A PS3 is (hopefully) going to be gracing my lounge room soon. If that arrival coincides with the release of Gran Turismo™5 Prologue then there might be a HD TV too. But still this wonderful day will be tinged with a touch of disappointment. “Why?” you ask? Because despite having one of the best racing games ever made I won’t be able to use the best game steering controller ever made with it.

Don’t get me wrong, I have an excellent Logitech steering wheel but, let’s face it, steering wheels are for cars. No, not virtual cars, real cars.

The kind of feedback that you get from the steering wheel and pedals of a real car can never be emulated by a gaming controller in a lounge room. At least not by one most people could actually afford. There’s also the unusual physical attitude we need to adopt to properly use a steering wheel style controller. Witness the bizarre array of devices that attempt to replicate the correct attitude: 1; 2; 3; 4.

What’s the soultion? Well, it already happened, but unfortunately it went largely ignored… the neGcon. This was (is) the best steering controller that’s ever been made. It gave a degree of control that I have not experienced with any other device. Ever.

I’ve owned a wide arrray of steering wheels and have built many contraptions in the vain pursuit of having steering wheel that didn’t move whilst being used. Even when my best effort provided a solid mount the best wheel I own had enough free play in it’s construction to spoil the gameplay. Not to mention the half hour of furniture moving and setting up needed before it could be used.

The reality is that I don’t have a spare room (and TV, PS2, etc) to keep a racebase or similar piece of furniture in and when I play a game I just want to jump right in. It’s supposed to fun. I need a steering game controller. Not a steering wheel.

I need my neGcon. Or at least something like it (the PS3 only has USB ports and because adapters dont’ work).

Please Kazunori-san, let’s have a GT5 steering controller.