After months of speculation, sim racers now have an idea about what Assetto Corsa EVO will be like - and Luca believes it might well be the definitive driving sim of its generation.
Assetto Corsa EVO was hugely hyped even before the first gameplay reveal trailer, and the possible inclusion of what appeared to be public road driving and traffic has only turned that up to 11. We think that this is a long overdue feature for car driving sims.
We have a wide range of racing games on the market like F1 24, Gran Turismo 7, Assetto Corsa Competizione, iRacing and more, all of them having the same basic setup: pick a car, pick a track, then you are able to go until your heart is content. Sure, some of them have career modes or a campaign of sorts, but have not really offered anything new - save for the F1 series' Braking Point story mode, which split the community's opinions.
Then on the other side of that coin, there are open-world arcade or "simcade" games like The Crew Motorfest, Forza Horizon 5 and Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown.
Free roam driving has been something that has been wished for in the hardcore sim community for years, as is evident from the countless free roam mods for the original Assetto Corsa. After their first public reveal of the upcoming AC EVO in pre-Alpha at the SimRacing Expo and Game Designer Davide Brivio confirming that there will be free-roaming with traffic, this will finally be implemented as first-party content.
I, for one, think that it is about time. Because looking at the world of simulation games, car driving sims are surprisingly behind the curve when it comes to actual driving and not just racing.
Well, if any of you did say Euro Truck Simulator or American Truck Simulator, then you are right! In these titles, you can roam across Europe or America and whilst not in a 1:1 scale in all cases, developers SCS Software have done a phenomenal job in getting as close as they can.
But there is another sim that goes a step further by not just getting close to recreating a continent, but a to-scale version of the world. Except it is not seen from the ground, but the air.
The Microsoft Flight Simulator series of games have let players fly across the entire globe, and many areas are immensely detailed. Unfortunately though, not all of them are, but since players spend the majority of their time in the sky, they do not need the contents on the ground to be flawless and thus not asking too much of their PC's processor and GPU.
So with the Truck, Flight and even Train Sims effectively incorporating an open world, why has it taken so long for car driving sims to get the same treatment? Of course, the earlier aforementioned open-world titles of The Crew, Forza Horizon and Test Drive Unlimited have already long since popularised the concept in driving games.
But ask a hardcore sim racing fan if any of those games are sims, they will not hesitate to say no.
A possible scenario could be that individual free roam maps will be available to select and drive on, with no huge interconnected map akin to what we see in the Truck Sim games. Considering the increased amount of road and roadside detail to pull this off, this would not be a suprise.
But do you know what would be incredible? If AC EVO really did follow the concept of the Truck Sim or Flight Sim games and had a free roam open world where you could drive to all the tracks officially in the game. The only issue there would be that rendering an entire world like the Flight Sim games only at ground level, it would do a number on a PC's performance.
Though even scaling it down to not even to-scale continents like the Truck Sim games would cause another issue. Assetto Corsa EVO would not have the licence for every track, so you may get the Nordschleife and other tracks, but what if you went to the coordinates for a track that is not officially in AC EVO?
With that being said, for MS Flight Simulator, there are third-party mod map extensions for the open world. So it is safe to say that if AC EVO does have a proper open world, the community will be more than happy to fill in for some vacancies on the map if needed.
Of course, many of us are hungry for the thrill of competition on racetracks with the many contemporary racing titles that we have become accustomed to. But there is clearly a burning desire within the community to take a road car like a Ferrari F8 Spider and drive on the Riviera coastline or on the mountain roads in the Alps.
It is not about having a race, but instead about just taking a drive. And then possibly combining the two. Imagine driving to the Nürburgring's tourist lap entry at Döttinger Höhe over the winding Eifel roads, then unleashing your ride at the Nordschleife. That is why Assetto Corsa EVO could be the definitive driving sim and is offering something genuinely new to the sim racing community.
Of course, the premise of AC EVO possibly becoming the definitive driving sim of its generation also requires great physics in both scenarios. Thus far, we have only been able to test the track-based part of this, but both in a race car (the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup) and in road cars (the Hyundai i30 N and the Alpine A110). Both types of cars felt promising.
The Porsche Cup car, a known entity from other sims by now, felt like you would expect it to feel, but with the added benefit of it being able to tackle curbs properly - something that did not always work in AC and ACC. Imola's Variante Alta with its sausage curbs was a good proving ground for this.
Meanwhile, the road cars felt less agile, of course, but still very dynamic. Personally, I find some of the stock AC cars and most of the ACC vehicles to have a bit of a sluggish feel to them when driving, and none of the cars that were available to drive in the pre-alpha version had that problem.
Sure, the road cars felt heavy and did not have much grip when pushed a bit, but they communicated what they were doing really well, thus eliminating that sluggish feel. If this translates to the free-roaming part of AC EVO, we are going to be in for a treat.
And the idea of driving your car that you improved throughout the game to a track on public roads to give it the beans on the actual circuit sounds very fun, too. To make the most of AC EVO, however, this should not be mandatory, but optional. Sim racers have already mentioned that they do not want anything to do with progression or free-roaming - so Kunos would be smart to also have game modes on board that offer the tried and tested way of setting up events just the way they want them.
But with how well the Italian studio has been listening to the community in the creation process of AC EVO so far, I do not think that this is going to be an issue on Kunos' quest of "rethinking sim racing", as they put it themselves.
What would you like in a hypothetical open world map for Assetto Corsa EVO? Let us know in the comments below or join the discussion in our forum!
Assetto Corsa EVO was hugely hyped even before the first gameplay reveal trailer, and the possible inclusion of what appeared to be public road driving and traffic has only turned that up to 11. We think that this is a long overdue feature for car driving sims.
We have a wide range of racing games on the market like F1 24, Gran Turismo 7, Assetto Corsa Competizione, iRacing and more, all of them having the same basic setup: pick a car, pick a track, then you are able to go until your heart is content. Sure, some of them have career modes or a campaign of sorts, but have not really offered anything new - save for the F1 series' Braking Point story mode, which split the community's opinions.
Then on the other side of that coin, there are open-world arcade or "simcade" games like The Crew Motorfest, Forza Horizon 5 and Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown.
Free roam driving has been something that has been wished for in the hardcore sim community for years, as is evident from the countless free roam mods for the original Assetto Corsa. After their first public reveal of the upcoming AC EVO in pre-Alpha at the SimRacing Expo and Game Designer Davide Brivio confirming that there will be free-roaming with traffic, this will finally be implemented as first-party content.
I, for one, think that it is about time. Because looking at the world of simulation games, car driving sims are surprisingly behind the curve when it comes to actual driving and not just racing.
Open World Sims
You may be surprised to hear this, but Assetto Corsa EVO will not actually be the first to do open world public road driving in the simulation genre. There does exist a set of games where you can get behind the wheel of vehicles and drive on public roads with traffic - anyone want to hazard a guess as to what they are?Well, if any of you did say Euro Truck Simulator or American Truck Simulator, then you are right! In these titles, you can roam across Europe or America and whilst not in a 1:1 scale in all cases, developers SCS Software have done a phenomenal job in getting as close as they can.
But there is another sim that goes a step further by not just getting close to recreating a continent, but a to-scale version of the world. Except it is not seen from the ground, but the air.
The Microsoft Flight Simulator series of games have let players fly across the entire globe, and many areas are immensely detailed. Unfortunately though, not all of them are, but since players spend the majority of their time in the sky, they do not need the contents on the ground to be flawless and thus not asking too much of their PC's processor and GPU.
So with the Truck, Flight and even Train Sims effectively incorporating an open world, why has it taken so long for car driving sims to get the same treatment? Of course, the earlier aforementioned open-world titles of The Crew, Forza Horizon and Test Drive Unlimited have already long since popularised the concept in driving games.
But ask a hardcore sim racing fan if any of those games are sims, they will not hesitate to say no.
How Could AC EVO Incorporate Free Roam?
After seeing those brief glimpses in the trailer of the Morgan Super-3 being driven on a public road in the inner confines of the Nordschleife with a BMW M4 travelling the opposite direction, we still cannot be 100% sure how free roam has been implemented. For all we know, it could just be for the Nordschleife, but hopefully not.A possible scenario could be that individual free roam maps will be available to select and drive on, with no huge interconnected map akin to what we see in the Truck Sim games. Considering the increased amount of road and roadside detail to pull this off, this would not be a suprise.
But do you know what would be incredible? If AC EVO really did follow the concept of the Truck Sim or Flight Sim games and had a free roam open world where you could drive to all the tracks officially in the game. The only issue there would be that rendering an entire world like the Flight Sim games only at ground level, it would do a number on a PC's performance.
Though even scaling it down to not even to-scale continents like the Truck Sim games would cause another issue. Assetto Corsa EVO would not have the licence for every track, so you may get the Nordschleife and other tracks, but what if you went to the coordinates for a track that is not officially in AC EVO?
With that being said, for MS Flight Simulator, there are third-party mod map extensions for the open world. So it is safe to say that if AC EVO does have a proper open world, the community will be more than happy to fill in for some vacancies on the map if needed.
Why Is Free Roam Important?
The world of driving sims is already oversaturated with the same old closed-off circuit racing. If any new player wanted to join the market with a concept that has not been tried, an open world in a simulator is one that clearly has the interest of many people.Of course, many of us are hungry for the thrill of competition on racetracks with the many contemporary racing titles that we have become accustomed to. But there is clearly a burning desire within the community to take a road car like a Ferrari F8 Spider and drive on the Riviera coastline or on the mountain roads in the Alps.
It is not about having a race, but instead about just taking a drive. And then possibly combining the two. Imagine driving to the Nürburgring's tourist lap entry at Döttinger Höhe over the winding Eifel roads, then unleashing your ride at the Nordschleife. That is why Assetto Corsa EVO could be the definitive driving sim and is offering something genuinely new to the sim racing community.
Editor's Take - Yannik Haustein
As Luca pointed out above already, a true open-world driving sim has been on the wishlists of many sim racers out there. As a result, a combination of a racing sim and a driving sim, like AC EVO looks set to be, should not just appeal to those who love racing, but also to those who are more at home on the car culture side of things. It looks like Kunos Simulazioni will bring something truly new to the table in combining those two worlds.Of course, the premise of AC EVO possibly becoming the definitive driving sim of its generation also requires great physics in both scenarios. Thus far, we have only been able to test the track-based part of this, but both in a race car (the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup) and in road cars (the Hyundai i30 N and the Alpine A110). Both types of cars felt promising.
The Porsche Cup car, a known entity from other sims by now, felt like you would expect it to feel, but with the added benefit of it being able to tackle curbs properly - something that did not always work in AC and ACC. Imola's Variante Alta with its sausage curbs was a good proving ground for this.
Meanwhile, the road cars felt less agile, of course, but still very dynamic. Personally, I find some of the stock AC cars and most of the ACC vehicles to have a bit of a sluggish feel to them when driving, and none of the cars that were available to drive in the pre-alpha version had that problem.
Sure, the road cars felt heavy and did not have much grip when pushed a bit, but they communicated what they were doing really well, thus eliminating that sluggish feel. If this translates to the free-roaming part of AC EVO, we are going to be in for a treat.
And the idea of driving your car that you improved throughout the game to a track on public roads to give it the beans on the actual circuit sounds very fun, too. To make the most of AC EVO, however, this should not be mandatory, but optional. Sim racers have already mentioned that they do not want anything to do with progression or free-roaming - so Kunos would be smart to also have game modes on board that offer the tried and tested way of setting up events just the way they want them.
But with how well the Italian studio has been listening to the community in the creation process of AC EVO so far, I do not think that this is going to be an issue on Kunos' quest of "rethinking sim racing", as they put it themselves.
What would you like in a hypothetical open world map for Assetto Corsa EVO? Let us know in the comments below or join the discussion in our forum!
