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    5 Thoughts From Playing Assetto Corsa Rally In Early Access

    3 weeks ago

    AC Rally has arrived, and we’re enamoured if not quite in love. Read on for some of our thoughts Assetto Corsa Rally, in-game screenshot Normally, we’d be telling you about how we’re playing X game after X months or years of waiting, ending a long time of anticipation.Not today, however. Assetto Corsa Rally came with a stealth reveal during October’s Sim Racing Expo, and it’s now already available in primitive early access form.We’ve been putting in the hours since its release, and have a few thoughts… Given Assetto Corsa’s roots in circuit racing simulation, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that AC Rally is focused on realism. That’s reflected superbly in the handling and physics model, which gets things spot on. Most of the time, anyway.Across gravel and loose surfaces, steering feel and weight transfer in cars are convincingly accurate to real-world counterparts. Modern four-wheel drive cars feel fast, neutral and capable, while old-school rear-driven stuff proves a real handful. Don’t ask us how many times we’ve spun a Lancia 037.Tarmac needs work, though. It does it better than EA Sports WRC ever did, but cars still have a sense like they’re skating across a paved surface rather than gripping onto it, which leads to a bit of a floating sense. Hopefully that’s something that can easily be rectified, given how closely related to AC Evo it is (So much so that our rig’s haptic setup picked Rally up as Evo…) Assetto Corsa Rally, in-game screenshot It’s not a matter of if things will go wrong in AC Rally, but rather when. While Codemasters’ and Nacon’s recent efforts at rally games always felt like they had a safety net baked in to make you feel like a hero, that’s not the case with AC.Survival proves key, as AC is incredibly unforgiving. Run with full damage on, and even the smallest of overcorrections can lead to some massive accidents that will very quickly end a promising personal best.You have to switch your mindset from all-out blistering stage times to simply making it to the finish line. Dirt Rally 2.0 may be about to hand over its baton as the Dark Souls of rally games. Laser scanning technology is something that has allowed many circuit racing simulators to deliver life-accurate racetracks that offer a very convincing replica of real-world counterparts.That’s never been tried in a rally game before, largely due to the work involved to create a multi-mile point-to-point rally stage being significantly more than a dedicated closed-course facility.Yet, Supernova Games Studios and Kunos Simulazioni have taken on that task for AC Rally, and the effect is profound. It leads to stages that feel more convincing both in scale and treachery, putting you closer to the real thing than anything ever has. Assetto Corsa Rally, in-game screenshot Curiously, AC Rally runs on Unreal Engine 5 rather than the same in-house architecture as Evo, albeit a heavily customised version.It looks stunning as a result of that, with its surface reflections both across stages and car bodywork providing some of the highlights of the spectacle. Better still, despite UE5 having some common quirks and being infamous for stuttering on EA WRC, there’s no evidence of that here. Our AMD 9070 has coped well with it, running a solid 70-80fps on high settings across all conditions. AC Rally is a very good base to build on, but there’s simply not enough to do in it right now for it to be a must-have in your sim library.At the time of writing, there are two locations with four stages to play with. Even the final version is only quoted as having just 120km of routes, owing to lengthy development times.Combine that with a short car list for the time being, and it gets quite samey, quite fast. Its £24.99 asking price does reflect that, but if you’re hoping for hours upon end of reliability right now, you won’t find it here.If content updates are kept consistent (not a given, as shown by AC Evo), it will eventually be a great of the genre. It just isn’t there yet.Get the latest car news, reviews and unmissable promotions from the team direct to your inboxFor more information see our Privacy Policy Next Tiny Group B-Inspired Fiat To Be Immortalised As Hot Wheels Model Ryan HironsEditor Ryan serves as Editor of Car Throttle, having joined in 2023. On top of making sure everything is ticking over, you can read his takes on the latest new cars, some ways to spend your hard-earned cash in the used market, as well as the occasional JDM deep cut feature. Toys and Gadgets Tiny Group B-Inspired Fiat To Be Immortalised As Hot Wheels Model News Mitsubishi Is Officially Returning To Britain In 2026 Motorsport The Chevrolet Camaro Lives On In 2026, Sort Of... News The Toyota Land Cruiser Has Been Liberty Walked News New Continental Supersports Is The Lightest Bentley In 85 YearsSubscribe to our NewsletterGet the latest car news, reviews and unmissable promotions from the team direct to your inboxFor more information see our Privacy Policy
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