Assetto Corsa Rally early access first impressions - I'm useless but I'm addicted

I'm finally getting the hang of this... Just a few more corners to go... Nearly there... Aaaaaaand I've crashed. Again.

This was a recurring theme throughout my time with Assetto Corsa Rally, both using a wheel and a controller. But don't take that as a negative, I keep learning with every second on each stage with crashes slowly becoming less frequent - and I'm completely hooked.

Assetto Corsa Rally is Supernova Games Studios' debut and it was set up specifically for this rally sim. Assetto Corsa games are renowned for how real they simulate the behaviour of cars, courses and changing weather conditions in the real world.

And although Assetto Corsa Rally is releasing into early access with a full release 12-18 months away, the signs are incredibly promising.

Assetto Corsa Rally early access is impressive and dramatic visually / Supernova Games Studios, 505 Games

In early access, there are Assetto Corsa Rally events where players can complete time attacks across different sections of stages in different conditions.

You start with less powerful cars before working your way up. You earn medals for completing these sections in certain times and more medals progress your way up through the events. There are gold, silver and bronze medals to be won.

There are two rallies, set in Alsace and Wales, with each rally having two different full stages. That might not sound like a lot but each stage is long and there are different variants. These variants include running the full stage, sections of it and both of these in reverse.

Post early access launch, this 33km of laser scanned real roads will quadruple to more than 120km with 10 stages and 35 layouts set across five different rallies.

There are 10 different cars to begin with, including a mix of FWD, RWD and AWD with classics including the Lancia Delta, 037 and Citroen Xsara. 30 plus will be available at the game's full launch.

A rally mode is present where players can compete across a single stage or weekend. There are no championships or career events at the moment but these are being developed ahead of full release.

Time attack is what is says on the tin and there's free practice for players to hone their craft.

Now what you really want to know - what's it like to actually drive?

Danger lurks around every corner in Assetto Corsa Rally, particularly on wet gravel / Supernova Games Studios, 505 Games

When you take to the stage, you'll immediately notice the game looks good and quickly find out the frame rate is incredibly stable. From my time so far, I have not experienced any performance issues on that front whatsoever.

That's impressive considering a customised build of Unreal Engine 5 is being used. Assetto Corsa's physics engine is in use here too.

I played Assetto Corsa Rally early access using an Acer Predator Helios 16 AI with Intel Core Ultra 9 processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti GPU and 32GB of RAM. I used both a wheel and controller while playing the game but more on that shortly.

This is a rally sim so there's a very steep learning curve. There are some assists to help and get you started, such as the usual ABS and traction control, but don't expect to have your hand held.

Assetto Corsa Rally forces you to learn each car, its characteristics and the differences of each surface type - whether that's gravel, tarmac or if it's wet.

On all fronts, every single corner is ready to chew you up and spit you out if you make even the slightest error, whether that's getting on the throttle a millisecond too early, taking the tiniest bit too much speed into a corner or hitting the brakes at the wrong moment. Dirt Rally 2.0 has previously been dubbed the Dark Souls of rallying but this feels on another level to that.

You will make mistakes and crash a fair amount to begin with but accept it as a learning curve and know not to make those mistakes again.

Eventually, things start to click and you're stringing the ideal set of corners together, applying the perfect amount of throttle, taking the perfect line and Scandinavian flicking through a series of left-right-left corners.

The moment you get too complacent though, you're in for a rude awakening. But that's what makes Assetto Corsa Rally feel so real and that's what it's trying to do. And it's doing so very successfully, especially through that feeling of slowly improving and seeing your times and mistakes tumble.

This was my experience using a Thrustmaster T248R wheel. I also tested out Assetto Corsa Rally with the Nacon Revolution X Unlimited but even with the settings customised heavily, it still felt much more twitchy. As the developers recommend, the ideal way to play Assetto Corsa Rally is with a wheel.

To note as well, the lighting on all fronts is fantastic, really capturing different times of day and weather conditions brilliantly, and the sound is superb as well. Each car sounds unique and the throaty sounds of some of the beefier, older rally cars... Phwoar.

The lighting and sound in Assetto Corsa Rally are superb / Supernova Games Studios, 505 Games

There's a lot of debate about what the most realistic rally sim is out there, with people often fighting between Richard Burns Rally and Dirt Rally 2.0.

Even in early access, Assetto Corsa Rally can easily be added into that conversation. There's still a lot of the game to be released, including different surface types like snow and ice and many more cars, but it's firmly on the trajectory to be the most realistic rally sim on the market.

If you check it out, you'll probably find me still in a ditch somewhere...

Assetto Corsa Rally early access releases on PC on 13 November.

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