The annual Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, is always one of the biggest events of the year for those hoping to get a glimpse of what the future of games has in store for them. But 2018 was a relatively poor year for racing games, particular in the simulation subgenre — until the very last day, when Italian developer Kunos Simulazioni revealed its first gameplay footage of the upcoming title called Assetto Corsa Competizione.
Having launched the standalone Assetto Corsa (Italian for “your racing simulator”) in 2014, which includes hundreds of cars from dozens of different categories, the developer was ready for something more focused and feature-rich — and that opportunity came with Competizione, which, when it launches, will be the official game for the Blancpain GT Series.
The gameplay videos shown at E3 gave viewers a taste of some of the features not found in AC, such as a wet weather system and full day and night cycles. Unlike AC, which runs on an engine custom-made by Kunos, Competizione runs on the latest iteration of the Unreal Engine, which in short means the game will be on a completely new level in terms of eye-candy.
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Aside from the graphics, other new elements displayed the title’s attention to detail and polish — something AC had been criticized as lacking. The driver can manually start the car and press other buttons on the dash and steering wheel, a race engineer is heard over the radio, and a variety of small but immersive animations have been introduced.
There’s no word yet on when Competizione will be launched, but it could be soon. According to the Steam store page, it is set to enter Early Access in the summer. When the original Assetto Corsa launched in 2014, it had been in Early Access on Steam for just over a year.
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