On Friday 27th around 3 PM in Europe we will have an event called Assetto Corsa Showcase 2021 in which the developers of Assetto Corsa will talk about the future of the franchise and the various projects they are working on. Little else we know so far, and apart from the future release of the title focused on mobile platforms, nothing else is on the near horizon only the port of Assetto Corsa Competizione
to next-gen consoles is pending. Looking much further ahead, 2024 according to Kunos, is marked as the release year for Assetto Corsa 2.
As there is plenty of time until that date and our mission here is to say stupid things while rubbing the crystal ball, we can make a post of predictions about what that second iteration of the title that managed to establish Kunos as one of the most thriving simulator development studios on the international scene will mean.
If we remember the strengths of Assetto Corsa, we will have some of the keys that should be maintained in Assetto Corsa 2 to at least match the success of the first installment. Let’s review some of them:
- Good graphics: The in house graphics engine that turned out to be beautiful and light at the same time. It does not detract after eight years
- Lightweight and optimized: part of the previous point, the engine developed by Kunos was highly optimized and ran on many computers at a good level.
- Triples and VR with ease: We could use different hardware configurations without excessive difficulty and good results.
- Varied and quality licensed content: Many brands had vehicles of all kinds and were added in DLC along with tracks throughout the development period to strengthen one of the weakest points.
- Unlimited content with mods: Through the use of mods, a virtually unlimited source of third-party content of very different sources and quality is established.
- Price very contained: Many discounts and rebates that allowed to acquire it for a few euros. Which had an impact on its use by the community. Assetto Corsa + Dream Packs
- Championship use: Widely used as a base for community or branded championships.
- Good track feeling: Good FFB and more or less representative physics.
On the opposite side we have those points that were clearly the weak points:
- Lack of competitive multiplayer, rankings, etc.
- Few official tracks
- Lack of evolution in the graphics engine, weather transitions, etc.
- Dissolution of players among very different content and versions
- Network code that could be improved
- Existing hacks
The first installment was a successful product that still today get sales and has players on various platforms. Competizione is a spin off that trying to solve some of the problems of the first installment aggravates others that didn’t happen, but mixing the best of both could make for a truly appealing product for a new iteration.
The knowledge acquired by Kunos in competitive multiplayer through ACC makes real progress. It remains to be seen what can be included in the content and which circuits or competitions do not have exclusivity contracts with other developers and above all, if a better choice of graphics engine allows many players to enjoy rather than fight against the new platform.
As there is plenty of time until 2024, we’ll leave it for now as there will surely be plenty of time to talk about all this. As much as we have had so far to talk about Assetto Corsa and Assetto Corsa Competizione .
