Better known today as the developer of Skyrim and Fallout, Bethesda once had a well-respected racing game franchise and were deep into development of a licensed Skip Barber Racing title that never released.
Asobo, known today as the Microsoft Flight Simulator developer, created groundbreaking technology for large scale maps that was intended to be used in a high quality rally raid title. It was never released and ended up as FUEL, a post-apocalyptic open-world racing game. What happened?
Today is the day! ACC launches on XBOX One and PlayStation 4 and while it’ll have issues, it should be a fairly successful introduction for many new simracers to the hobby we mostly enjoy to be a part of. For me, that’s probably the most important factor in today’s release.
There are a few things to immediately note such as reduced resolution on standard XBOX consoles, reduced visuals on all consoles, limited numbers of opponents, and a capped 30 frames per second framerate. However, these issues won’t matter much to full-time console users. It still feels very much like ACC, and I felt like my brain adapted and compensated for the changes, especially to framerate.
Greater concern comes from the fact that on standard consoles you won’t even make 30 frames per second at times because when there are a lot of vehicles nearby or a big pile-up, you can see the (XBOX One S) system struggling. Should a game have these kind of issues? Probably not, and if you have a PC it’s an absolute no-brainer to use that and experience this amazing simulation at it’s best… But if not? The simple fact of the matter is that this may well be the best physics on console, and I honestly don’t think you should let framerate or a few jitters stop you. I’m old enough to remember when every game did this.
In an age where developers seek to license singular cars from one series or another, it steps outside that by giving you a full set of championships to take on. While I would avoid the career mode (which was a cool idea, but underestimated my skills massively and set the A.I. far too slow), I think it’s really important to appreciate the fact that you can run a 2018 Blancpain GT Endurance Series, 2019 Blancpain GT Endurance Series and Intercontinental GT Challenge season as things stand right now, with upcoming British GT and GT4 packs sure to add more full seasons. The awkwardly disjointed and perhaps negatively overwhelming car choices from other titles are something you won’t see here.
There are bugs, there are issues with current-gen consoles just not being powerful enough, but this might be an indication we’re right on the cusp of a 1:1 experience in the next generation of consoles when compared to current PCs. In a lot of scenarios, ACC can give you that now. Are you going to wait? Let me know in the comments.
Note: I’m frankly uncertain whether the trailer above contains any footage captured on console. This footage is representative of the game I saw.
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