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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[Kenneth Jurmann]

A single number to score a complex simulation is not enough in my opinion... Give us at least visuals, sound, physics, content and force feedback...

 

[xoph]

A single number to score a complex simulation is not enough in my opinion... Give us at least visuals, sound, physics, content and force feedback...

+1

 

[E304LIFE]

Gave it a 9. Even with ACC out now, I keep coming back to AC more than any other. Smorgasbord of goodies to play with.

 

[manc0ntr0]

the shaders and Sol mods were integrated a little better, and useable online, I might even say 9

You can get full day-night cicle online. I opened myself a server and worked very well

 

[Zuffenhausen Weiss]

AC was great but once I discovered AMS and rF2 via Steam sales, I never went back

Plus points for...

• The online cummunity
• The ability to mod (due that the dev left a completely unfinished game)
• Laser scanned tracks (but nowhere to that compared to those of rF2)

Minus points for...

• It felt it had a long way to go compared to AMS and rF2 in term of completeness
• all races begin with a standing start
• The physics don't feel right on some cars
• plenty but cannot remember them since I've not played for over 18 months (only played for just 4 months)

give it a 6.5/10
[edit] can't see it deserving of more than a 6.5 neither do I see rF2 deserving of more than a 7. Just being harsh but fair

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Rf2 is more complete and finished than AC?
Okay.

 

[2112]

This was the first serious sim I had. I loved it and still have a soft spot in my heart for it, yet I rarely play it now. I gave it a 5.

The physics are not bad, much better than many sims out there. The GFX I really do not put much weight into unless it affect performance, but they are adequate. I loved the mods you could get for the sim. I was able to race all of the cars I used to watch as a kid, on the tracks I wanted. That is a big plus.

The online presence is sorely lacking though. It was not as if one could jump in and find a race at any time. I also have issues with the inability to rotate tracks in a server. I would go into a relatively full server at, say, Spa and have great race. The race would end, and...we end up back at Spa. I then leave as I want to race multiple tracks, not just one. I have the same complaint with ACC. I think server traffic would have been better if Kunos had made track rotation possible.

Five may seem a bit harsh but I do like the sim. Unfortunately, I prefer racing on-line on many different tracks as opposed to hot-lapping/AI racing or being limited to one track on a server. Those negatives knocked my score down considerably.

 

[nezeiges]

Tried it in the beginning but did not like it very much. Gave it a 6

 

[Atticvs]

Ok, so doing a quick weighted average with SUMPRODUCT reveals that the score for AC currently stands at 8.2.

 

[MarcG]

Oi...Jeffrey...where's Wreckfest in the list?!

 

[EIF]

AC was my personal successor to rFactor. Still my sim of choice after 6 years thanks to Content Manager, CSP, Sol, the Kunos DLC and tons of amazing mods. 9/10

 

[Zoltan76]

AC will still continue to be my favourite sim, with all the great new mods constantly breathing new life in the sim... However I seek a real Endurance Racer with true multi class racing and I am yet to find what I am looking for in terms of licensing, flexibility of game play/customization... I think I am looking for PCars2 licensing with the flexibility of AC + Content Manager

GTR3. If ever...

 

[DrRob]

I voted a solid 6. I only take original DLCs into account, not mods as they are not part of the original product.
I loved AC back then. But from todays viewpoint it feels a bit outdated. Fired up AC just last weekend. I immediately felt spoilt by ACC standards to be honest. Mostly the driving feel is less immersive as in ACC. Maybe it is just adaption, who knows. AC is still is fun, but not my go-to sim anymore. Same with R3E by the way. But glad I still have the choice if I feel like it.

 

[Troy Barman]

It gets a 4 based on the base content and I wish I could get my money back. There is no core game here and it’s just a hot lap simulator, nothing grips me in to want to play this game. The mods do make it better to an extent however the AC mod community is extremely toxic with people snatching up free mods from other games and selling it in AC not even crediting the original makers.

 

[John B. Ellis]

I voted a solid 6. I only take original DLCs into account, not mods as they are not part of the original product.
I loved AC back then. But from todays viewpoint it feels a bit outdated. Fired up AC just last weekend. I immediately felt spoilt by ACC standards to be honest. Mostly the driving feel is less immersive as in ACC. Maybe it is just adaption, who knows. AC is still is fun, but not my go-to sim anymore. Same with R3E by the way. But glad I still have the choice if I feel like it.

Personally, I disagree with this line of reasoning. The capability to modify AC is inherently part of the “original product” as intended by its developers and cannot be separated from other game features, such official tracks, cars, etc. The very fact that AC has proven so modifiable, especially as a platform to produce so many excellent additions, is an essential ingredient to its success.

Suffice it to say none of us would even be having this discussion at RaceDepartment if it weren’t for the strengths of Assetto Corsa.

 

[DrRob]

@John B. Ellis I get where you are coming from. But I only rate a product by features that have gone through the original manufacturers quality checks. It would be unfair to downrate AC if a mod was not up to standard, right? I appreciate the moddability though.

That said I really love helicorsa, which was the only mod I ever installed for AC.
I am happy for all those who enjoy mod content and therefore extent the life time of any game.

But I personally can only rate AC to the extent I used it, right? Should be some 120 hours of gameplay. Casual player, singleplayer only. You might also argue I am not allowed to rate AC because I never played MP. But I am doing anyway.

 

[odiopower]

assetto corsa is why simracing is where it is today. Kunos rised the bar, the comunity bring it to where its now, the other title follow its footsteps with varius degree of succes.
I have all the major sim title in my steam library, atm only Assetto is installed. RF2 is the other good one, but the ui sux way too much, Content Menager is free and lightyear abowe any other game interface, and even if i can have it for free i payed the creator 10$ for his insane job.

 

[DrRob]

Not sure what to think of the two "disagrees".
You do not agree that I find it unfair to downvote a product for bad mods?
You do not agree that I appreciate moddability?
You do not agree that I am happy for those still enjoying AC?

Sometimes just pushing the "disagree" button just doesn't cut it.
Maybe @Paul Jeffrey should deactivate comments for votings in the future?
NOW you can push the disagree button to your heart's content! TGIF.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Disagree with your rating based on vanilla content only, that's just wrong doesn't matter how you flip it.
rFactor2 does not even have "vanilla" content, all stuff is installed as Steam Workshop items, there is nothing left to rate otherwise, only engine.
Right or wrong, it's everyone's personal opinion, leave your vote and move on.

 

[DrRob]

@Andrew_WOT thank you for the clarification. I think we can agree that we disagree.