Playdate: American Truck Simulator (11/17/2017)

I think this might be the most stressed Dan has ever appeared on video (minus the hell chip)

Sandra Bullock was in A Time To Kill with Matthew McConaughey, so There's the edTV link they were so desperately searching for.

Another fine "piece" of entertainment from GBE.

This was so much fun to watch!! I loved rude tude trucker Abby, chill trucker Alex and stressed AF trucker Dan what a trio! :D

Regarding the manual vs automatic shifting talk, here is a great video explaining how the different technologies work:

I'm not a car guy and I wouldn't say I had a full grasp of it all, but this helped me at least get a clue of what is going on inside a gearbox instead of just thinking it's magic.

Damn, not only did this stream convince me to install ATS again, but I ended up turning on my Steam Link and throwing it over to my living room TV and surround system. My Saturday productivity went way down.

First thing I did this morning was install Euro Truck Simulator. I have a lunch date...

The Last Dragon is my jam!

Watching Dan try to learn is literally one of the worst things I have ever felt in my life. Even recently shattering my foot was easier to deal with in my mind.

Watching Dan drive was fantastic!

ATS/ETS totally has multiplayer - I gotta see Vinny's idea come to fruition.

Driving school with Dan Ryckert!

The older he gets, the more "Steve Buscemi" Alex becomes. Or, is Steve finding his inner Alex Navarro?

How does track ir work? Is there something on the hat that the thing on the monitor sees?

Why is Abby freaking out about folks not having seen movies? Movies are boring.

My grandfather was a long haul mover for Ace Relocation and Atlas Van Lines for 15 years, and when I was 13 and 14 during summer breaks from school I went on the road with him for a few weeks both years. I saw a lot of the country that I never would have otherwise, but I was a little too young to really appreciate it.

I also got to buy a copy of Star Wars Episode 1 Podracer for N64 for $8 at a Walmart somewhere in Iowa.

@tommytours: I believe that there are infrared sensors on the hat that allow head motion to be tracked

Ah, I liked MadTV back then. Sure I'd imagine some skits don't hold up (or ever did), but I found it as a more refreshing skit show compared to SNL back in 2005-2006 which I personally found boring.

Cool video, I could use more Trucker Alex on this site.

"What is a clutch?"

Whats really hilarious is if you go back to the old GI videos of Dan & his dad, his dad's mannerisms of trying to learn new things are 100% the same as what Dan is doing in this video.

alex should learn how to play this game with his rock band drum kit with joytokey or something to create his most serene activity of all time

Back when Just Cause 2's multiplayer mod first came out me and a friend used to join servers and start convoys. We'd just message "Convoy leaving X in 5 minutes" and people would show up with trucks. Then people would show up with cars chasing us, so some people would be "security" riding on top of our trucks firing rocket launchers at people chasing us.

That was a lot of fun.

Also, I wonder if Vinny listens to Halestorm at all or if when he went "I know this song" he just meant he had heard it on the radio before.

Oh boy...Dan's admission that he didn't change/check his car's oil for 5 years is giving me anxiety!

How the hell did they have trouble telling that that song was Despacito, they have to be trolling

The gaps in Dan's knowledge is astonishing.

i just want to get out the white board and explain everything to him.

Dan shouldn't be allowed to have a drivers license. Not understanding how the machine works at least to some extent is how those people died in their Toyotas when the gas pedal was stuck.

@digital_sin: they probably are either only familiar with the original version, which is in all spanish and does not have Beiber or they havent really paid attention to anything but the chorus (the most recognizable part, especially with Bieber singing the rest of it), and were unfamiliar with the rest of the song

For Dan on the question of why anyone would prefer manual, there are a handful of reasons:

1. Better fuel economy. In most cars with the exception of more recent styles of automatic transmission (like continuously variable transmission (CVT)), a manual transmission will give you better fuel economy over the conventional old style automatic transmission. However, the new styles of automatic, such as CVT, are better on fuel economy and can be even slightly more efficient on fuel than manual. If you're buying a car in future and want it to be automatic, highly recommend one with a CVT transmission.

2. Automatic transmissions can sometimes briefly pick inappropriate gears for what you're trying to do. For instance, if you're climbing a hill. At the beginning of the hill your auto transmission may be in a higher gear than you want for hill climbing; your progress will be slow and the engine will struggle. There is a brief delay as the auto transmission realizes you're now on a hill and so switches to a lower gear more appropriate for the climb. That's bad for efficiency and drivers who prefer manual want to select the gear they know is best for the terrain right from the start.

3. Optimal engine control for best speed. All racing cars are manual transmission. This allows complete control of the engine revs at any given situation, such as going in to and out of corners, the precise times shifting is done for the situation, variation of shifting times to adapt to changing situations, and so on, all of which a human driver changing the gears can anticipate and execute far faster than an automatic transmission could.

Hope that helps. Manual seems intimidating at first but it quickly becomes second nature when you get used to it. Semi trucks are mostly manual for efficiency and also because precise control is needed for vehicles that heavy for starting, slowing down (engine braking), and negotiating hills. Oh, and cost savings too. Manual trans are cheaper, less complicated, and easier/cheaper to maintain.

Damnit, Dan, we don't all like Prarie Home Companion. It's terrible, just like the rest of (N)MPR. That anyone legitimately laughs at anything on that station blows my mind.

Exactly this. Oh god, I just want to watch someone to teach him these things. Cars aren't hard to understand, Dan, they're not, I swear.

I don’t know why this immediately came to me, but Sandra Bullock was in While You Were Sleeping with Bill Pullman, who was in Mr. Wrong with Ellen Degenerous.

I now demand a new GiantBomb special: Teach Dan to drive stick.

Especially when she's never seen The Rock!

@phalex:

I had to think on it but I had: Ellen - McConaughey (EDtv), MConaughey - Affleck (Dazed and Confused), Affleck - Damon (Good Will Hunting), Damon - Clooney (Oceans 11), Clooney - Bullock (Gravity).

Honk honk

I really wanna see them do some multiplayer Mudrunners. Seems like a good/ridiculous time.

Dan learning about gears and manual transmission has got to be one of the highlights of the year, especially from a European perspective.

"Are the gears in the pistons?"

Good lord, an entire new realm of stuff about which Dan has no idea.

You are correct. It should be "GBE prepares to head West" or "GBE starts preparations to head West". The first one flows a little better to me.

@n00bs7ay3r: Better yet:

Ellen - McConaughey (EDtv), MConaughey - Affleck (Dazed and Confused), Affleck - Bullock (Forces of Nature).

Jesus Christ, if anybody know what song is playing from around 37:20 to like 41, please let me know, i tried to find it by the little bit of the lyrics that pop out here and there, but cannot seem to find shit.

"I don't know the rules of the road." Motorcycles follow the exact same rules, right?

Also, Dan has worked harder to ensure he doesn't accidentally absorb general life knowledge than I have ever worked at anything in my life.

@bartima3us: it's impossible to hear the lyrics since they talk louder during that section than most, it sounds like iced earth or sonata arctica more than most bands

@steveurkel: yeah i just managed to make out bits and pieces and try to find the full song but to no avail. I dont think its Sonata, well not one of their songs im familiar with.

Okay, Dan's flat-out hatred of NPR is a little much.

Have Euro Truck Simulator 2 and I see shitloads of people are still playing it, but I couldn't get into it. Something about that game seemed so damn clinical and unfinished to me. I get it can be relaxing, but probably not my type of relaxing.

I learned to drive stick, and the first 28 years of my driving life I drove stick. It was good experience, but I no longer think it is an essential skill. Ten years ago I woudl have said, "All kids should learn how to drive stick." But now I think that is just not true; soon that will be replaced by knowing how to drive at all!!!

Above 'driving stick' what I would want to teach my nieces Accident Avoidance and then Tactical Driving. I would want her to eventually know what someone in private security knows about about handling a car with defensive driving maneuvers.

Come for the GBEast family vacation to the Grand Canyon, stay to see Dan learn how to drive!

I like a manual transmission if I'm driving on back country roads or if I'm on my motorcycle, but in most normal driving situations an automatic is so much more convenient. Getting caught in stop-and-go traffic with a manual is tedious, and I don't need to feel like a race car driver while I'm doing the grocery shopping or picking up the kids from school.

If looking at the Wild Rock playlist from friday is of any indication, it should be this.

Just occurred to me, Dan is like a character from an early 00s webcomic.

@kevin_cogneto:

Steve Buscemi -> Airheads -> Brendan Fraser -> The Mummy Returns -> The Rock

One of my favorite quick looks in a long long time!