Assetto Corsa Competizione- still worth it?

GT racing has never been more in the spotlight.  With the Gran Turismo movie making it’s premier last year and global superstar Valentino Rossi making an entrance into the sport, we may be living in the golden era of GT racing. 

However, Im not here to sum up the positives and negatives of GT cars, I’m here to talk about Assetto Corsa Competizione. 

As you may have guessed I’m no professional racing driver, however much I wish I was! So for now, sim racing is as close as I’ll get to having a screaming V10 sat behind me, or thunderous V8 in front of me. 

McLaren 720s GT3

The sim racing community has grown so much over the last couple of years, with developments from many titles on all platforms. If you want iRacing on Playstation or Xbox, Assetto Corsa Competizione is the closest you’re going to get, at least for the moment.

The title launched in 2019 for PC users, then again in 2020 for console players and 2022 for PS5 and Xbox series X/S. So, being as old as Dirt Rally 2.0, is it still worth your money and time? 

Yes. 

Especially for console players I don’t think I have encountered a game that gets as close to realism as this does. Cornering can be challenging, especially in the wet, and the cars feel like there’s actually weight behind them. 

Compared to Gran Turismo 7, Assetto Corsa Competizione still feels like a huge step forward with realism in mind.  It looks great, and sounds incredible. 

The online and single player features of the game are also enjoyable.  A win online really feels like an achievement, and if you’re not ploughed into at the first corner, some really great battles can be had on track. Even a battle with the AI can be very rewarding. 

One gripe I do have out of the box with ACC Is how much you have to pay for after you’ve bought the game.  There’s most, if not all, the modern GT machinery you’d want in the game but if the 992 911 GT3 R takes your fancy, it’ll cost you around £10 to unlock the car, along with the Ferrari 296 and Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo 2. 

BMW M4 GT3

It’s the same story with circuits, paying for a number of new locations to race there. I would say however that in many cases they are worth it. I have missed driving classic British tracks like Oulton Park and Donnington Park, so I haven’t dwelt long on parting with my cash for these.

The game does allow you to edit livery designs, which can be fun, but coming from Gran Turismo, the livery editor was one of my favourite aspects of the game. I would have liked to see more options and more freedom from the livery editor in ACC but ‘beggars can’t be choosers’ as they say. 

Overall I would say that for track driving, there’s nothing better on console at the moment. ACC has it all, great handling, great looks and brilliant sound, it’s positives outweigh the negatives and as it’s on sale at the time of writing this, now might be the time to pick it up if you haven’t already.