Manual or Automatic Transmission for Racing Games

[Dark Spider]

When ever I faced the option of driving with an automatic or a manual transmission when playing racing games, I always opted for the automatic transmission. My reasons were that it was easier to concentrate on your driving that way. You can't concentrate on your driving while constantly looking at your Speedometer (MPH Gauge) and Tachometer (RPM Gauge) and then shifting gears...its distracting...

Recently, my brother started playing video games and he's only 4 years old. He loves to play Gran Turismo 1 for the PSX. Anyway, I caught him racing and he was dead last (he doesn't quite understand how to play the game)...so I decided to bail him and finish the race for him, being the expert driver I am...

So I go to drive his car. It didn't take me long to realize that when I continued to press the gas, I would over rev the engine. That's because my brohter set the transmission settings to Manual. This is no problem for me because I know how to shift gears up and down on the controller...my problem is the mechanics behind it and how complicated paying attention to it is.

So I start to drive. I knew enough about the tachometer to know not to let the needle hit the red area or that would stress the engine. So I would constantly look at the Tachometer, making sure it didn't touch the red area. I did this by shifting the gear up. But my true troubles came from when I crashed and when I had to slow down because then I would have to down shift. I had trouble reading the tachometer when it came to downshifting because it wasn't so blantant as the red area was to upshifting.

But at that moment, I noticed that the game was a little noisier than before, and then it hit me. The sound of the engine was more noticible when I was driving a manual shift car. The car produced a unique sound when the engine started to over rev. The sound was like the car was whining or something. So when the car sounded like it was whining, then I knew it was time to upshift. But did the engine produce a sound when it was time to downshift? Sure enough, it did. When it was time to downshift, the engine sounded like it was dying or struggling to do something. When I downshifted, I got that familiar whining sound.

Now that I know that the trick to driving a manual shift car in this game is sounds, I don't even look at the tachometer anymore. Just listen to the sounds of the engine and the rest is simple. Because of this, I find driving a manual shift car fun and exciting. It brings a new kind of feeling that driving an automatic car doesn't bring. But because of its ease of comfort driving, I'm happier with an automatic transmission.

So which type of transmission do you prefer in racing games...automatic or manual shift?

[guinaevere]

If it's an arcade game with an actual stick, or a pc game where I have some sense of shifting, then definately manual.

[Achika]

I prefer manual because your car usually can then go 4-5 mph faster then automatic cars and because I really can't stand automatic braking/speeding back up it just feels so phony.

[Andy Mancini]

Well, I usually pick automatic. I can't driver a stick in real life, and I can't drive one in the games either.

[Sandro]

I really don't mind either way; it's whichever I'm feeling like playing with that day.

[GZA tha Genius]

Automatic

[Caped Crusader]

I usually go with automatic transmission.

[Spike&Gene3886]

In an arcade? Manual all the way. The car usually goes faster, you get a more realistic feel, and your buds don't expect it.

However, if we're talking a PS/2 or an N64/GC, I'd definitely go for automatic for a lot of the reasons you stated before. I can easily drive a standard (not in real life yet), but I like the ease of just focusing on your driving as opposed to shifting.