14 DAY TRIAL // 
Assetto Corsa has long been one of the most acclaimed racing games, and if you’ve never played it, it’s probably hard to understand why so many people love it.
In many regards, Assetto Corsa is considered the most advanced, complex, and spot-on alternative to Gran Turismo, a title that continues to be exclusive to PlayStation for a reason that makes little sense.
Assetto Corsa, however, has also expanded on Gran Turismo territory, and Kunos Simulazioni has decided to give the Competizione a welcome overhaul on new-gen consoles.
In other words, Assetto Corsa Competizione now feels at home on PlayStation 5, coming with improved graphics and a bunch of other tweaks that gamers are probably going to love.
If you’ve already played Assetto Corsa before, you probably know precisely what to expect when it comes to the new-gen experience, so let’s focus on what a new player is going to go through when launching the game for the very first time.
Before anything, if you’ve never played a racing sim before, Assetto Corsa Competizione is going to feel incredibly hard to play. If you’ve played racing sims before, well, it doesn’t really matter because there’s still a huge learning curve that any new player will have to discover anyway.
The graphics on PlayStation 5 are impressively refined, and the attention to detail is applaudable, to say the least. The 60fps gameplay really pays off, and everything feels incredibly smooth. If you’re a car aficionado, you’ll probably notice how realistic every car looks, especially as the developing team has specifically tried to reproduce every little component of a real model in a digital version.
On the other hand, this doesn’t necessarily mean everything is just milk and honey. There are occasional visual glitches, but all of them should be resolved quite easily with further updates. For example, if you play the career, every time you jump behind the wheel of the Lamborghini Huracan ST, you’ll see a gigantic grey block instead of the actual car (there’s a screenshot in our photo gallery to better understand what happens). Just tap the throttle slightly and when the car starts moving, everything should return to normal.
The audio experience is sensational, but of course, it also depends on the car you’re driving. To be honest, I’m not a big fan of how the Lambo engines sound, but I was totally impressed by the Bentleys.
The gameplay is what ACC is all about.
First and foremost, if you’re a new player, let me tell you one thing. ACC is a very complex racing game that throws a lot of information at you during the race, so just make sure you give it enough time. If you start a career, the Huracan ST is a pretty difficult car to handle for beginners, so there’s no doubt it’ll take a while until you manage to complete a full flawless lap.
The game starts by putting the emphasis on consistency, not necessarily on the speed, so it’s pretty clear the developers wanted every new player to get accustomed to how cars feel on track before anything else. The career requires you to complete three trials, but as said, completing all of them flawlessly is pretty challenging because the Huracan ST is a genuine beast.
This isn’t the kind of game where you can just press the throttle and take over rivals. Nope, it’s a racing sim that has the player keep an eye on tire wear, always keep an eye in the rearview mirror, and make sure you don’t get over the kerbs if your tires aren’t warm already.
It’s extremely easy to lose control of the car, so at certain times, ACC can feel incredibly frustrating, especially if you’re leading a race and you make a simple minor mistake. This can cost you the win, while some occasional players might not be big fans of this approach, it’s exactly how things are in real-life anyway.
In ACC, your strategy is extremely important and can make a huge difference. Planning when to go the box is critical, and more often than not, going to the pits first is an excellent way to avoid battling the traffic. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s how you win races, because every little detail is more important than you think.
Choosing the AI difficulty depends on how well you master ACC, but I recommend new players to start with several assists and then remove them gradually. Use the perfect lane line until you learn the tracks because it’s critical to brake at the right time.
If you’re a fan of GT3 class cars and the Blancpain GT Series, ACC will make you happy. But on the other hand, it’s important to keep in mind every car feels different on the track, and this is why nobody can perfectly master the game from the very first minutes. There’s a clear learning curve, so ACC is the kind of game that keeps you entertained for quite a while.
The Good
- Excellent attention to detail
- Refined DualSense feedback
- A massive learning curve to keep you entertained
- 60fps makes the gameplay feel smooth
The Bad
- The Huracan isn't the right car to start a career
- Some occasional visual glitches
- Little information to help beginners discover the game
CONCLUSION
The DualSense support is very refined, and the feedback is amazing, especially during a challenging race. However, I still think ACC is the kind of game that must be played with a steering wheel, as a controller still can’t reproduce the actual driving feel.
At the end of the day, if you’re a big fan of ACC and want to get the best the game has to offer, this new-gen release is exactly what it’s supposed to be. It’s one of the best racing sims ever created, and the new-gen improvements are exactly what ACC needed in the first place.
Review code provided by the publisher.
