Nacon is a pretty familiar brand to gamers, not just for the games that they publish, but for the wealth of pro controllers, headsets, keyboards, and more niche gaming interests they cater to. But as broad as their gaming accessory range has become, there’s still some areas that they haven’t catered to. With the Revosim Pure, they will be drifting into the high-end racing wheel market, which has become increasingly competitive in the last few years.
Just as the racing game genre has skewed further toward sim racing over the last generation, the racing wheel market has also gone far more premium. There’s still brands catering to the £100-200 range with entry-level wheels, but with the advent of direct-drive wheel bases, load-cell pedals and other more advanced tech than basic belts, gears and springs, you’re looking at spending well over £500. I’m not even talking about a fully customised and kitted out Fanatec, Simucube, Moza or Simagic set up, but perhaps one of £500-700 Fanatec’s entry bundles (which vary wildly depending on platform support) or a £1000 Logitech G Pro.
Nacon hasn’t announced a price yet or a launch window for their wheel, but the Revosim Pure is starting off as an all-in-one bundle that will happily match the features of the rest of the market. The included wheelbase comes in the tight, boxy style of all direct drive bases on the market, and is capable of a hefty 9 Nm of force feedback – not market-leading, but still plenty powerful to make the wheel spin frighteningly fast if you crash.
Attached to that is, of course, the wheel. It’s an all-rounder, a 30cm circular wheel that’s appropriate for road cars, but if all you race is virtual GT3 cars and Formula 1, it’s not the same. Still, there’s a decent set of 12 buttons, including a directional toggles and system buttons, and a built-in strip of rev limiter lights. This is set to be the starter wheel for the Revosim lineup, with an aluminium quick release system that connects the wheel to the base and metal gear shift paddles, and the company able to release those more specific wheel styles and motorsports replicas down the line.
Most importantly, it’s a good sized wheel with a nice imitation leather effect on it, and will be immediately familiar-feeling under hand.
One particular quirk that’s interesting is the ability to clip a smartphone to the base, running the Revosim app to quickly configure wheel settings and to act as a dashboard for compatible games – you’d bet that anything KT Racing produces will support this feature.
Down by your feet, the included two-pedal set is made of aluminium for long-term durability, and with plenty of high-end features and adjustability. The pedals use hall effect sensors to track pedal positioning, and there’s a 100kg load sensor for the pedal brake, with three sets of three elastomer spacers to let you customise how stiff or squishy you want the pedal to be. Even the softest is pretty tough to squish in hand, but the hardest could almost just be a solid plastic block. Of course, once you’re stamping down with your leg, they’re subject to an awful lot more pressure, and being able to mix and match these sets will let players get the brake feel they want.
Again, there’s modularity and flexibility here for the future. It’s designed for a third pedal, for anyone that wants a clutch pedal, but also the ability to adjust pedal angles to match both the game your playing, and whether or not you’ve attached it to a desk or into a racing wheel frame.
Playing Endurance Motorsport Series with the wheel, everything felt intuitive and exactly as I expected it to. It’s clearly a high-end direct drive set from the quality of the force feedback I was getting, and it was satisfying to stamp down on the brakes, trying to draw the car back down in speed to make a corner.
Fundamentally, the Revosim Pure just seems to be a nice all-round basis for Nacon to build out their racing wheel range from, and a solid alternative to the big names already in the racing wheel market.
