In something of a surprise announcement, 505 Games has revealed a new, third prong of the Assetto Corsa series is on its way soon, as Assetto Corsa Rally arrives in Steam Early Access on November 13.
Marco Massarutto, co-founder of Kunos Simulazioni and Assetto Corsa, describes the question of a rally version of Assetto Corsa as one of the most frequent he’s asked, but with Kunos focused on Assetto Corsa Evo, this title is one from a sibling within the Digital Bros group: Supernova Games Studios.
This compact developer was created by Digital Bros in 2021, to provide internal support for expansion of some of the company’s biggest titles, and has worked with the help of Kunos to create Assetto Corsa Rally.
Based on AC’s physics engine and Unreal Engine 5, Assetto Corsa Rally is intended as a hardcore rally simulator, with a laser focus on driver and car versus conditions and stopwatch.
That’s a quite literal laser focus to, as every rally stage in the game — whether road or other terrain — is laser-scanned, as are the cars which are a combination of official CAD files and scanned models. The result is accuracy of both the surface you’re racing on and individual components of the vehicles.
Described as a first for a rally sim, the laser-scanned environments should reproduce surfaces down to the last piece of gravel and replicate both terrain and foliage of the real thing. Day-night cycles and changing weather conditions are all part of the package too.
Kunos meanwhile has been refining the physics engine in order to deal with the rather different world of rally racing, aiming to make sure that ACR lives up to the Assetto Corsa name when it comes to simulation driving.
Supernova states that every change to the environment will have an effect on driving dynamics, with temperature, humidity, and surface water all changing grip levels and vehicle response rather than just being visual effects.
Meanwhile the vehicle scans feed into an “advanced damage system”, which not only generates visible damage but creates underlying physical damage that adds to the challenges you’ll need to negotiate in getting to the end of each stage.
Supernova also promises authentic vehicle sound, with the cars recorded inside and out under acceleration and braking conditions, as well as while “drifting”, while co-driver pacenotes have been developed alongside real co-drivers and recorded in their voices.
When the game arrives in Early Access on November 13 it will include 33km (20 miles) of laser-scanned, real-life roads, across four Special Stages (with 18 variants) on two different surface types. Hard-top enthusiasts will be able to race tarmac rallies in Alsace, while the loose stuff is represented by gravel in Wales.
That’s set to expand to 120km (75 miles) when the final launch version arrives — no date has been made available yet — with ten Special Stages and 35 variants over five countries, with more to arrive down the line in updates.
On the car front, the Early Access version will offer ten vehicles across the spread of rally eras from the genesis of WRC to modern Rally2 cars. The preview images include the Alfa GTA Junior, Lancia Delta HF Integrale, and 037, FIAT 131 Abarth, Citroen Xsara WRC, Peugeot 208 Rally4, and Hyundai i20N, so there’s still a couple to come yet.
That’s going to increase to 30 vehicles for the launch version, representing “the most iconic rally cars” over the last 50 years. Given that the EA version already include six distinct eras, we can only imagine what the other cars might be.
It’s not yet clear what gameplay features will be included, but there’s five game modes promised for the Early Access title and more — including a rally school and career mode — at launch. VR fans can relax, as support is pencilled in for the full launch title, with triple-screen support in the mix right from November 13.
For now we don’t have any word on a timeline or roadmap, and console support hasn’t been mentioned at this early stage. However if you want to get the jump on even the Early Access players, ACR will be playable at this weekend’s Sim Racing Expo in Dortmund on the Fanatec stand, among others.
If you’re not able to head to Germany, you can wishlist Assetto Corsa Rally from today on Steam.
