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For what feels like an eternity, the sim racing genre has hung onto a tried-and-true formula, andAssetto Corsa Evoreinforces that narrative. It keeps most of the fundamentals from its predecessor, Assetto Corsa Competizione, while improving in aspects you’d expect from a sequel — visuals, audio, and force feedback.
Still, it’s a challenging title to experience because of its nature, even if you’ve been a diehard arcade racing fan. On top of eight tracks and 20 cars in early access alone, there are several restrictions on facets like handling and controls that impact your driving. As such, building a strong foundation on the base-level concepts gives you an idea of how to play and lets you smoothly transition into other sim racing games.
Know Your Tire Conditions
One of themain culprits behind your car’s misbehavior is the tires, specifically their temperature during a race. you’re able to monitor their current informationnear the speedometer in the bottom-right corner of the screen, showcasing each tire’s pressure and color.
The color indicates temperature:red means too hot, and blue means too cold, both of which can reduce grip or risk a blowout. Ideally, you want to keep these tires green, meaning they’re perfectly stable, and alter the pressure according to the track —add pressure for more precision, and reduce it for less heat generation.
Follow The Race Line
For beginner and rookie settings, the game featuresa race line that shows up on the track, highlighting a safe route to victory. Although optional,following this recommended route is a great strategybecause it teaches a fundamental aspect of racing: going on the inside through corners.
While the race line is still not the most optimal route you can take during the race, it’s honest and reliable to the point whereit comfortably lets you avoid penalties and crashes. On top of being a good teaching mechanic,it clearly shows you any upcoming turnsfrom a mile away, letting you safely brake ahead of time.
Don’t Overestimate Your Brakes
Assetto Corsa Evo’s braking power focuses on realism instead of exaggeration. This meansyou’ll often find yourself understeering the vehicle when entering a turn, veering it off track and costing you valuable time and condition. Of course,your braking power depends on what you’re driving, but you can combat this loss of control by approaching a turn at a low speed.
Turns are, by far, the most important part of any track, sincethey’re commonplace for overtaking, gaining momentum, and crashes. Thus, you want to ensure maximum tire grip as you enter one, which you can do so byavoiding trail braking and lowering the car’s speed beforehand.
Adjust The Controller Sensitivity
As a sim racing game, your inputs must be precise to ensureyou don’t unnecessarily lose those milliseconds worth of lead. Therefore, upon booting the game, you can access the Controls menu and change four key properties of each driving-related setting —Deadzone, Saturation X, Saturation Y, and Curvature.
These attributes determine how sensitive your inputs are, and although you could keep them untouched, changing them to suit your needsmakes the racing experience much smoother. The properties you should primarily look at are Deadzone, which changes your controller’s input-registering range, and Curvature, which modifies the input response curve.
A small Deadzone can be useful toprevent unintended inputs caused by slight movements or faulty controllers. On the other hand, with a higher Curvature value, your inputs become less sensitive at first but more responsive as you press or steer harder. As such, you canset the Curvature accordingly for things like gentle throttling.
For racing wheels, you’re able to keep a negligible Deadzone for ideal precision, and it’s better to increase that value if you’re on an Xbox or some other game controller.
Understanding Penalties
To teach discipline or avoid intentional cheating,Assetto Corsa Evo heavily relies on its in-depth penalty system. The game issues automatic penalties ranging fromtime loss to immediate disqualification based on various violations, including collisions, speeding through or blocking a pit lane, corner cutting, driving in the wrong direction, and going off track.
Often, you’ll receive aten-second penalty for your first infraction, but repeated violations will trigger one of three sanctions —stop-and-go, drive-through, or disqualification. Stop-and-go and drive-through penalties are primarily time-related and force you to go into the pit box, while disqualification is fairly self-explanatory and absolute.
Minor collisions generally won’t incur a penalty, and will onlynegatively affect your Safety Rating, which is usually a metric when joining multiplayer lobbies. The low Safety Rating showsyou often bump into other cars during a race, and the lower the Safety Rating, the lower your chances of joining a lobby.
You won’t receive any warnings or penalties if you go off-track and actually lose time and momentum rather than gaining them.
Differentiating Each Car And Its Variants
When you go to pick a car from the Garage or Rental to race, you might notice some vehicles withidentical models and performance indexes (PI). At first glance, they may seem the same, but there’s a crucial detail to pay attention to —the yellow text in the bottom-right corner of each livery.
This text reveals different variants, likeABS, traction control, tuning type, interior,and other features. In most cases, you’ll come across the same car multiple times, differentiated only by this text, and although subtle,they can play a huge part in the race.
The Impact Of Weather Conditions
Alongside setting the ambiance,weather plays a strong role in determining your race, affecting things like tire grip, track visibility, and more. Before starting the race, you can pick one of seven weather conditions — Clear, Scattered Clouds, Broken Clouds, Overcast, Drizzle, Rain, and Heavy Rain —each wetter than the last.
These conditions force you to change your approach, fromselecting the right tires to adjusting your camera mode. For instance, rain not only reduces traction but can also create puddles, increasingthe risk of aquaplaning and even crashes. Generally, wetter weather makes the race more difficult, but if you purely want to learn a track’s layout, sticking to clear weather is a solid choice.
Opt for Drizzle, Rain, or Heavy Rain if you want to practice in tougher conditions.
Get Your Licenses As Soon As Possible
Getting your various licenses is the main course of progressionin Assetto Corsa Evo, since it unlocks new car classes for you to buy or rent. You start the game withsix beginner vehicles and their variants, and the main way to unlock and purchase more of them is by garnering driving licenses and credits.
To get your licenses, you can visit the Academy, whereyou’ll find a series of Grand Prix (or GP) events. As you successfully complete each one, you automaticallygain their respective license and expand the Garage. If you’re looking to widen your collection with more exciting and challenging cars, completing GP events is definitely the way to go.
Don’t Worry About Fuel Consumption
One thing you’ll notice when driving a car is how slowly it depletes its fuel tank. In fact, it’s so slow thatyou can often drive for up to six minutes with about three liters of fuel, and considering that most tanks have at least a 25-liter capacity,you might complete an entire race with a full tank.
Keep in mind, though, that you’ll still need totake a pit stop to replace your tires and fix the car’s condition. However, if you’re concerned about being stranded on the track because of low fuel, you don’t need to worry about it.
