It looks like it has the paddle shifters on the steering wheel, which is what most performance cars (and a lot of other cars, actually - our old Pontiac Grand Prix and our Ford Edge had those) have gone to.
The Corvette has had paddle shifters since 2006. They haven't changed much, but the transmission definitely has.
I've seen nothing about a manual option for the C8. It might be gone for good, and that's going to anger up the blood of a lot of Corvette owners.