One of the world’s most popular sim racing titles, Assetto Corsa, is going open-world. Not just in the upcoming Assetto Corsa Evo, but also in the original game courtesy of a modding team. They’re introducing a free-roaming map based on Portugal, with a huge variety of driving environments and online multiplayer. But like all great things, it ain’t free.
The Portugal Openworld Project is an upcoming map mod for Assetto Corsa on PC, and it’s claimed to be one of the largest open-world maps ever made for a sim racing game. With over 136 kilometers (or 85 miles) of road already modeled, the map traverses everything from urban Portuguese streets to mountain passes, rally-ready dirt roads, and “festival sites” that indicate inspiration by Forza Horizon. Because this is Assetto Corsa, though, the physics aren’t Looney Tunes and not every car has 1,300 horsepower, so you’ll feel more like you’re driving than playing a Rocket League spinoff.
The developers say the mod features NPC traffic, and that they’re working on in-game “apps” that amount to new game modes. One is an “express courier” mode for fast point-to-point drives where you avoid interceptors, while another called “traffic rush” will award points for cutting through traffic without making contact. The devs also promise plenty more features down the line, though many are contingent on the mod’s performance on (big sigh) Kickstarter.
The mod devs are locking access behind a $15 contribution to their Kickstarter, which may be money well-spent if you’ve been playing Assetto Corsa since launch. It also doesn’t come with permanent access to online multiplayer—you have to pay a recurring subscription for access to those servers. On top of that, anyone who has pre-ordered or paid for early-access beta for a video game (or purchased Tesla’s so-called “Full Self-Driving”) will know the hazards of paying in full upfront for a promise.
There’s no guarantee that any of the Kickstarter’s stretch goals will manifest even if its fundraising goals are achieved either. Despite the team’s claimed 25-plus combined years of experience developing mods for Assetto Corsa, the endeavor still gives off the air of an overly ambitious game development project of the kinds that I embarked on as a naive teen. Still, what the team behind this mod has already accomplished is far beyond what my friends and I ever put together, and is by all means worth your money if you like what you see. Just know that what you see is what you get, so let anything more come as a pleasant surprise.
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