I look back fondly on the glorious five-year period that brought us a slew of amazing releases from Jane’s Combat Simulations. This EA brand brought us such classics as US Navy Fighters, AH-64D Longbow and its seminal sequel, Longbow 2, the severely underrated 688(I) Hunter/Killer submarine sim, as well as F-15 and F/A18.
What does this have to do with Assetto Corsa? Just like realistic military simulators, realistic driving simulators, as opposed to those titles that fall more towards the “game” side of the “simulation game” appellation, occupy a tiny and very specialised niche.
A lot of gamers love the idea of being able to engage in thrilling dogfights, shooting down multiple enemy fighters while the Top Gun soundtrack blares in the back. Nothing wrong with that. But combat sims catered to the sort of player who, while still definitely having a burning desire to channel Tom Cruise’s Maverick, received just as much satisfaction from learning how to accurately operate an F-18’s different radar modes as they did from watching an enemy pilot eject as your Sidewinder exploded next to his Mig.
The vast majority of gamers, though, just want to have fun. They want to save the world, shoot down enemy fighters and win a Grand Prix without having to put in close on the same amount of time and effort as real-life pilots and race car drivers. Serious military combat simulators soon went back to being the niche pursuit they had always been, occupying a tiny but extremely healthy and vibrant corner of the gaming world with some of the most passionate fans imaginable.
It’s the same with racing games. Fans of true sim racing know that no mainstream games, no matter how much they may tout their supposed “realism”, come anywhere close to deserving the title of simulator. In the world of consoles, this is especially true. On PC, meticulous driving simulation services like iRacing allow hardcore sim racers to live out their dreams. iRacing and other similar offerings don’t have any delusions of mainstream success. They are not blockbuster games, and have no intention of being so. They will never appeal to the lowest common denominator, or even one several levels above that, and so have never attempted to court the console market.
This is what makes Assetto Corsa so interesting. This is a thoroughbred racing simulator, starting life, quite naturally, on the PC. But now it has been released on PS4 and Xbox One.
Before we go any further, let’s just get one thing out of the way: you need a proper, good quality force-feedback steering wheel, as well as a set of pedals, to get the most out of Assetto Corsa. No, let me rephrase that: you need a steering wheel and pedals to get anything of any worth at all out of this offering. This isn’t meant as a slight on the game. The controller implementation is as good as can be hoped for, but let’s be realistic, since realism is after all the name of the game here: there’s no way that a gamepad can offer anything close to the measure of control, precision and feedback that a good gaming wheel offers.
With a steering wheel, you can ride the edge of adhesion, feeling as your rears lose traction and moving the wheel a fraction of a millimetre this way or that to rectify this. With a controller, this is impossible, and the incredible sense of connection and realism you experience with a steering wheel is impossible to achieve.
But if you’re the sort of person interested in sim racers, you already know this. And if you’re reading this article, you probably want to know one of two things.
If you’re a fan of ordinary racing games like Forza and Gran Turismo, wondering if this offers the same thrills with a smidgeon more realism and thus would be a worthy addition to your collection, the answer is no.
If, on the other hand, you’re a hardcore sim junky wondering if this port could possibly be the real deal, the answer is a firm yes. Yes, Assetto Corsa is something unique, a true racing simulation on a console. It seems as unlikely as getting a proper flight simulator port for your PS4. But here it is, in all its glory.
This isn’t a game with a massive list of tracks or cars, or the slickest interface with amazing music. Its career mode isn’t as good as F1 2016’s, or even much less-great examples. Yet it offers something none of its more illustrious peers can: an unparalleled sense of accomplishment when, after hours of setup adjustments and practice laps, you finally take Eau Rouge at full throttle; the wheel shakes in your hands as you hold your breath, fearing the slightest sign that you’re going to lose the car… and then you feel the tyre loads stabilise, the vibrations calm and you’re shooting down the Kemmel Straight with the grilles of several Ferarri 599XX Evos in your rear-view mirror.
It’s the sort of thrill that’s hard to find in the gaming world, with the best possibly analogy being that of finally defeating a particularly difficult Dark Souls boss after hours of trying, failing, learning, and trying again.
Assetto Corsa is the Dark Souls of racing games. You heard it here first.
Bottom Line: It’s on console, but it’s a true race sim. No need to feel inferior to the PC Master Race any longer.
Rating: 9.5/10
