Assetto Corsa Competizione, The Official Blancpain GT Series Game Announced!

Paul Jeffrey

Premium
Top GT3 licence, UE4 graphics, day to night cycle, dynamic weather, advanced physics with a focus on realism.. is Assetto Corsa Competizione the sim we've all been waiting for?

When Kunos Simulazioni hinted at a big announcement a few days ago, many thought it would simply be a case of confirming another licence for the already well developed Assetto Corsa software, or at the very most a potential AC2 first announcement. Not so, the team over in Italy have been hard at work behind the scenes developing a very exciting new piece of software, and what is more the new Assetto Corsa Competizione title will focus on a single racing category, the incredible Blancpain Endurance GT3 series.. a welcome hark back to the days when racing simulation developers focussed all their attention to detail on a specific racing series, something that Kunos are keen to replication with this newly announced IP.

Assetto Corsa Competizione 1.jpg

Assetto Corsa Competizione 2.jpg

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Set to feature a pretty significant shift away from the basis of the Assetto Corsa title we all know and love, Kunos have confirmed that AC Competizione will feature what are described as "photo realistic" graphics thanks to the use of the incredibly powerful Unreal Engine 4 graphics engine, allowing Kunos to move away from the single light source solution of Assetto Corsa and finally bring both time of day and weather effects to their racing game - a must when you consider the Spa 24 Hour is a key event in the real life Blancpain championship.

Assetto Corsa Competizione 3.jpg


As well as the obvious visual benefits brought from a move to Unreal 4 (see screenshots attached to this article), another key talking point from the simulation announcement comes by way of confirmation that Kunos are looking to build a sizable offline career mode around the new game, with driving school tutorials making a welcome return to a popular modern day simulation.

Alongside what promises to be a substantial offline element, the initial press release indicates that Kunos are also aiming to make considerable changes to the way Assetto Corsa veterans experience online play, with an eye on the emerging eSport marketplace the Italian developers are promising a well rounded ranking and matchmaking online system, potentially encouraging a much more evenly balanced online experience and less of those famous public lobby first corner crashes...

Assetto Corsa Competizione 6.jpg


Although only initially announced this afternoon, it looks like development is well on the way with this exceptionally exciting new title. Projected for a summer Steam EA release, I'll leave you with the new trailer to get the juices flowing for now...


Assetto Corsa Competizione should be available on Steam Early Access Summer 2018.


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Excited? Looking forward to the new title? Let us know below!
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Very good point on development times. I'm not holding my breath for the lot of them obviously. However I was just surprised at just how many circuits actually make that list.

However would Kunos not be looking to increase their production capacity for new circuits one way or another? Correct me if I'm wrong (If anyone wants a safe bet, bet on that being the case) but with the new engine would they make new tools to help them develop more efficiently? I understand how much time laser scanning etc would take.
 
So I thought I would do some very basic digging and work out what circuits their SRO license might actually get them. Turns out the results are quite surprising and diverse! At a current count there is roughly THIRTY circuits that they could well be planning to include in the game at some point under the Blancpain banners! There is also the soon to be unveiled European GT4 Central Europe and GT4 Belgium series that might give us even more circuits like Zandvoort, Hockenheim or Oschersleben. I would like to admit that the GT4 Nordic series may not be included in the game, but you just never know! I think they would be some cool and unique circuits to see in a game and from the SRO point of view, would help promote a series that I'm not sure would be overly mainstream.

Below is the list of all circuits, in some championships I have removed double ups to make for easy reading! Let me know if I have missed one.

Blancpain GT Series:
Zolder
Monza
Brands Hatch
Silverstone
Paul Ricard
Misano
Spa
Hungaroring
Nurburgring
Barcelona

Blancpain GT Asia:
Sepang
Chang International Circuit (Buriram)
Suzuka
Fuji
Shanghai
Zhejiang circuit (If you are not familiar with this track, it looks to have a crazy first 2 sectors)

British GT:
Oulton Park
Rockingham
Snetterton
Donington Park

Intercontinental GT Challenge:
Bathurst
Laguna Seca

FFSA GT4 Europeen Southern Championship:
Nogaro
Pau
Dijon
Magny-Cours

GT4 Nordic Series:
Falkenbergs Motorbana
Rudskogen Circuit
Tierp Arena
Mantorp Park
Karlskoga Motorstadion

To me, with even most of those tracks covered I personally think I'd be a very happy chappy!
British GT is managed by SRO?
I sure wish they'd license more tracks, and more than Bathurst in Australia, seriously there are so many cool tracks there devs need to stop going for only one.
I want to depend less on modding, but devs never license the main tracks used by main series out there. Hopefully there is a PWC and Australian GT license coming (and ADAC GT too while they are at it), or at least the tracks used there since they'll already have the cars
 
Unfortunately PWC and Australian GT are not the most likely series, as they are not owned by the SRO directly. However they do have strong ties because they use the SRO's BOP system and seek regular consultancy regarding this.

However I definitely agree more Australian tracks would be very very good to see. Theres some seriously fantastic ones out there, including the brand new "The Bend" motorsport park, that could be promising. Knowing Tailem Bend the game's rain physics would become entirely redundant there due to the dryness!!!!
 
This is such good news! A more racey approach in AC! Extremely happy with everything I read so far. Will they include a better damage model? The only thing I hope is that they license other series as well. Not much of a gt3fan at all. Fingers crossed for that wtcrlicense!
 

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