Assetto Corsa's Dream Pack Has Us Falling In Love All Over Again

Let me start by congratulating those of you who already own Assetto Corsa. You have fine taste in racing sims. For everyone else, maybe it’s not that you have bad taste, but you don’t have a capable PC or nobody has ever shared with you the wonder of Assetto Corsa. Whatever the excuse, it’s time you get on board.

The final version of Assetto Corsa was released at the end of last year among the other big racing titles, but deep down it has little in common with its competitors. The main areas of focus in building the game were the in-house physics model, dynamic handling and open modding over multiplayer gaming and graphics. Don’t be mistaken, the graphic quality was in no way sacrificed to deliver high quality physics, and there are still multiplayer modes. These features fell into place after the strong foundation was created in the other areas.

It was a clear vision by Italian development studio KUNOS Simulazioni that the game should forever remain a simulator and never give in to the arcade style trend demanded from console platforms. Since the project was to appeal to many different racing fans, the software framework would have to support third party mods. This would help the game evolve and keep relevant far into the future. The studio decided to build a gaming engine from the ground up to support both the complicated physics model and the input of a modding community.

Here is where the studio gains even more cool points in my eyes. It began with just one man, ten years ago, to build netKar Pro, a free racing sim that was originally an experiment in car behaviour. After quickly gaining the attention of petrolheads worldwide, a public version was created that included a track editor. While the free nKPro sim was community driven, the studio grew with the help of a few more people. It began developing race simulation software for professional and home use. The same team created Ferrari Virtual Academy (memories, anyone?), and the studio’s main office is now located on the Autodromo Vallelunga Piero Taruffi in Italy. Setting up home base on a real track has got to be the epitome of dedication to racing simulator development.

So, what’s the big deal about the first Dream Pack content? The developers promised, after releasing the final version of the game, that its content would continue to grow with free bonus content and paid DLC. There is no subscription fee, so players can choose which downloads they want to purchase. The Dream Pack is the first DLC pack, so it sets the standard for what we can expect in the future.

I think it’s fair to say that the Dream Pack hits the mark with my expectations in Assetto Corsa. It brings one of the most well-loved and feared circuits to life: the Nürburgring-Nordschleife. The Green Hell can be experienced in three layouts: the Nordschleife, Touristenfahrten and Endurance.

The following ten cars added to the line up in the Dream Pack were voted on by players in the online community:

• Alfa Romeo 4C
• Alfa Romeo 155 Ti V6 ‘93
• Alfa Romeo GTA
• BMW M235i Race Car
• GM Corvette C7r GTE
• McLaren P1
• McLaren F1 GTR
• Mercedes-Benz C9
• Mercedes Benz 190E 2.5-16 EVO II
• Nissan GT-R NISMO 2014 GT3

The new DLC comes at the same time as a major game update, which corrected a huge list of sound issues, improved AI and tweaked countless other features. The team at KUNOS Simulazioni wanted to release the new content and update sooner, but admits that the task was larger than once expected, adding:

We believe that the Nordschleife is a unique track, and deserves to be reproduced at our very best, in order to convey its essence and beauty to our fans. The Dream Pack 1 represents the sum of our experience and skill and a new start, thanks to the improvements and new functionalities that Assetto Corsa 1.1 will feature.

At this point, you Assetto Corsa players may have noticed that I have not even begun to scratch the surface of all its amazing features. There’s the massive community of modders who whip up new car and track designs, the live events and championships, the incredibly detailed tracks, the beautiful cars and so much more to talk about. That’s why I’m handing it over to you. Show your fellow CT fans what they’re missing.