Assetto Corsa Review (oil)
IMPORTANT!! The game is plain bad on AS VANILLA. The campaign is dog, the UI is horrendous, nothing makes sense and it is ugly. It gets so much better with mods!!
Vanilla impressions:
TL:DR - bad campaign, bad graphics, bad UI, good gameplay
I started playing this game without knowing anything about modding, and it wasn't very good. 6/10. The game feels empty, lacks soul and the server selector is stupid. Gameplay-wise, its 70% there. Kunos cars are known to be inconsistent and lackluster. Some are great, some are horrible.
Essential mods:
TL:DR - get content manager, custom shaders patch and SOL
Content Manager (CM) - it is a russian-made modded game client that serves to clean up whatever disgusting menus Kunos created, and it does a fantastic job at it. As the name suggests, it manages your content. It streamlines the modding process, and allows great customisation.
Custom Shaders Patch (CSP) - It makes the game look good, 100x better than vanilla, at the cost of some performance. Theres about 20 pages of CSP settings, each with at least 100 tick boxes, so good luck tuning the settings. (CM allows you to download presets off the internet, and there are some that even improve performance)
SOL (SOL) - It's a mod that adds dynamic weather, clouds, dynamic weather graphic mod, shader patch and weather engine. You get rain if you pay a dollar or something. Its how they make those Tokyo racer videos and screenshots look so amazing.
General feel of the game:
TL:DR - very realistic, high skill ceiling, 500TB of mods
It's probably the most realistic driving simulator you could get for this budget. So many mods and tracks, all with decent physics (please get mods from reputable creators). I have heard some people call it "the Dark Souls of sims" which isn't exactly too far off if you compare it to games like Forza, Gran Turismo, the F1 series, CarX, etc. The driving skills required in this game are somewhat interchangable with IRL driving, but don't go highway racing with your Civic just because you can keep a car under control in SRP. The cars in game have customisable setups like you would expect, but it's very mod dependant. You could change the gear ratios on a Toyota Camry if the modder feels like it, and you can't change the toe on an F1 car because the modder feels like it.
Singleplayer:
TL:DR - bad with bots, good for practice
You're probably not going to enjoy the traditional racing game singleplayer experience very much, even with all the mods. The AI is stupid and slow, they collide for the sake of it, and all of them share 3 total braincells. However, solo sessions are great for hotlapping, track-learning and general practicing. You can customise the weather, track conditions, ambient temperature, time etc.
Community:
TL:DR - Everything is community-run, quite hostile for total beginners, don't quit because toxic, it's worth it
Kunos doesn't tell you what to do, end of story. There are no built-in rating system like iRacing, there are no safety scores like Assetto Corsa Competizione, there are no gamemodes like Forza, and there is no progression like GT, unless you count the stupid campaign. Everything here is hosted by the community, including leagues, races, events and every other aspect you would expect. Discord is a powerful tool, use it at your disposal. I cannot speak for everyone, but my first impression of a lot of communities is that they aren't very friendly. Some of them like to be hostile towards inexperienced players and gatekeep the community. It hurts the overall experience and it hurts me to see such a great game met with bad people. They aren't all bad, but please don't get beaten down by a few toxic players.
Modding:
TL:DR - ask communities to find out what mod is good and what is bad. Don't use the bad ones.
I personally believe that modding makes up 80% of the overall experience of this game, and that's where the community comes in. Above, I said to not quit because of the toxicity, because the community allows you to differentiate between good and bad mods. From a glance, especially for the inexperienced, mods you find online are hard to judge whether it's "good or bad". Joining communities allow you to learn what to get and what to avoid. The modding community is unnatrually active, given that this game is almost a decade old. You could probably find anything you want, given enough dedication and maybe some paywalls, but I cannot guarantee quality. A general rule of thumb is that the niche-er something is, the lower quality you can expect. A popular GT3RS mod is probably going to be more realistic than a Mooncraft Shiden mod.
Verdict:
Is it worth it? Dude it's 3 usd when on sale, just get it. I would pay 70 for this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWRMiBIQ-b8 follow this guide to get started on modding