Assetto Corsa Competizione is the latest racing sim from Kunos Simulizioni. While the original Assetto Corsa is open-ended in its car and track selection offering a little bit of everything, the sequel has a dead focus on GT3 race cars. That’s where the Competizione part of the name comes from. If Gran Turismo focusing on online multiplayer birthed Gran Turismo Sport, AC’s equivalent is ACC.
I personally kept up with some bits of motorsport here and there. And played a bunch of racing games all my life. But I wouldn’t dare play anything sim-like. Heck, I still drive with most assists on and have automatic transmission. But ACC is being billed as a pretty hardcore racing sim, diving deep into the complexities of a GT3 machinery no other racing games (outside of a few other more hardcore racing sims) do.
As a newcomer to racing sims, here are my impressions of Assetto Corsa Competizione. If you too are in the same Bentley boat as I am, read on.
How Deep Is It?
First, let’s explain what sort of complexities ACC models. Being the official game of the GT World Challenge Europe (previously Blancpain GT Series), all the cars and tracks from the 2018 and 2019 season is available. It’s a lot of cars, but don’t expect a huge variety. There are many teams running the Audi R8 and Mercedes-AMG GT, with some oddball cars here and there. But that’s what it is in real-life. As you would expect, the tracks are Europe-centric (though the GT Challenge Pack adds more tracks around the world, a pretty good DLC).
In GT World Challenge Europe, there are sprint races, where you are pushing the car flat out for one whole hour. And there are endurance races- with the most grueling being the 24 Hours Of Spa. You can play to the full race length in real-time. Or for more sensible folks, truncate the race length to fit your own time.
The game expects you to do what any driver in those cars, be it professional or the gentlemen drivers. Start the engine (there’s a button press for that), slowly roll out of the pits, and carefully prime the car for a proper lap. No, you don’t go out and push your car right out of the gate. The tyres and brakes are not heated yet, it handles like a boat. So you need to spend some time warming them up before you get to pushing. Oh, and when you want to get back to the pits, remember the pit lane limiter. Speeding in the pits, and not abiding by that white line when exiting the pits, is straight-up a penalty-worthy offense. And don’t forget which part of the pitlane you should stop at too.
And that’s just practice.
Track conditions should improve over time, and by qualifying, the previously green track should already have enough rubber on it, making it more grippy hence possible for you (and the rest of the 20+ cars on the grid) to set up fast times. Over to the race, it’s usually a rolling start. But don’t expect to have it done automatically. No, from a standstill, you need to drive in line, maintaining your correct position of the grid, while using the formation lap to heat up tyres and brakes. Yeah, you see cars that swerve left and right and hard-braking before a race fully starts in real life? You can, no, must, do that too.
But Is It Accessible For Newcomers?
I’ve explained in length of how the smaller things are being modeled without hand-holding in ACC. But what if you are a newcomer who needs some assists? Thankfully, ACC offers some help with the more minute tasks. You can have the ignition and pit limiter to engage automatically, and yes, driving in auto transmission is still there. ACC is playable with a controller (and Xinput controller, mind, so use Steam Big Picture or a DS4Windows if you’re planning to use a PS4 controller hooked to the PC). The default settings are horrendous. So go search online and copy some of the suggested controller setups.
While the game do allow for setup tinkering and on-the-fly car adjustments via the MFD (like real race cars), it’s totally okay to not utilise them early on. The big hump for newcomers to play ACC is the need to understand certain physics that are usually streamlined for mainstream racing games. Stuff like how tyre and brake temperature affect car handling. How to race with a pack of equally powerful cars (there’s a penalty system, a rudimentary one but it works). How to manage fuel and tyre wear. Not to say that other racing games don’t model this, but ACC puts it pretty much front and center.
ACC also has some tools to help you see if you’re getting better or not. There are various stats that the game tracks you. From track competency (how well you know each track- as in not going off-track in successive number of laps) to car control (how much you are pushing the car at the limits, but not over it), ACC provides some data on how you stacked up in previous races and which area you should improve on. It’s just a bunch of stats, and the tips text don’t change over time. But it’s still valuable advice for newcomers to see.
Despite my need of having most assists on (since I need auto transmission, my assist setting is at the lowest- beginner), I can still keep up with folks with more racing game experience whilst racing online. Not good enough to challenge for wins (unless I score pole and the second car wipes the whole grid before turn 1, ahem). But enough to keep up and still be in the mix. Trust me, some players online in public servers are winging it like it’s your typical Forza Motorsport lobby. Just be consistent, even if it’s consistently slow, at first.
If you are the sort of person who worries about making yourself look bad, and feel intimidated by ACC’s inherent sim-focus racing, don’t. Worse drivers are playing, you’ll be relatively better in no time.
Closing Thoughts
Assetto Corsa Competizione can be intimidating if you’re not a hardcore sim racing fan. But if you are a newcomer who’s curious about how deep a racing sim can be, don’t be afraid to give it a try. The small, focused track and car roster work in favour of helping you learn most of the content quick. And there are enough assists and guiding hands to help you out. Plus, compared to other serious racing sims, it’s cheap.
So long as you’re not there to cause chaos and abide by racing rules, go give Assetto Corsa Competizione a shot.
Review code provided by 505 Games