Oh and, why are people moaning about shift animations?
Because if I chose to drive with a manual gearbox, I need no other indication of when to shift except what the engine tells me. When I've done a couple of hundred laps (either on the car or the track or both), I should jolly well know when to shift.
If I can't be bothered, there's always automatic.
Besides, you'll no doubt will be able to customise gear ratios. You're going to have some corners and some straights you'll optimise it for. That could very well mean, that I will be redlining at some point and I jolly well do not wish to change gear. Yet the animation will suggest I do. And that's going to be so irritating I can't think of any AUP compliant words right now.
I tend to brake first with both hands on the wheel, and then if the car has settled for deceleration, shift down and have both hands back at the wheel before I enter the corner. I know there are complexes where you can't do this, but as a general statement it's good.
So, if a game looks as polished as GT5, then such details stick out like a sore thumb. To me at least, because I don't care that much about tuning in general but about gear ratios very much so.
I need a good shifting rhythm because otherwise I can't find my braking points. Sting once said he can't sing without playing the bass. I can't race without shifting when my intuition tells me.
Finally, when I will have both my hands on the wheel, it's bugging me when I see the hand of my alter ego leaving the wheel.
It might be good for controller users, but to me it looks half hearted. I wish GT5 had the option to turn off the wheel display altogether. Everybody happy, no complaining. But that would be too simple I guess.
