Was that a free-roaming element in the teaser trailer? Can you customise a driver avatar? Has Assetto Corsa EVO gone soft?
Apparently not. Phew.
Certainly, based on our brief hands-on at the ADAC SimRacing Expo – with a pre-alpha vertical slice – the driving experience remains a simulation. The sensation was as if the car’s front axle was glued to your fingertips.
However, EVO’s tone is different from the first Assetto Corsa and the subsequent Competizione spin-off.
The tracks have added atmosphere, the cars are exacting in their detail and it sounds like the game modes will be bigger, wider, better.
“Assetto Corsa is 100 per cent a pure racing and driving simulation,” explains EVO developer Kunos Simulazioni’s Co-Founder and Executive Manager, Marco Massarutto, to Traxion.
“But, we want to [make] broader our audience. [However] not by giving up in terms of realism just to get more people interested – we made EVO even better in terms of feeling and handling.
“When you get a better feeling, actually, cars feel easier to drive, because you understand more what the car is doing and you can react much better.”
“We want to reach a wider audience, and we don’t give up in terms of realism. So we are working on those aspects that maybe were lacking the first AC titles like a career mode or something like that, [and elements that] give people more reasons and more scope to play the game every day.”
Massarutto is clear that the title will continue to support hardcore competitive ‘esports’ style competitions and communities. He’s also keen to reiterate the title’s simulation credentials alongside its bespoke game engine, which is new from the ground up.
Yet, now it seems the Italian team’s next game will offer more gameplay variety outside of circuit racing as an added bonus.
Road driving confirmed
“Sometimes, at the end of the day, you just want to drive for half an hour before dinner, and you don’t have the time to make a [car] set-up or complete a race, or to concentrate because you are so tired,” the Kunos veteran explains.
“If you just want to relax, have the pleasure of driving, to customise your car or look at your collection – you can do that.”
To that point, one of the main discussion areas with EVO is scenes of cars moving past trees, away from race circuits. The internet is awash with speculation about free-roam areas, or the theory that these are simply photographic ‘scapes’ like Gran Turismo.
While the full details are to be saved for a later date, at least now we know that players will be able to drive on public roads in some form.
“You saw a Morgan three-wheeler, the Super 3, [in the trailer], which is a beautiful car,” says Massarutto.
“We chose this car to show the road driving specifically, with another car going the opposite way.
“So we confirm that what you have seen in the trailer will come, to allow people just to drive for the pleasure of driving road cars on actual roads.”
Massarutto then pauses, and smiles: “It’s going to be amazing.”
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