Review for Assetto Corsa Competizione. PC game, the video game came out on 29/05/2019
Assetto Corsa Competizione finally arrives on Xbox One e PlayStation 4, allowing even those who do not own a gaming PC, to be able to try their hand at high-level driving simulators. Developed by Kunos Simulations and published by 505 Games, it allows players to fully immerse themselves in the Championship GT World Challenge, facing over 200 riders, 120 real teams, 24 cars (Aston Martin, BMW, Mercedes, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, McLaren, Honda, Bentley etc.) faithfully replicated e 11 circuits (among which SPA e Monza), made with an unprecedented level of realism.
A DLC called "Intercontinental GT Pack”For the summer months, which will add four extra-European tracks such as the legendary circuit of Suzuka, Laguna Seca, Bathurst in Australia e Kyalami in South Africa. The roadmap provided by the software house is very dense, in fact another DLC for console will be released in the coming months called "GT4 Pack DLC"Which will contain a dozen cars of the GT4 class, while the DLC will be released in winter 2021"British GT Pack DLC"With three other circuits of the British GT Championship.
Life is running, the rest is just waiting
Assetto Corsa Competizione is a driving simulator, calling it a “game” simply means offending it. In fact, just get behind the wheel and detach the limiter when exiting the pits to realize how accurate the driving model is. Cold tires, cold brakes, a car full of petrol and a little rubber track at the beginning of the shift are the perfect ingredients for park the car in the gravel at the first carelessness.
Keeping your foot down in Eau Rouge and Radillon in SPA means traveling at over 200 per hour on a 17% gradient and a 40-meter vertical drop, with the steering wheel that vibrates between the butsni for force feedback and tires that tend to slip. The sense of speed you experience on the Kemmel straight and braking before the Les Combes chicane takes your breath away while sitting on the chair in the living room. Don't think of trying the title for the first time and winning everything hands down, perhaps without driving aids and without a few hours of practice, because you are wrong.
To obtain certain results it is necessary refine your driving technique and, at the same time, learning to work on tuning of the car: go step by step, because the driving model is so sophisticated that it responds to minimal adjustments. After you have become familiar with the various tracks and have chosen the car you like best, it is a matter of turning and turning until you get a good driving clean. Making a great lap time is not sufficient, it will be necessary to be "consistent“, As the Anglo-Saxons say: driving consistently means doing a good number of laps while always maintaining the same pace.
The best drivers in reality do even twenty laps with a minimum chronometric difference between one lap and another, until the "drop"Of the tires, or the physiological decline due to wear. Being consistent in driving is a matter of practice, tuning and driving style, none of these elements can be missing if you want to be a winning driver. Assetto Corsa Competizione does not forgive inattentions or untrained drivers, rest assured.
Matter of Rating
If you plan to tackle Assetto Corsa Competizione as a classic video game or an arcade where you can turn the track into playgrounds where everything is allowed, you'd better let it go and focus on another type of product. Assetto Corsa Competizione is in fact based on a complex rating system that evaluates every aspect of your driving, in such a way that in multiplayer drivers with approximately the same Rating level are made to race together.
The evaluation grid is really complex, evaluating the ability to make clean and error-free laps, ability to control the car, ability to make clean overtaking and to drive in the middle of the group without causing accidents. Driving by continuing to make mistakes, causing accidents and without respecting the rules of the track, it will certainly not make you go far, so it will serve a lot of patience and practice to level up and aspire to be able to run the most prestigious races. Pay close attention to this aspect, because knowing how to drive clean is the basis of the gaming experience.
Graphics and Audio
The graphics are really well cared for, both from the point of view of the realism of the tracks and from the point of view of the car models. Unreal Engine 4 works really well, allowing for day-night cycles and climate changes. The cockpits of the cars are practically identical to the originals and well differentiated. The detail of the rain and sun reflections on the windshields is stunning, also the sense of speed is well realized in relation to the graphics and the various moments of the race.
In the most excited moments of the action on the track, you notice some drop in frame rates, but nothing that can make you make driving mistakes. The audio is well cared for, both in the noise of the engines (the Mercedes engine is very different from the McLaren or Ferrari, for example) and the sound effects of braking or collisions they are true to reality. A mention of merit should be made for the liveries of the cars, which do not denote any imperfection and racing with the cockpit view is a absolute feast for the eyes. Thanks to the adoption of motion capture algorithms, the animations during pit stops are really close to the real counterpart, to the full advantage of the simulation aspect and realism.
Multiplayer
As in the PC version, the multiplayer mode of Assetto Corsa Competizione is absolutely central to the game. It is one of the most popular titles by professionals and sim racing enthusiasts, so the servers are stable and the races are always exciting and fun. Even with a large number of participants, there are never uncertainties and, if problems arise, they are very often due to problems with the player and his internet line, rather than real bugs in the game.
However, the advice is to start by practicing in mode Single Player, testing the various tracks in free practice to better understand the reactions of the various cars in relation to the various tracks: in this way, in fact, the game rewards you with Medals, which can be obtained by completing clean laps on a given track. Without medals, the so-called "safety rating" is not unlocked, or the minimum requirement inherent to the knowledge of that particular route. Without safety rating you will not be admitted to the online races of that specific track.
Assetto Corsa Competizione is a decidedly above average game, as mentioned, it is a full-fledged simulator and you have to do a lot of practice before you can start running with acceptable times. Although you can use the controller, it is strongly recommended to use a steering wheel and a pedal, even if not very up-to-date and very expensive like those of esports professionals or real drivers, but to really appreciate the contents and mechanics, it is really a fundamental requirement. Currently there is very little bad to say about this title, if not that it is really complicated to become familiar with it and start having fun seriously, challenging other riders or simply your friends. For everything else, graphics and audio are at the highest levels, the car models are very faithful to the originals and the tracks are always up to the situation. A really good job.
► Assetto Corsa Competizione is a racing-Simulation-Sport game developed and published by 505 Games for PC, the video game was released on 29/05/2019
