Kunos Simulazioni has announced Assetto Corsa Evo as their next driving and racing game project, going back to a more general format similar to the original Assetto Corsa. The game is available to wishlist on Steam with a planned release date in 2024.
Assetto Corsa Evo aims to “[redefine] the concept of realism and the features of one of the most popular cross-platform driving simulations ever developed.” The game will include cars from multiple classes – AC Competizione was all about GT3, in contrast – and so will include road cars, classics, hypercars, prototypes and racing cars.
All of this is being reproduced with modelling that takes mechanical, electronic and aerodynamic performance into account, while circuits have been captured using Laserscan technology. That feeds into a new algorithm that simulates asphalt behaviour through dynamic weather conditions, to make changing weather feel all the more realistic.
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- Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992)
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- Alfa Romeo Giulia GTAm
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- Alpine A290_β
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- Hyundai N Vision 74
From initial screenshots, comparing hub caps and other clues, we’ve spotted:
- Alfa Romeo Giulia GTAm
- Alpine A110
- Alpine A290_β
- Hyundai N Vision 74
- Hyundai i20 N
- Hyundai i30 N
- Lamborghini Huracán STO
- Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.5-16 Evolution II – specifically the 452nd of 500 road legal cars produced
- Porsche 911 (930)
- Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992)
As for the race circuits, we spy Imola, Nurburgring Nordschleife and Brands Hatch. Here’s the iconic Variante Alta chicane in the wet-ish:
Kunoz Simulazioni is stepping away from Unreal Engine to make this happen. AC Evo will have a new proprietary graphics engine specifically for driving simulations, promising photorealistic details and support for both VR and triple screen racing rigs.
It’s not currently clear what form the Assetto Corsa Evo launch will take. Both previous games in the series launched first into Steam Early Access, matured to a full launch on PC, and then made the jump to console down the road. We’d expect AC Evo to take a similar path, but have asked for clarification.
PC requirements on Steam look to be fairly modest for 2024, essentially taking the recommended spec GPUs from Competizioni and having those be the new minimum spec here. Either a GeForce GTX 1070 or Radeon RX 580 will be the minimum, while a GeForce RTX 2070 or Radeon RX 5600 is the recommended spec. It’s worth noting that they state you will need 100GB of SSD storage to run the game from.
Looking back at Assetto Corsa Competizioni, I said in our PS5 and Xbox Series X|S review that “Where the original console release of Assetto Corsa Competizione had some huge caveats hanging over it, the game’s release on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S brings it up to spec, effectively matching the PC version. It still has some weaknesses in presentation and structure for new players in particular, but once you get into the groove, it’s one of the best sim racers you can buy right now.”
Source: press release, Steam
