Our 19th article of SolidlyStated’s longest running series: The Logitech G27 Racing Wheel for Casual Racing Gamers. This time around, I will attempt to set up the G27 racing wheel to play NFS: Most Wanted on PC. I say “attempt” because this game is a dismal failure for steering wheel owners everywhere and is driving this franchise right into the ground.
The 19th title in the series, Most Wanted was developed by Criterion Games and published by Electronic Arts, just like their 2012 title NFS: Hot Pursuit. Most Wanted combines a traditional favorite of high speed police chases, open world, and countless chanllenges and cars.
Solid Tip: Looking for G27 drivers or Logitech Profiler software? Get it here.
| Logitech G27 Solid Series Articles | |
|---|---|
| 1. Casual Gamer vs Simulation Gamer | 11. Test Drive Unlimited |
| 2. Setting Up Your G27, Made Easy | 12. Test Drive Unlimited 2 |
| 3. Need For Speed: Carbon | 13. Burnout Paradise |
| 4. Need For Speed: Pro Street | 14. Race Driver: GRID |
| 5. Need For Speed: Undercover | 15. Split Second |
| 6. Need For Speed: Shift | 16. GTR Evolution |
| 7. Need For Speed: Shift 2 | 17. DiRT 2 |
| 8. Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit | 18. DiRT 3 |
| 9. Need For Speed: The Run | 19. Blur |
| 10. Need for Speed: Most Wanted | |
A Tradition of Failure!
Electronic Arts and Criterion Games – good job taking yet another big dump on your core fan base! You should be ashamed of yourselves and I know you will read this. Need for Speed: Most Wanted is a yet another big step backward for G27 fans, just as Hot Pursuit was for 2010.
Criterion just transplanted the same control scheme from Hot Pursuit right on over to Most Wanted and it looks like they didn’t bother to use the patched controls of Hot Pursuit because a dead zone still exists at the center of the wheel. Not too noticeable going slow, but once you get up to speed, you have to oversteer for it to register.
Force feedback doesn’t exist (AGAIN), there is no shifting at all (AGAIN), no built-in LED support (AGAIN). Huge disappointment…
Need for Speed: Most Wanted G27 Settings
- Open the Logitech Profiler
- Select New > Profile
- Add NFS13.exe as a new game
- Open Specific Game Settings
- Check ‘Use Special Force Feedback Device Settings’
- Leave ‘Overall Effect Strength’ alone! (100%)
- Raise ‘Spring Effect Strength’ to 150%
- Check ‘Use Special Steering Wheel Settings’
- Set ‘Degrees of Rotation’ to 200 (to lessen dead zone)
- Leave ‘Use Special Game Settings’ Unchecked
- In game, go to Settings > Controls
- click on ‘Logitech G27 Racing Wheel USB’
- Map wheel buttons to your liking
NFS Most Wanted Controls
No Force Feedback, Only “Vibration”
Ever play a gun game at the arcade? One that has a little solenoid motor in it that bucks as you pull the trigger to simulate automatic fire? That is what amounts to force feedback in this game.
The vibration feature is about worthless for wheel owners and makes the G27 constantly buck/shake like its an arcade gun controller firing bullets. Bang, bang, bang, bang.
I made the mistake of setting overall effects to 150%. The wheel began endlessly banging on my desk, shaking everything, while my car sat idle on the road. I immediately had to ALT+Tab out of the game and reduce it to 100%.
In fact, the only setting that does anything is the Spring Effect Strength- and that doesn’t do much (just provides some resistance when you turn the wheel).
The Dead Zone
When Need For Speed Hot Pursuit was released in 2010, we featured a patch by racing community member Racer_S over at TocaEdit.com that would eliminate the dead zone, allow the use of your paddle shifters, correct force feedback, and give you 1:1 steering. It was an awesome patch! Later EA/Criterion released 2 patches that were meant to fix the dead zone issue alone. I didn’t even bother, as I was already disenchanted with the bad wheel experience.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work for this game (yes, I tried) and we are once again at the mercy of the developer to take care of us (don’t hold your breath). The best you can do is manually set the degrees of rotation down to 200° because that seems to lessen the dead zone effect.
You can technically use 900° with this game, but it would be pretty much impossible to drive as this is an arcade-style racer with already poor controls.
The Verdict
You can already gather my opinion on this experience. The last Need For Speed game that was any good for wheel owners was Shift 2: Unleashed. Even the last title, NFS: The Run by EA Black Box had plenty of controller issues.
If you haven’t already bought this title, I do NOT recommend it. Saying that costs me money, too, but I give it to you straight. If you already bought it and have come searching for help, you won’t find much. The only thing to improve the experience right now is to use 200° and set the Spring Effect up. I apologize on behalf of Criterion for taking advantage of you!
I had such high hopes for this game and was excited at the plethora of cars and open world… too bad.
The Most Wanted Corvette ZR1
thank you for making these reviews man! I appreciate it. I have had your site bookmarked for 2 years and i always check it when a new racing game comes out. The NFS franchise has lost my support until they support the g27. Because once you go g27, you dont go back.
Thanks Andrew! I agree, there is no going back and big name racing games NEED to fully support wheels.
excellent article SS dude, thanks for bringing the info, even if it is bad.
thanks for your honestly,
over ‘n’ out,
datadude
Yes I agree with your opinion in this article. Obviously it’s designed for controllers but us with wheels really would just like to have some fun too. A nice break from driving sims etc.
I sure won’t be grabbing this one.
So damn true! Now i dont know if i should sell off the game while it can still fetch some high price or should i wait and hope for a Patch from EA to fix the steering issue?
I 100% agree with you – Most Wanted is probably the worst driving game I’ve come across. I only wish I’d read your review before I bought this horrible experience.
Ya, I have abandoned this and went back and started playing NFS: The Run. It has somewhat better wheel support (actual feedback and you can shift).
Actually, did they ever fix the wheel support for shift 2? I know it had a bug where the steering lagged and any time you hit the esc key or alt tabbed out the steering would be completely different.
I did the Shift 2 setup article when the game was launched and don’t recall having any trouble with it – and I alt/tab a lot, especially when I am doing screenshots for the articles. It was one of the best titles for the G27 in the NFS series
Good points about G27 owners needing full support. I had already bought NFS most wanted for under $25 and after playing for 10 hours on the G27 wheel I am tiring of the dead zone and huge crashes. This has turned my online experience into a demolition derby rather than a race and I’m the one being demolished. Though I am faithful to the game play, the lack of full use of the G27 is disappointing. I own The Run, Hot Pursuit, Shift and three older issues of the franchise. Shift was great and my first game with the G27 setup. Hot pursuit was a failure and my only fun with that is with a joystick. The Run, I have problems with button mapping. Though Most Wanted doesn’t fulfill the G27 capabilities it still has filled in the fantasy jumps and wild police chases not to mention the many available cars by just finding them. For under $25 it’s worth the money.
If you are also disliking the total lack of Force Feedback, please also mention it on the EA forum. I use a similar setup on the PC with my Logitech Driving Force GT, and compared to Burnout Paradise & Dirt3 the Force Feedback is a JOKE on NFS Most Wanted 2012. To get this issue reported check out my post on the EA forum: http://answers.ea.com/t5/Need-for-Speed-Most-Wanted/Missing-Force-Feedback-settings-so-NO-feel-of-oversteer/m-p/293976/highlight/true#M3282
Been playing The Run a lot lately and just bought NFSMW.
Actually The Run is great with the G27,apart from the badly ported button mapping.
I have the strength at 80%,combined pedals and 900°and that’s it.
MW doesn’t like it that way at all,it’s like driving a high powered barge.
I lowered it to 450° and it’s as twitchy as hell.
you need to other settings at 100%.
I did get some feedback when using the handbrake so there is something there but The Run annihilates this title for the G27.
Still tweaking and hoping Racer_s still does also
Not bad settings at all. when i left it to the game settings it was pulling to the right. but setup like this its almost perfect. feels good. thanks. using DFGT logitech. if this game was in an arcade. it would have a wheel. why dont they support wheels more. sucks.
Ok is there a way to use the G27 logitech wheel in Payback???????? and if so how to do it? I have seen on Youtube
some have it in there to do this and that, it doesnt work? why? dont know. I also saw that an update was suppose to be
out Dec 19th for wheel support?????????? Cant find it??????? Ea said that the PC version would have wheel
support well their full of “SHIT”! I purchased it with knowing that I can use my Wheel to play the game???????
So much complaining that I just cant believe a major video maker like EA will just not put wheel support in
a racing game??????????????????????????????????? I just wasted money on the PC download if
their is no support for the wheel??????????d Will someone get back to me on this please!! “PLEASE”!!!!!!!!
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