Forza Horizon has always occupied a strange place in racing games. It’s more approachable than simulation-heavy racers like Assetto Corsa or iRacing, but it’s also far more nuanced than people sometimes give it credit for. On a controller, it’s easy to lose yourself in the spectacle — especially in the lush Japanese setting of Forza Horizon 6. Blasting through rural fields, drifting around sweeping cherry blossom-laden street corners, and bouncing between supercars with barely a second’s thought are as exhilarating as they are endlessly enjoyable. But it’s also effortless when you’re only using your thumbs.
Sitting behind a proper racing wheel and cockpit changes all of that. After spending time playing Forza Horizon 6 with Logitech’s RS ecosystem — including the RS wheel, RS pedals, clutch module, and Playseat Trophy racing seat — I don’t think I can go back to a controller, nor do I ever want to. Not because the racing wheel suddenly turns Horizon 6 into a hardcore simulator, but because it makes every drive feel tangible in a way a controller simply can’t replicate. Logitech’s RS ecosystem transforms a game I’d happily zone out with into one that constantly demands my attention, rewards precision, and somehow makes every victory feel more earned.
The first thing that surprised me was the sheer level of immersion you can get from a cockpit setup. There’s something fundamentally different about physically climbing into a racing seat, planting your feet on a set of pedals, and wrapping your hands around a steering wheel before you even press the accelerator. It’s the kind of setup that tricks your brain into treating Horizon 6 differently, and makes you feel like Max Verstappen, if only for a brief moment. Instead of absentmindedly flicking a thumbstick while leaning back on the couch, you’re actively using your whole body to drive, requiring you to sit differently, approach corners differently, and exercise far more caution. Even long highway stretches feel more engaging because you’re constantly making tiny steering corrections and shifting gears instead of simply holding a stick slightly to the left.
Then the force feedback kicks in. It’s easily the star of the experience. Logitech’s RS wheel fights you through tight corners, goes light as the tires begin to lose grip, rattles over rough terrain, and shudders after hard impacts. Even though Horizon has always leaned toward accessibility rather than simulation, the game still communicates a surprising amount of information through Logitech’s racing wheel. You begin to feel the weight of different cars instead of simply seeing them on-screen, which extends to how you get to know those cars and where best to use them. And yes, every now and then, the RS wheel shakes with an enthusiasm that reminds me a little too much of my IRL 2000 Mitsubishi Eclipse whenever it crept past 70 mph on the highway (anyone who’s owned an older Eclipse knows exactly what I mean). Thankfully, Horizon’s loaded list of cars inspires far more confidence.
The added immersion isn’t just about making the game feel cooler, though. It also makes it a dramatically harder driving experience. Controller inputs hide a lot of bad habits. Tiny corrections happen almost subconsciously, and modern racing games do an incredible job of smoothing out jerky thumbstick movements into believable steering. With a full wheel setup, every mistake becomes fully your own. Turn in too aggressively, and you’ll need to fight the wheel back into line. Mash the throttle exiting a corner in a rear-wheel-drive car and you’re suddenly looking at the scenery instead of the road ahead. Cars that felt effortless on a controller suddenly demand respect, and that’s not easy to get used to for racing wheel newcomers.
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