Yes it has a USB port, but no, the DFP won't work with it, I've tried. If you do want a wheel though, the actual Microsoft wireless FF wheel is pretty good.
I was also thinking about a ps3 but ive seen a lot of negative reviews from it from people saying it's hardly any better than the xbox and the online play is rubbish
Which console do you guys have, what would you recommend? £400 is a lot to spend on a games console so it's gonna have to be a lot better than the xbox for me to consider getting the ps3
And also , is there a cable you can get for a 360 to accatch it to an LCD Pc monitor?
buy a base xbox 360 with the wheel.... only buy them if you got a hd t.v to play em on also i wouldnt buy a ps3 till gta VI and other games come out ( by then it should be atleast 50 £ cheaper )
I wouldn't give much value on irishnoob's opinion to be honest. The core version is not good because it doesn't have a hard drive and therefore is useless if you are planning to download anything or play in Live.
GTA IV is coming for 360 too btw, just shows how much he knows.
Out of interest, what are you intending to play with a wheel on a console? My advice would be just don't bother, I've never found a console game which is more satisfying to play with a wheel (including the full cockpits you find at shows) an arcade (GT, TRD, DiRT) or semi-sim (Enthusia, Forza) game will be far more fun with a standard controller IMO. Personally I'd go for the 360 just because it'll have Halo 3
Listen to ajp71. I wouldn't bother trying to get the LFS experience (good wheel, realistic simulation) on a console. Get a console to go in a completely different gaming direction (first-person shooters, RPGs, etc.) and drive LFS when you want to race.
Even First Person Shooters should be much better on the PC, because atleast then you have proper mouse aim. TBH I'm not really sure what consoles are good for
well its either gonna be a console or a proper lfs rig other than my awful desk. ive been looking at playseats and also the gameracer that im currently swaying towards.
Well it's a different kind of thing. A first person shooter on the PC is a more serious game where a console game is a quick blast experience. Halo is about the only straight conversion either way that works. Take Farcry though, the PC original was an awesome game featuring a choice of ridiculous one man army action or sneaking around throwing stones. Farcry Instincts is basically the same with some changes that turn it into a completely different game, they're still both very good games. The advantage of consoles is they're quicker and much better for 4way splitscreen fun, in a way that four drunk non-geeky people would never decide to waste away the early hours playing a bit of CS LAN.
I wouldn't buy a console to play serious games or to play online in fact I don't really care what it looks like, which I why I bought an Xbox off ebay after the 360 came out. I spent about £80 in total and got about 15 games, including some naff ones where I should have listened to IGN and some of the best games of all time, at £2.50 each though you can afford to never play some of them.
I'm not sure if the OP really wants a console or if he's thinking of buying one as a cheaper option than a PC, which in reality probably isn't true in the long run.
GTA on the Playstation required absolutely no skill at all, SA wasn't that great a game IMO it was just so easy with auto-aim and so fiddly without (the Xbox controllers are far better for shooting games IMO). On the PC SA was better, not terribly challenging but at least you could aim yourself. Hopefully GTA IV will be more like Mafia in being a slightly less comic game and more challenging on the PC.
In that case I'd seriously recommend investing in your PC/LFS rig. The commercial seats and so on are a bit of a rip off TBH, I'd recommend going down to Homebase and making your own out of some MDF (which they'll cut to size for free), a few brackets and wood screws. Then all you need is a drill and a screwdriver, I designed, bought and built my frame for less than £20 in under 2 hours. As for a seat, using an old car seat is the best way to go for cheap although you'll probably want to be able to weld (or ask someone nicely) before you attempt to make a seat and frame, my seat and frame cost me a grand total of nothing
getting a wheel for forza 2 or similar is indeed a good idea and the microsoft one does a pretty good job. You can be much faster with a wheel (same as any pc racing game)
I think it used to be more of a different thing (?). Today there are lots of developers making big titles for the consoles primarily and then porting them over for the PC. The formats are blending into each other and creating a kind of mediocre scene. I'm an older gamer now, for me it's getting harder and harder to find the 'serious' games (an oxymoron?), basically anything that's remotely sophisticated, complex or aimed at a more mature audience. Blood and guts doesn't make a game an adult game, it just differentiates stylistically away from games for 5 year olds, which I guess is pretty much how video games used to be percieved by most people. The market has broadened, but I'm actually starting to feel a little jaded here, and I blame the consoles. They might be helping developers make more money, but I personally feel a little left out. Maybe I've just grown up and I really need to read some good books or something. ?
If you do want a wheel though, the actual Microsoft wireless FF wheel is pretty good.
