Thrustmaster TX XBox One Racing Wheel

Thrustmaster Support wrote:FORZA 5 & TX RACING WHEEL: Second Forza Motorsport 5 update scheduled for mid-December.
Additional forces optimization and fine-tuning of TX Force Feedback Effects with Forza Motorsport 5 will be included in Forza Motorsport 5 second update scheduled mid-December – This will bring great additional enhancement such as improved forces strength, optimizing wheel & controller profile management, providing user option to set the degrees of rotation.

ZeroKFE on FM.net wrote:
So, my Thrustmaster TX wheel arrived yesterday, and overall I like it a lot.

I only had time to play for about an hour or so last night after getting the firmware updated and setting it up on my wheel stand, but it was definitely a good hour. This wheel is replacing my old Fanatec gear -- a CSR wheel, CSR Elite Pedals, and a CSR shifter set -- and by and large it compares quite favorably.

First, the low points:

As pictures indicate, it's definitely very plastic and toylike in appearance, which is a big downgrade from the very classy look and feel of my Fanatec gear (well, everything but the Fantatec shifters, which were jarringly plastic and toylike next to the wheel and pedals). That said, it does NOT feel cheap or flimsy -- while there is a lot of plastic, it's good, solid plastic and it feels well constructed and durable.

Also, the fact that there isn't even the most tentative of pricing or availability information for the 3 pedal set and H-shifter addons is definitely a frustration. Yes, these things actually make most kinds of driving a lot more challenging, but they also just make it more fun, and I'll be a lot happier with the wheel overall when I have the option of using them. Please, Thrustmaster, hurry up and take more of my money!

Now, onto the good stuff:

While the rim is definitely the biggest offender in the "looks like a toy" category, it does feel quite good. While I prefer the feel of the suede grips on the CSR wheel, the texturized rubber is high quality, comfortable, and grippy. Also, the button quality and layout are excellent. Every button is well built: they have good positive click responses when pressed, and feel very sturdy and (as with everything about the wheel) durable, which definitely couldn't be said about many of the face buttons on my CSR wheel. That is also true of the shifter paddles -- very hefty metal construction, nice positive click, and an appropriate amount of travel. Of course, the CSR also had very nice paddles, and it's hard to say which I prefer since I no longer have the CSR for direct comparison., but these are definitely good.

As for the layout, while it is a bit odd at first that the X, Y, B, and A buttons aren't in the standard cross formation, I was actually sold pretty quickly once I used the wheel. Their large size and smart positioning mean that as with every other button on the wheel (except maybe the "manettino" switch on the lower right) they can quickly and easily be pressed with your thumbs without looking with your hands still holding the wheel. Also worth noting is that the rim actually features essentially three extra buttons compared to a normal xbox controller (or to the CSR), and the base has one more still. Currently these extra buttons just duplicate existing functions in Forza (as do two that should be the stick click, I think), but documentation on the Thrustmaster support site seems to indicate that the next title update for Forza might include additional mapping options to take advantage of these extra buttons (and, obviously, the buttons are all immediately usable if you are connecting the wheel to a PC).

Especially exciting to me was that there are actually two buttons hidden away on either side of the back of the rim, right where your ring finger naturally rests if you have your index and middle fingers on the paddles. Currently they double for the paddle functions, and presumably they are meant to map to the left and right stick clicks, but the positioning could be quite useful if they were opened up and freely mappable.

And then there is the wheel base itself. The CSR had good force feedback for sure, but this is much, much better. It's smooth, consistent, and crazy powerful -- in fact, it's so strong that when I took a very hard turn, the torque loosened the swivel on the post of my wheel stand. Obviously I've not used the T500, but this definitely feels in the ballpark of the crazy force I've seen demonstrated from that wheel in videos -- which again lends credence to the theory that this is essentially a T500 base modified to work with the Xbox One. Anyway, it feels really, really great driving Forza out of the box without any tweaking of settings, but again, there is documentation that seems to indicate that an upcoming title update in Forza will include improvements to their force feedback implementation and to the available configuration options (including the ability to set the degrees of rotation, which is currently locked at 900).

Finally, the pedals. As with the rest of the set, while they are certainly plastic, they are a very solid plastic, and the metal pedal faces definitely give them a bit of extra credibility. Much more importantly, they have a much better feel than I was expecting. They have a good travel distance and nice resistance, with the brake being appropriately stiffer and shorter than the gas. While none of that is adjustable in any way, they're essentially how I would want them anyway -- but each person's mileage will certainly vary on that count. Also, it remains to be seen how long they will retain this excellent feel, but something tells me they will at least hold out until whenever the 3 pedal set becomes available, at which time they will go in the closet and serve as a capable backup set.

Again, since I no longer have my Fanatec gear it's hard to give a precise comparison to my old CSR Elite pedals, but clutch pedal aside, I certainly don't feel like it's a huge downgrade, as I expected I would. The CSR-E pedals are obviously highly adjustable, and just about every aspect of pedal positioning, stiffness, throw, etc can be tweaked and dialed in to match the user's preference, which is extremely valuable, but again, these pedals feel well tuned for my tastes out of the gate. Also, the CSR-E brake pedal uses a load cell to measure braking pressure which makes them much more accurate in theory, but at least in the short time I had to play with these I didn't feel terribly hampered by that distance -- braking was plenty smooth, clean, and accurate for my (admittedly low) skill level.

Anyway, that's my initial thoughts on the TX wheel. It's the only game in town until February if you want a wheel for Forza 5 and the Xbox One, but it's a damn good game at least at first blush (and it doesn't hurt that it's also a pretty decent wheel for PC use as well). I have no idea how it would feel to someone coming from a CSR Elite wheel, or a Clubsport Wheel, or even a G27 or T500, but coming from the standard CSR wheel it feels like a nice upgrade to me, with the exception of the cosmetic apperance.

Dazza4610 wrote:Not good news SG1,

I have only run mine a few hours so far so I guess time will tell.  In that few hours though I am impressed with the feel.  The force feedback is very realistic IMO it is better than the GT2.

Dazza4610 wrote:Early days to say it is better than Fanatec on fm4.