Vroom. Vroom vroom. Vroom vroom vroom. Ahem, sorry, dunno what happened to me there. Assetto Corsa EVO, the three-letter-yelling follow up to one on Steam’s long-reigning top racing sims, has just gotten its third early access update. It adds in online multiplayer, plus a bunch of fresh cars and tracks to hop into moments before you’re unceremoniously punted off by a random.
I’ve been playing a bit of a waiting game with AC EVO since yapping about it at length for my old home when it first debuted in early access at the start of this year, but this might be the point I hop behind its wheel agaion and see how devs Kunos Simulazioni have managed to flesh it out so far. After all, they’ve now added in a 90s Merc 190E, which is pretty much square German saloon kryptonite for my will to hold off on checking things out.
Booting the gas to commence my rundown of update 3’s inclusions, the headliner’s AC EVO’s first step into multiplayer via a new mode that lets you hop into races against up to 16 other players who’ll no doubt be polite enough not to use your rear bumper as their brake. These races are held in free in-game servers, which run 24/7 and will have the sort of variety of race scenarios, tracks, and weather settings you’d expect to pick between.
A portal for custom servers is said to be coming soon and those are paid, something that hasn’t gone down well with players to the extent it looks to be a key factor in the EVO’s Steam reviews currently sitting at mixed. In terms of what they cost, a 20 or more slot server that’s live 24/7 for 30 days will be €15 plus VAT, while renting a server with unlimited slots for just a day will cost €5. There are discounts if you opt to rent a server for longer periods, those being three, six, or twelve months. It’s a controversial way of monetising things for sure, especially for a game that’s still in paid early access.
Beyond that, update 3 brings nine new cars: three GTs, three special racers, and three road cars. The BMW M4 GT3 EVO, Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2, and Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport are the GTs, the Caterham Seven Academy Racer, Dallara Stradale, and the Ferrari F2004 F1 car that a certain Mike Schumacher drove are the specials. Finally, the road cars are the Audi RS 6 Avant, BMW M3 Sport Evo (E30), and that Merc 190E Evo 2 I mentioned earlier. New tracks-wise, Belgian rain magnet Spa and energy drink road the Red Bull Ring have arrived.
When fire them up, you’ll likely notice a few other new additions like revamped car audio, a recalibrated tyre simming model, and graphical tweaks which bring in global illumination, optimised CPU/GPU performance especially for bigger grids and “significantly reduced VRAM usage”
So, hopefully less stuttery vroom vrooms when jumping into these new online races. Tell the first road rager who cheekily spins you out and then speeds of sniggering like Dick Dastardly I said hi.
