Helli's Top Five Reasons To Go Manual in Racing Games

[RaychelSnr]

Are you one of those gamers who are still playing racing games with an automatic transmission? Well Operation Sports staff writer and Maddenmania forum administrator Bryan "Hellisan" Clark checks in today with his top five reasons to go manual in racing games. Give his article a look and see if you agree with his reasons or not.

Quote:

"After I’ve got the general line of a track down, the major time improvements that I make (other than tuning the car for the track) tend to be shifting based. For instance, I’ll notice that I’m down shifting even though the RPMs weren’t going below 4,000..."

[Kruza]

LOL @ #1 rule.

But seriously, along with what was stated in that article, I find that using manual transmission allows the car to decelerate a little quicker so it's possible to mash on the throttle for a tad longer before approaching the turn-in point of a bend/corner. Yeah, there is an extra burden of gear memorization, and there is always the risk of damaging the engine if you accidently downshift to a far lower gear (i.e. 5th -> 2nd gear) without simultaneously reducing engine revs with the brakes. But to me the number of positives of using MT outnumber that of using AT. Plus using MT helps to get the car sideways easier for drifting since you can purposely downshift an extra gear to keep the engine revs at redline and keep consistent amount of power to the back tires. Applying consistent power to the rear tires is essential to controlling drifts.

Kruza

[auburntigersfan]

maybe I should try manual shifting, great article except for the first one made me feel bad.

[av7]

Quote: Originally Posted by auburntigersfan

maybe I should try manual shifting, great article except for the first one made me feel bad.

Do try it, it's like using a controller for a racing game vs a wheel imo. Like Kruza said, instead of having to brake you can shift down and use the engine for some braking instead.

As for Rule 1,

[yamabushi]

Being a life long driver of nothing but manuals in real life, the manuals in games have me fumbling around like, as the youths would say, a 'noob'. But youve inspired me to give it another go.

[Synkopated]

I tried out manual a few years back and never looked back.

[LP]

I think I'm gonna try this. I'm not a hardcore racing gamer, but I'm definitely not a *****.

[catcatch22]

Manual is great but nowadays with alot of the career modes in games with so many tracks, it can take a while to master a track which takes time away from racing the game. However if you have the time to spend to learn the nuances of when and which gear to use it can provide many dividends.

The only thing I hate about manual shifting is sequential shifting, I wish more affordable wheels where made with a clutch pedal and a RS shifter which can allow you to change to any gear you want immediately. Again unfortunately some cars use 4 gears others 6 and sometimes 7.