Assetto Corsa Competizione
 

Now that it is just days too full release, the official simulation of the Blancpain GT series deserves some attention being raised for it.


For example the stunning graphics, whcih I enjoy in already very good VR, and thatg get exemplary illustrated by the drama of a night racing in the most severe of rains.


Under such conditions, you drive the track by memory only, and I dfopubt in reality the race would have been launched, like in this movie. But still - never has rain looked so well in a racing sim. And believe me, it feels so perfectly right when driving on such a track as well.


The simulation leaves Early Access and is released as full version on May 29th. Its scope might look limited, but this is also its advantage - Kunos' working time is not cluttered on hundreds of cars and tracks, but just the official content to the series - but that content completely: all cars, all drivers, all teams, all tracks of that series, seasons 2019 and 2020 - and nothing included that is not in that series. This ultimately means a focussing of ressources, I do not think of it as limitatoin but concentration. As somebody who is driving this since Early Access version 0.1, I can assure you that this title is very serious business - and not a game.

TAKE HEADPHONES - the sound is brutal!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJcq...ature=youtu.be


As contrast to the noise and drama, here come two of Chris Haye's most excellent videos, representing EA builds 0.5 and 0.4:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O0XZz-CTrI


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQInQzZcmJk


While I expect the sim to take the thrown on many aspects and in many categories of sim racing, I only frear a little bit about the AI, whcih agai8n so far is somewhat unambitioned. It is reliable and trusdtworthy in situaitonal awareness and not ramming player'S car, but it lacks a bit the fangs and claws I came to expect fromt eh benchmark in sim racing AIs, which imo is that i Raceroom. ACC's AI so far showed to be fast and trustworthily doing the laps, but iot is - again, like ion AC1 - a bit too mpacifist and uncreative, for my taste. I am used to more fighting amd expecting the unexpected, Raceroom has spoiled me there. :D But who klnows what they may have acchioeved int hese regardsd between EW verison 0.6 and then 1.0 in - well, in eight days from now on. Wednesday next week will be the day. I will be unavailable then since I need to date Spa and Silverstone. :)

I recently played AC for the first time in VR with a good wheel setup and I tell you....I immediately started pricing out a gaming desktop build for VR just so I can run this and DCS.

I've never had so much fun in a sim-racing game as I did with AC + wheel + VR

Maybe no other game genre lends itself so easily to VR, than racing titles. Race sims and VR are made for each other. Beats triple-screen hands down, every time. Many drivers say about new race titles: no VR, no buy.



Take the cockpit immersion in AC1 - and square it. Then you have what it means to drive it in ACC.


AC1 has plenty of supreme mods, they just broke through the ten thousand barrier. You want Sol, and Crewchief for starters, these are must-haves. If you need help with choosing superior tgrackls over just very good tracks, ask.



Try Dirt Rally in VR, too. Raceroom also performs excellent in VR.

"English week" upcoming!

ACC has matured nicely in the past 1.5 years. In its focus segment, nobobody does it better than ACC: GT3 and GT4, that is.

Now, next week apparently they will make the Brits happy, a new DLC is coming out with three British tracks: Oulton Park, Snetterton, and Donington (with Brands Hatch and Silverstone already being present in the base game). While I find Snetteron boring, Oulton Park is solid and Donington is a classic I really like. Also, all three bring back memories of the first two TOCA games over 20 years ago. The DLC will also include over 70 driver names, team names and car skins, all licensed originals.

Check out screenshots, the tracks look stunning. And yes, they are laserscanned.

https://www.racedepartment.com/threa...vealed.197723/

https://www.racedepartment.com/threa...eviews.197779/

Competizione is my race sim of choice beside Raceroom, AC Classic and Dirt Rally 2. Raceroom's GT4 class is also very well done. But Competizione edges Raceroom out both in GT3 and GT4. Close calls, however. Weather and night racign however are two big immersion winners in Competizione, with cockpits that are a blast in VR.

Teasing Donington.

https://www.racedepartment.com/threa...eviews.197950/

Mind you, classic Assetto Corsa knows a superb mod for Donington. Its excellent.

British Gt pack is released. As expected, the tracks are top class modelled, I like especially Oulton Park, Donginton is very good too. Snetterton never was my cup of tea. The plac eloosk boring and the course is techzncially very diffiocult since it is very flat, free of landscape features, and so the next turns and breaking poiints are difficult to see (in VR).



Multi-class races are possible now, GT4 and GT3 mixed.


In a nutshell: Kunos has delivered once again.



This stream is by their physics guru, he explains things always in depth, and that is why this stream is four hours long. :D


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2x-V...ature=emb_logo

Oulton Park.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41H3SR_uowo

Donington.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JB6JVxrugU

Snetterton.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVFmepY117E

Snetterton and me do not go well together, I suck at this track, cant memorize it, cant get into any kind of flow, and it has always been like this, in any sim. The boring Landscape does nto amke it any more motivating. But the other two tracks are good.



Together with Silverstone, Brands Hatch and Spa from the main program, Brits now can have a decent British championship. Including top class lousy weather.

To call the camber and elevation changes at Donington "underhanded", would be an understatement. To my surprise I find it extremely difficult to log really fully clean laps there. Teh last left turn before box entry by now has heared my full colleciton of curses and swearwords, the camber in hat turn is pure malice. In a Donington lap, something always goes wrong and lures me into minor mishaps and sometimes real doom. That thing drives me crazy! And I drove only GT4 there, not even GT3.



Snetterton is boring as expected, just not my cup of tea. Flat, empty, and nothing to see.



Oulton Park also has its tricks and traps, but looks and droves well nevertheless, and somehow I always connected well to this track. My favourite in the pack.



Its the best representations of Oulton Park and Donington I know so far.

Woha, that came out of nowhere! At kleats in parts, and at least for me. Kunos announces quite extensive news. The main points:

Competizione will get an American track pack. From RD: "GT World Challenge America courses, that could mean the addition of Sonoma, Circuit of the Americas, Virginia International, Road America, Watkins Glen, Sebring and Indianapolis" - Mind oyu, all these detaisl are unconfirmed and they made no closer explation on when and what tracks will be coming, only that tracks are coming, and that Americna tracks will play a big role in the list.

A BMW M4 GT3 and a matching car pack are coming. Late this year or early next year.

Assetto Corsa 2 officially announced. I thought I did not read right. For me the by far biggest surprise in all this statement. For no money I would have expected that. To me Competizione was kind of AC2 under a different name.

PS5 and XBox S/X get Competizione. At 60 fps. But no VR.On PC, that would be a knock-out criterion for me, on console I thnakfully don't care.When it comes to racing, no VR - no buy is my motto.

The release of a mobile version is imminent. Heck - what...? I have tried racing "sims" on 10" tablet long time ago, and was not impressed at all. Winner or sinker, we will see. I surely dont hold my breath.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ-Z12Qt4Rw&t=60s

Assetto Corsa Classic is claimed by the rights owning company to have sold 12+ million copies and having created revenues in excess of 80 million dollars.

I still rank it as one member of the top trio in the genre: AC Competizione, Raceroom, Assetto Corsa Classic.


Assetto Corsa 2 is planned for release in 2024.

As I expected, the mobile version, not even developed by Kunos themselves it seems but just leasing the franchise name, is meh at best. And iOS exclusively.



No loss, it seems.

The race moves on to next generation standards! 1.8 is out.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xK8eKkc7q0&t=12s


I love these guys. They are the best in their business, basta!



(Being a fan since 2012 and the first tech demonstrator for AC)

Land of the free: June 30th 2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ATLb_-hnQk

Mixed bag for me.


Watkins Glen: has a wonderful flow around the track, drives like a dream. That is, i think, why it has this legendary reputation: the flow.

The Americas: know it only from a mod in AC, and hated it. Tried it again a year later, and still hated it.

Indianapolis: I assume they mean the street course in the inner field. Boring, imo. All oval in-field street courses are utmost boring. If they incldue the oval as well, it depends on how the AI performs, but AIs traditionally perform badly on ovals as far as I know them, and that of rF2 present, AMS-2 and iR I do not know. Last time I got exciutement out of racing AIs on ovals, was in Papyrus Nascar season 2003. And that often left me with a sweat-dripping T-shirt and the need to take a shower afterwards. Pack racing at its best and most nerve-wrecking.

Will get it, for supporting them, and for Watkins. The other tow tracks are not my thing. Would have preferred two other US tracks, there is quite some choice.

DLC "Land of the Free" is out since today.

All is as expected.

Watkins is fine, has the expected nice flow which this track is so famous for.
Indy is the streetcourse in the infield only, and it is boring as expected. The laserscanning however mercilessly exposes how extremely bumpy that track is, I never saw that in other versions of this in other sims.

And the Texas track, well, I HATE it. It breaks every flow, has brutal elevation changes just before turns so that you spin due to the car still being light, the sequence of turns is completely anti-intuitive, I just hate this track. For those wanting a challenge however it may be paradise, it is an extremely technical track and I find it extremely difficult to drive and to master. Very difficult, I must sit and think to find another track that gives me comparable big problems. Well, its Texas. Home of rodeo riding on rocking bulls. Thats how this track is. Not my taste.



Technically, Kunos has done a great job once again. :yeah: