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

[Paul Jeffrey]

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.

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.

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...

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.

Check out the Assetto Corsa Sub Forum here at RaceDepartment for the latest news and discussions regarding the sim. We host quality League and Club Racing events, have a selection of fantastic mods to download and some of the best community conversation. Join in the discussion today.

Like what you see here at RaceDepartment? Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow us on social media!

RaceDepartment YouTube
RaceDepartment Twitter
RaceDepartment Facebook
RaceDepartment Twitch
RaceDepartment Instagram

Excited? Looking forward to the new title? Let us know below!

 

[CMGARAGE]

Tickle me interested.

 

[Patrik Marek]

looks pretty awesome!
I do hope it still supports modding though , would be shame if they had to drop that,

but yeah, visuals amazing and the physics should be comperable to what AC had, so this looks like instant buy

 

[Andrew Harper]

I'm hyped.. shame my old pc won't handle the Unreal Engine for sure... Maybe it's time for an upgrade

Yeah my PC is only 12 months old but I think I'll need an upgrade too! lol

 

[Andrew Harper]

I do hope it still supports modding though , would be shame if they had to drop that,

Yeah that went through my mind as well.

With licenses being the way they are it will be interesting to see if Kunos have to build in an encryption feature. Hopefully not.

 

[Torcano]

Some more pics that I tore off the webpage that are used as backgrounds and not available in the screenshots and videos section, now without any text on them -

 

[GianmarcoFiduci]

Yeah my PC is only 12 months old but I think I'll need an upgrade too! lol

Mine is a 5 years old HP Pavillon, with a 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 on. Needs an upgrade.

 

[Danicras]

I hope it works in i7 6700HQ and 970m. I hope so.

 

[belevezero]

Hope GPU upgrades won't be necessary, because that ain't happening for a long time...

 

[Steve Bird]

Loving it. Its a definite buy from me

 

[Shaun Clarke]

@Patrik Marek if you look at the last Interview with @stefano he said the last "minor" update was done for modders, so like I agree with you, removing this feature would be a back step.

Also, a one series sim is fantastic and no doubt the Blancpain is massive, but this is all about endurance. What about pick up races, I mean the people that cannot sit in a seat for hours on end? Will they encounter for people like me

Final note also, so many people have moaned about AC and online racing, that all you find is GT racing, now with this news, its all about GT racing and everybody is hyped all of a sudden

Don't get me wrong (flame proof suit on) I am well up for this, but #justsaying

 

[Paul Glover]

Needs VR support!

 

[David Wright]

Did NOT see this coming. Kunos to produce GTR3!! And so soon. So many surprises including Stefano not coding his own engine. I'm sure he deserves a bit of a break. I think focusing on one series will help Kunos to get the AI and wet racing right.

 

[Patrik Marek]

@Patrik Marek if you look at the last Interview with @stefano he said the last "minor" update was done for modders, so like I agree with you, removing this feature would be a back step.

Also, a one series sim is fantastic and no doubt the Blancpain is massive, but this is all about endurance. What about pick up races, I mean the people that cannot sit in a seat for hours on end? Will they encounter for people like me

Final note also, so many people have moaned about AC and online racing, that all you find is GT racing, now with this news, its all about GT racing and everybody is hyped all of a sudden

Don't get me wrong (flame proof suit on) I am well up for this, but #justsaying

for me modding was really the only reason why I put so many hours into AC, so if the new game was only a racing , eventhough I really love the idea that they are going to do more proper career mode, I wouldn't expect to spend more then say 30-40 hours in it, .. eventhough this to me woudl still be money well spend anyhow,

but yeah, sounds really promising, and if there is going to be early acess, I will definitely sign up for it , but I don't expect to see modding tools opened before it's released

anyhow, not bad announcement,
I do wonder what does this mean for AC 2 ?? ... is this AC2? , or is this AC 1.5 and AC2 will still be coming ??
only time will tell

 

[Dave Fox]

think I'll just post my wallet to Kunos

 

[melanieuk]

Yeah same here, this could be awesome!

2018 shaping up nicely I reckon...

As if you didn't know , you did say at the start of the Year, that there is going to be a lot of good News for sim racers this year.

And during your Kunos interview at the sim racing expo 2017, I am One Hundred percent sure the image behind Stefano was a porche on a wet nordschleife at night it was a hidden sneak peak, that I spotted, and it looks exactly like the video shown.

I'm hyped.. shame my old pc won't handle the Unreal Engine for sure... Maybe it's time for an upgrade

Even a Sandwich maker PC can handle the UE4, it is a very well optimized middle ware graphics engine.

For those interested in following this new title, do so by following it on steam and adding it to your steam wish list, the developer gets all the information from steam, when you have added it to your wishlist and follow it, steam is a wealth of information for games developers.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/805550/Assetto_Corsa_Competizione/

 

[snyperal]

Wow! This is epic.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

GTR3 came early! Great license, let's hope it gives Kunos less headaches than it did for SimBin back in the days. Very promising!

 

[formidable]

A must be, if improves AC physics, and other minor tweaks.

And my dreams are true now! Day-night cycle, and rain!

 

[Zuffenhausen Weiss]

I'll buy it if it's as or more realistic as rF2 and less simcadey like AC was which I'm extremely doubtful it will happen. Until the sales offering AMS and rF2 before year end, my AC adventures only lasted 2 months which died after the new year and not touched it since. Because of lack of suitable mods in rF2, not done it much but focused on rF1 then AMS and never looked back since.

Like PCars 1, brought it with so much optimism only for it to die fast which I have to view this with cynicism.

 

[Sam Smith]

for me modding was really the only reason why I put so many hours into AC, so if the new game was only a racing , eventhough I really love the idea that they are going to do more proper career mode, I wouldn't expect to spend more then say 30-40 hours in it, .. eventhough this to me woudl still be money well spend anyhow,

but yeah, sounds really promising, and if there is going to be early acess, I will definitely sign up for it , but I don't expect to see modding tools opened before it's released

anyhow, not bad announcement,
I do wonder what does this mean for AC 2 ?? ... is this AC2? , or is this AC 1.5 and AC2 will still be coming ??
only time will tell

Wouldn't this just be the first steps towards AC2. I would hope they would leave this game without the option to mod, allowing the follow up AC2 to be the modding platform as AC1 is now.
Get the basics right in this game and add all of it and more to AC2.
So basically treat the AC platform as the modders platform and any standalone titles like this as just complete packages.