Rate The Sims: Community Edition | Assetto Corsa

[Paul Jeffrey]

We are looking to crown the 'RaceDepartment Community Favourite' racing game - get your votes in now for our first game on the list... Assetto Corsa!

Our dear RaceDepartment community. You folks are the most mighty fans of sim racing, often displaying an immense amount of understanding and depth of knowledge when it comes to our favourite hobby.

With sim racing and eSports in such a wonderful boom period of late. Gamers looking to have some fun with their virtual racing machines have never before had such a wide and robust variety of software to enjoy.

Now occasionally I've been in a position to rate new racing titles that have come my way, and almost every time I've received a wide variety of folks agreeing, or strongly disagreeing with my own opinions.

Opinions are great, but sometimes the opinion of one person, with their own likes and dislikes taken into account, can often give a bit of a skewed picture (intentional or not) to the greater cause in which said person is trying to explain.

As such, rather than doing one myself, and in the spirit of engaging some interesting community discussion, I thought it could be fun to let our own community rate each of the key sim racing / racing games available today.

As always with these things, please do try and respect each other and their opinions, and let's try to see if we can give a fun, but fair shake of the stick to each of the games included in this poll.

For transparency, I'm going to be featuring the following racing games over the next weeks:

• Assetto Corsa
• Assetto Corsa Competizione
• Automobilista (AMS)
• DiRT 2.0
• F1 2019
• GT Sport
• GRID
• iRacing
• NASCAR Heat 4
• PCARS 2
• RaceRoom Racing Experience
• rFactor 2
• WRC 8

I'm going to launch the article each Monday evening, and keep the poll running for a full week until the next new article is pushed live. So get your votes in quick!

Once I've completed the full list of games, I'll publish a final results feature, and we can award the winning developer the lofty title of 'RaceDepartment Community Favourite'!

Have fun, stay sensible and let the voting commence!

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[Gelly916]

AC is my go-to sim. I just love the variety of tracks/cars at your disposal. And the modding community has kept it alive over the years. I give it a 9/10 because I wish it had "real" weather effects, and more organized online gameplay - such as safety cars, rolling starts, and caution laps.

But AC (in my opinion) still has some of the best force feedback, and very believable physics. It also looks great and is very optimised for running in VR, which is a huge thing for me.

Viva Assetto Corsa!

 

[David Wright]

ACC is dead? Well why didn't anyone let me know cause that and rFactor are the only two installed on this PC.
It was quite lively racing it last night...

rFactor is dead too

 

[Rory Wetherington]

I gave it a 8, only because of mod support otherwise it's a 6.

as far as the game list, if your going to include Grid, you might as well add Wreckfest.

 

[SoulMaTriX3]

AC is my favorite. Add Content Manager and some of the greatest mod communities (Chivas, Busca, BZ) out there, AC is still the game to beat for me. RF2 is turning into a cash cow with expensive DLC (Why not just bring RF3 to the table?). ACC seems to be missing something, though I like aspects of it.

 

[CobraCat]

AC being fully modifiable makes me to give it a 10, if not for that I'd give it an 8.

 

[BrightCandle]

I gave it an 8. I think its driving feel is good, its physics is decent and it produces great online racing. The moddability is a big plus point to the game and will ensure its success for a long time.

But it isn't actually a good "game". Its career mode sucks, it doesn't teach you to drive and the setup of force feedback really involves a lot of knowledge and trial and error. The multiplayer only really works with communities or SRS, both of which are at least enabled with mods but aren't part of the default game. Its default graphics are pretty dated now but with Sol it actually looks fairly reasonable. Its VR support is at least performant but it is a pain switching stuff on a WMR device involving windows projected in the club house and constant switching to a control to select content manager in a window and then kb+ mouse to change stuff and launch and to get launched into races.

Overall I think is definitely better than average, and when it comes to racing games FFB and physics feel and the quality of the driving is what matters. Its moddability fills in any perceived gaps the game has but it doesn't reach the obvious heights of other games in similar areas such as VR support and organised racing. I think on balance it is one of the top games out there, the modding really saves it and its price ends up good.

 

[John B. Ellis]

Thanks to the staggering contributions from the community, AC gets my nod due to its ever-expanding feature set (day/night, weather, etc.) and the unmatched number of quality mods. Yes, there are newer options out there, but AC remains absolutely relevant and encyclopedic in scope.

 

[Mickdrs]

there's life left in the old dog yet, with content manager and sol mod and everything else

 

[sentry87]

Rfactor2>pc2>AC>ACC>R3E. I'd put PC2 ( with custom ffb) above rf2 if it wasn't for rf2's mod support and PC2's lack there of.

 

[BCJM76]

I gave AC a 7.

It's a very good game but it does lack some essential features. Yes, day/transitions, rain, et al have been added via csp and sol but those are mods and I judge the game by the actual development team.

AC could have been epic has Kunos continued to work on it. Sadly, they moved on to ACC before the most could have been obtained from AC.

 

[Wayne Hutchison]

It has night, damage, and even rain, and the AI is actually some of the more respectful AI around.

Does the night, rain, clouds, etc actually affect the physics? Or just eye candy?

 

[Stogie]

AC is a good title but I don't rate it very high. Its not until one includes CM, CSP, SOL and SRS into the base game that it becomes a higher rated title. Those four mods make it compelling because on paper the base game doesn't provide much.

 

[VFX Pro]

The importance of mods is over rated. Very few mods matches the exact quality level of the content created by developers. Sure, it's awesome to get free or low cost tracks and cars, but how many people can afford to put hundreds or even thousands of hours of their time, competing against paid pros sitting next to the developers.... Just a thought on a very basic economic reality.

 

[Gelly916]

I am in complete disagreement with people not including modded content in their rating of the game. The modding community is a vital part of AC, and a very healthy amount of mods are just as good, or possibly better (I'm looking at you RSS, VRC, Lilski, Fat Alfie, etc) than the actual base content that Kunos has created. If you're playing AC without mods, you're simply not doing it right. And don't for a second act like modding is some sort of insanely difficult task, it is the exact opposite. Oh, how I love having over 400+ cars and 120+ tracks with day/night cycle at my fingertips. "Somewhat" organized online game play thanks to SRS. All packaged in a nice, neatly setup Content Manager where I can almost do anything imaginable for the game. Thanks a bunch AC modding community for your hard work and dedication!

 

[Morichin]

I have voted. But I would like to make a little suggestion.

'RaceDepartment Community Favourite' racing game should be based on the number of comments and positive ratings, not on scoring votes.

Of course, unfairness arises depending on how points are given to comments and ratings. But I don't think the end result is that important. Probably, most of us don't want to see deciding which game is the Best. The important thing is how much RD members enjoy each game. Beloved games are always actively discussed by community members, and unpopular games are not. It may be difficult to introduce this time, but I hope it will be useful for future reference.

Anyway, I'm very looking forward to seeing how this project will unfold (also RD members funny comments). Thanks Paul!

 

[Deleted member 197115]

I have voted. But I would like to make a little suggestion.

'RaceDepartment Community Favourite' racing game should be based on the number of comments and positive ratings, not on scoring votes.

Or just let users vote with their feet but what fun in that.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Kunos are losing big by abandoning such a successful title.

 

[SOLO59]

Endless mods, trackir support (kind of, gotta use a different plugin for it to work), overall great sim!!! They get a solid 9 from me! Devs certainly did amazing work but can't give it a 10 due to modding community made the game better imho. Can't wait for the other polls to come out for sims I own... PC2, R3E, RF2 & AMS

 

[TheMattyOnline]

Rated 8

This poll is slightly flawed, due to wether people are raring the game as downloaded from Steam, or after installing the custom shaders pack and Sol, amongst other many decent mods.

Base game I would say a 6 now, but with everything patched up, an 8.
If the shaders and Sol mods were integrated a little better, and useable online, I might even say 9

 

[UMC 22]

This poll is slightly flawed, due to wether people are raring the game as downloaded from Steam, or after installing the custom shaders pack and Sol, amongst other many decent mods.

Indeed, that will be the problem with all of these polls apart from R3E. Even then it will be a factor, since people will inevitably lower their rating because it doesn't have mods.

I only gave AC a 5, based on the vanilla game with zero mods. I never thought the physics were quite as good as people claimed, and I was not impressed by the car selection or the lack of complete classes to race together.