Couldn't resist when I saw it at Best Buy, despite the steep price.
A few first impressions...
The feel (texture) and face of the wheel itself is really nice. The
wheel has a thick, "ovalized" profile that thicker than even the
already thick grip of the original LWFF. The leather is tight and
there doesn't feel like there is any padding underneath, giving it a
rather hard feel without the "give" of the original LWFF cover.
Some may not like that.
The paddle shifters are metal, but they're thin stamped pieces that
feel somewhat cheesy. They also look kind of lame since they're
unfinished. Big hunks of machined aluminum look pretty in an
unfinished state, stamped pieces of 1/16" steel don't. Put a black
satin finish on these Logitech -please!
The pedal base is nice and heavy, and like other people have said, the
pedals are now on pivots. The shafts and pedal faces are still plastic
under metal covers, but they feel good. The throws and tensions are
the same as the original LWFF, so some guys aren't going to like them.
I'm OK with the original LWFF pedals as long as I'm not wearing shoes,
and I have the same feeling about the MOMO pedals. The good thing
about the "pivot down" design of the Logitech pedals is that they
stayed put, and the new ones feel even more planted with the heavy
diamond plate cover.
The biggest disappointment for me was primarily to this being an
unresearched impulse buy. I thought the MOMO went back to the original
LWFF cable drive for this wheel due to the housing, but apparently
they didn't. The result is that the forces are strong and feel good,
but the wheel has a lighter, undamped feel that in my opinion doesn't
match the superb feel of the original LWFF. I have less than an hour
of use on it, mainly playing Viper, so perhaps I'll grow to like the
feel more as it wears in.
My opinion right now is that the wheel would be a good deal for about
$120, but its definitely not worth the $199 I paid for it.
I'll keep it, and migrate my original LWFF down to my second machine
for network *** (faithful T2 gets relegated to third machine
duty!).
I'll post some more reports after I have some more time on the wheel,
including how the new and old generation wheels feel back-to-back.
Tim