It was only last week that the first Early Access update for the brilliant Assetto Corsa Rally was teased, with a mysterious new snowy location featured in the short video. We speculated at the time that it was probably one of the classic winter rallies, Sweden or Monte Carlo. Turns out we were wrong – in fact, it’s not even a rally at all.
The v0.2 update is out now, revealing that the mystery location is in fact the Ghiacciodromo Livigno, a real-life ice driving circuit nestled high in the Italian Alps, near the border with Switzerland, and used in reality for ice driving experiences, courses and events.
Assetto Corsa Rally
In AC Rally it’ll serve as a new venue for you to try out with the title’s era-spanning list of rally cars, and presumably do even more crashing, given that you’ll have even less grip. That said, the update naturally introduces studded snow tyres for use at this winter wonderland.
As we saw in the teaser, that list of cars is jumping from 10 to 11 with this update, as the Lancia Stratos and Fiat 124 and 131 get a Group 4 playmate in the form of the classic Alpine A110.
Assetto Corsa Rally
The A110, of course, was a hugely successful rally car in its day, becoming the first car to win the Manufacturers’ World Rally Championship in the debut 1973 season. It is in fact the 1973 car that’s featured, with a fizzy 1.8-litre, 178bhp Renault engine slung out behind the rear wheels.
The update also introduces a host of small changes to physics, audio and graphics, as well as the option to show or hide the in-game HUD. The list of supported steering wheels has been expanded, too. Those physics changes will also see a reset of the leaderboards, due to take place tomorrow, 19 December, at 8pm UK time.
Assetto Corsa Rally
As we found out when we chatted with its developer, this is just the first of many planned updates to AC Rally both before and after it exits Early Access. It’ll be fascinating to see if we get any other venues that deviate from the traditional stage rallying that it initially looked like the game would be laser-focused on.
