Assetto Corsa EVO Early Access Cars And Features Revealed

Twenty cars, five circuits, and new features, including VR support, headline the Early Access release of Assetto Corsa EVO, launching next week on Steam.

With just one week until the Assetto Corsa EVO Steam launch on January 16, Kunos reveals the full details of the ‘1st Early Access Release’.

The initial day-one package will include 20 cars, five circuits, two game modes, VR and triple-screen support, and many more new features.

We take a look at each of these in the following sections:

Confirmed Cars

We’ll have 20 cars to play with at launch (expanding to around 100 when Version 1.0 drops later this year). If you want to play guess-the-rest, check out our confirmed car list, which shows the other cars we’ve already seen in the teasers and trailers.

For now, here are the first four confirmed rides:

Toyota GR86

Thankfully, the GR86 ensures we’ll get something tail-happy on the release date!

Known as the modern-day reincarnation of the legendary AE86, it’ll undoubtedly be the perfect car for getting started with drifting in EVO.

Given the past controversies with Toyota in other games, drifting fans will be stoked to see them working together for EVO. Here’s to hoping it’s just the start. All we need now is the option of a 2JZ swap!

BMW M2 CS Racing

Although it’s a grippy track car, we’re pretty confident that with some tweaking in the customization area, this won’t be shy when it comes to getting sideways.

If racing is your thing, it could potentially be the perfect pick right out of the box with up to 450 horsepower on tap and a 0-60 of just 3.6 seconds.

Ferrari 296 GTB

Ferrari’s 296 GTB is the brand’s first V6 road car, combining a 2.9L twin-turbo engine with plug-in hybrid technology to deliver 819bhp of total output, making it the most powerful.

Abarth 695 Biposto

The hot hatch from Abarth rounds out the list, bringing a FWD offering that will be a hoot to zip around the five confirmed tracks. This Biposto version is the most track-focused and powerful of the Abarth 500 family at just 997 kilos and packing 188hp; this angry little hot hatch should be an absolute riot on technical sections.

Confirmed Tracks

While the highly-anticipated free roam mode won’t be available in Early Access, we’re getting five legendary circuits at launch:

• Bathurst (Mount Panorama Circuit) - Australia
• Brands Hatch - UK
• WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca - USA
• Suzuka - Japan
• Imola (Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari) - Italy

This initial track selection hits all the sweet spots, from Suzuka’s technical challenges to Bathurst’s elevation changes, providing the perfect playground for testing the initial car roster.

Missing from the track list we’ve seen in the previews and teasers are the Nürburgring Nordschleife, likely for free-roam-related reasons, and Fuji International Speedway.

Game Modes

Unless further information comes to light in the meantime, it looks like things will be pretty basic to start with.

Single-Player Practice

Perfect for honing your skills, whether sideways or nailing your racing lines.

Quick Race

Bringing the first opportunity to face off against the game’s new AI opponents.

While the initial offering might seem minimal, these two modes should allow us to learn the new physics engine and get to grips with the cars.

Plus, with the new Game Economy system (more on that shortly), even these basic modes should offer further progression.

Game Economy (Step 1)

The Early Access release introduces several progression features that should keep things interesting beyond just hot-lapping:

• Car Rent & Purchase
• XP
• Rank
• Rewards
• Driver Profile
• Driving Academy/Driving Licenses

If it’s like the recent CarX Drift Racing 3 training or a modern evolution of the old-school Gran Turismo license tests, the Driving Academy/Licenses aspect could be great for learning to master the new changes before the full game’s launch.

Car Customization & Tuning

We’re yet to see what this will entail, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed there might be some drift-specific features.

VR & Triple Screen Support

Given that Virtual Reality is a game changer for the O.G. Assetto Corsa, fans will be stoked to see both VR and triple-screen support from day one.

Our Thoughts

While there’s plenty of great news here, there aren’t any huge surprises from what we already knew. We’re glad to see Kunos being realistic about keeping things simple at the start, as the game looks like it’ll be a huge rollout over time.

In some ways, the ‘1st Early Release’ almost feels like what once would’ve been classed as an in-depth game demo (if anyone even remembers those?!).

Still, given the way modern gaming has “evolved” in this way, we’re not complaining. Hopefully, more features and content will trickle out over the months before the full game release.

There’s no further news for console players on the Xbox or PlayStation release dates just yet, but they’re expected to follow after the Early Access period.

If you want to know more about what to expect from the game, be sure to check out our comprehensive Assetto Corsa EVO guide.

 

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