rec.autos.simulators

>> I want to get a gift for my husband - he has mentioned he would like
>> a simulated driving system for his computer (windows xp) with a
>> steering wheel and pedals. Can anyone recomend the best one and
>> where I can purchase it? I'm in Canada but can also get it on-line
>> if I have to. Thanks very much.

> About the wheel/pedals:
> The Logitech MOMO mentioned by Pat is a good entrylevel steering
> wheel/pedal combo, the ECCI mentioned by Milo is more for the
> 'professional' sim racer. Personally I would advice the Logitech G25,
> a bit more expensive than the MOMO, but well worth it in my opinion.
> (it looks better, has better Force Feedback, 3 pedals, and a separate
> gearchange unit)

> About the software:
> Put a few simracers in a room, aks them what the best racinggame is,
> and after a while they'll continue their discussion in the ER...

> Some games are more directed to fun, and don't simulate the cars as
> realisticly as possible, the so called arcade games. You hardly have
> to brake, can bounce of other cars, but you get a great feel of speed,
> and those games look often fantastic. Need for speed carbon, for
> example.

> Others are more directed to simulation. The game tries to simulate the
> cars as real as possible. It takes time to learn to drive, and can be
> frustrating at times. Most of these games do have options so you turn
> it into an arcade racer.

> The question is, what kind of game does your husband like? Does he
> seem to like arcade racers, get Need for speed carbon, is he more a
> racing kind of guy, go with the advice of Pat, get GTR2.

> Cheers!

> Remco

> I would only add the the Mrs, that asked the question, and to Remco's great
> info is, if he watches TV racing, or goto tracks locally (dirt roundy
> rounders) or even in bigger cities the go-cart tracks, to watch once in a
> while or???  What does he watch?  This helps us find you a "sim" or game
> that he might be more interested in, more likely to enjoy and invest just a
> little bit of time to adapt to racing on a computer.  Except for arcade
> games for playstation & nintendo, there are games and mods that take a
> decent amount of sacrifice of time, just to get "decent" at, let alone
> expect to beat others, which is your "payoff" or reward for the efforts you
> put into racing.

> Also,  Is the hubby a guy who knows much about cars & performance more than
> in general, some of my buddies barely know where to check the oil...  But
> are dang good coaches etc...

> Remco Moedt enlightened us with:

> >> I want to get a gift for my husband - he has mentioned he would like
> >> a simulated driving system for his computer (windows xp) with a
> >> steering wheel and pedals. Can anyone recomend the best one and
> >> where I can purchase it? I'm in Canada but can also get it on-line
> >> if I have to. Thanks very much.

> > About the wheel/pedals:
> > The Logitech MOMO mentioned by Pat is a good entrylevel steering
> > wheel/pedal combo, the ECCI mentioned by Milo is more for the
> > 'professional' sim racer. Personally I would advice the Logitech G25,
> > a bit more expensive than the MOMO, but well worth it in my opinion.
> > (it looks better, has better Force Feedback, 3 pedals, and a separate
> > gearchange unit)

> > About the software:
> > Put a few simracers in a room, aks them what the best racinggame is,
> > and after a while they'll continue their discussion in the ER...

> > Some games are more directed to fun, and don't simulate the cars as
> > realisticly as possible, the so called arcade games. You hardly have
> > to brake, can bounce of other cars, but you get a great feel of speed,
> > and those games look often fantastic. Need for speed carbon, for
> > example.

> > Others are more directed to simulation. The game tries to simulate the
> > cars as real as possible. It takes time to learn to drive, and can be
> > frustrating at times. Most of these games do have options so you turn
> > it into an arcade racer.

> > The question is, what kind of game does your husband like? Does he
> > seem to like arcade racers, get Need for speed carbon, is he more a
> > racing kind of guy, go with the advice of Pat, get GTR2.

> > Cheers!

> > Remco- Hide quoted text -

> - Show quoted text -

>> > Wow, thanks for all the information everybody. That's very helpful! To
>> > answer your questions, Plowboy, yes he knows a lot about cars in
>> > general. He has a great garage (the garage-ma-hal as known to his
>> > friends) with a lift and every automotive tool you can imagine. the
>> > shows he watches are usually on the Speed channel or the various
>> > channels that show fast high performance cars like mercedes and such.
>> > One of the shows he watches is called Top Gear. No, he doesn't go to
>> > local race tracks, although we did go to the Champ car racing thing
>> > that was here last summer. I don't think he's an Arcade type player, I
>> > think he's more interested in the driving aspect of racing. Does that
>> > make sense? Sorry, I admittedly don't pay much more attention to the
>> > subject than that.

>> With his mechanical background I would bet he would be interested also in
>> the setup area. Rfactor, although maybe a bit confusing to a newcomer,
>> might
>> be the best bet. There are so many different types of racing you can do
>> with
>> it along with setups and mechanical adjustments you can actually feel on
>> the
>> track. If you do go in that direction, you can send him to this forum and
>> there are many folks who will explain how all the mods work and gladly
>> help
>> as much as possible.

>> Ed

> Thanks again. I'll be checking out all the suggestions!