gamers these days have at least two consoles so you might as well kill two (or three) birds with one stone and get the universal wheel. It performs like a champ on the track and is very solidly constructed so you don’t have to worry about it too much. To put it simply, this is a great value. You get a good racing wheel that performs very well and it is also compatible with all three current generation systems. For under $50, that sounds like a good deal to me.

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