Assetto Corsa Evo Update 5, or version 0.5, is now live. Developer Kunos Simulazioni has added another slate of content to the Early Access release, as well as gameplay improvement and features. But also curiously, they’ve removed a feature.
But first, the content drop. AC Evo adds seven new cars, one with an extra variant, to its small yet growing list of cars. It’s a good spread with one new GT3 race car (it’s a new Porsche 911 race car, albeit a slightly different version than the one recently added to that other racing game with an Italian name) and a good selection of everyday roadgoing heroes that achieved legendary status among car enthusiasts.
Assetto Corsa Evo 0.5 Update New Cars
- Road
- Audi Sport quattro (1983)
- BMW M2
- Caterham Seven 485 CSR Final Edition
- Toyota AE86 + Tuned version
- Volkswagen Golf MK1
- Racing
- Dallara EXP
- GT
- Porsche 911 GT3 RS (992)
Assetto Corsa Evo 0.5 Update New Tracks
- Watkins Glen International (4 layouts)
- Circuit Paul Ricard (4 layouts)
The new tracks can’t be anymore different when it comes to elevation. AC Evo adds the famous boot of the American Northeast: Watkins Glen, as well as the dizzying yet practical race track that serves as a testbed for cars: Circuit Paul Ricard. The former has sweeping corners down and uphill while the latter is, in contrast, very flat.
In AC Evo you can feel the elevation changes (and the lack thereof) so it’s a nice pair to release together. Both tracks includes at least 4 different layouts.
Assetto Corsa Evo 0.5 Update Improvements
- Free camera mode: toggled in replays, not quite a photo mode yet, but this feature will evolve into that
- DLSS 4.5 support
- Changes to Track Limit penalties, Blue Flag logic, UI, “shared memory” and the dynamic track system
Assetto Corsa Evo Removes Single-Play Progression
The 0.5 Update for Assetto Corsa Evo also comes in with a some content removal, as the devs are pivoting away from single-player progression systems that was supposed to be part of its Career Mode. XP, currency and economy-based progression is now removed.
Single-player content is now focused on the Driving Academy, the sort-of tutorial designed to improve a player’s ability to drive and race. Effectively, AC Evo’s Gran Turismo-esque progression will only have the License Test components only.
The removal of single-player progression will see the team investing in “a set of competitive features and special events built around online leaderboards, hotstints, and other focused game modes.” Plus, the extra development polish will now go to improving the simulation systems, modding support, and the promised free-roam mode.
It’s a peculiar pivot, but one that has negatively impacted AC Evo. At launch, the game was rendered unplayable due to server issues as the single-player career mode requires online connection to function, which understandably proven unpopular.
The development team responded by adding an “Open Mode” where players can try all the cars without dealing with online connections and an in-game economy blocking access. But now that’s effectively the default experience.
The removal of any in-game economy will also mean that the previously purported feature of being able to visit real business dotted around the free-roam Eifel region for car upgrades rendered moot. The in-depth car specs, where you can customise the cars with exterior and interior options like how you would when buying a real car is now less cool that it has no artificial monetary value added to it. How else can you contextualise how wild some of the options car manufacturer offers by not putting a price on them?
Kunos Simulazioni maintains that “providing meaningful structure for solo play remains very important” though fans who wished AC Evo putting Gran Turismo 7 to its paces with their take on a single-player career mode will be left disappointed that the Assetto Corsa series remains focused for sim racers, not gamers who love the fantasy of climbing up a career ladder as a racer.
Assetto Corsa Evo is still in Steam Early Access, available on PC (Steam).