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The proof of any racing game is in its time trial mode. Just you, your vehicle and the track in communion; nothing to dilute or interfere with the faceted challenge of shaving seconds off your time through skill, ingenuity and courage; and nowhere for the game itself to hide. It has to be fun and interesting to drive for its own sake, or it's sunk.Judged only on this criteria, Assetto Corsa is the best motorsport game around right now. Arriving on consoles after a successful couple of years on Steam, this release from Italian studio Kunos Simulazioni has already earned a reputation with the PC sim-racing crowd for the excellence of its handling model. Car physics simulations are a surprisingly subjective business, and everyone has their favourite, but few could find fault with the realism, detail and driveability (for want of a better word) of Assetto Corsa. It has a very persuasive weight and will punish mistakes, but it's not jittery or overly severe.
It's so tremendously mechanically articulate that each car in its garage takes on a life of its own. There is no comparison between driving a firmly-sprung, front-wheel-drive Abarth 500 Corse in racing trim - a stubby little hatchback with a punchy, blunt response - and a mid-60s moon rocket like the Lamborghini Miura, which winds up to great speed through its long gears, but needs to be threaded through corners with the utmost delicacy. It's like playing a different game.
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