Rennsport: The Review of the New Driving Simulator!

Rennsport: The New Driving Simulator

After much anticipation, I had the chance to put on my suit and helmet to drive in Rennsport for its PlayStation 5 edition, to understand what the simulator produced by Nacon and developed by the Teyon and Competition Company teams has to offer. So, get on track, warm up your engines, and enjoy the Rennsport review! After almost a year of early access, the title arrived in its 1.0 edition on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation 5 in mid-November, but after a few days, it received a significant series of corrections via patch, which extended the time to complete the article you are reading.

Let's go in order and see what Rennsport offers, at least in the standard edition I was able to explore: 13 circuits and 17 cars, almost all GT3, with more sporadic appearances of GT4, TCR, M2, R1, TCR, and Hypercar. However, if you want to open your wallet and spend 79.99 euros instead of the usual 59.99, you can get the Deluxe edition with one extra car and circuit, two future DLCs, and in-game currency to buy liveries. The numbers speak for themselves: the offering is quite meager compared to other driving titles, especially for a game sold at full price.

The game modes are decidedly classic: championships, single races, and time trials, not to mention online multiplayer. As for the single-player experience, don't expect a career in the strict sense, but a simple sequence of championships divided by difficulty and category, which you can unlock gradually by winning them in sequence. To tell the truth, everything seems to be a training ground aimed at multiplayer, available in cross-play mode with console users mixed with PC users, or limited to your own platform.

I ran several sessions, and while the result was satisfactory when I was on track, on other occasions I was unable to race due to server issues. I should preface this by saying I'm connected to the network via a 1Gbps FTTH fiber optic connection, which allows me to play online without any problems, so I can rule out that what happened several times was due to me. I also encountered problems during official events, where I might manage a few laps in free practice only to be sent back to the waiting room and couldn't get on track even in subsequent sessions.

Rennsport: How Shiny is the Bodywork?

From a technical standpoint, Rennsport is based on Unreal Engine 5, but the rendering isn't quite what you'd expect from a next-gen title. The results of a Gran Turismo 7 or a Forza Motorsport are a mirage (obviously, given the budgets involved), but even looking at the past, one is disappointed. I wanted to take a spin on the "old" Assetto Corsa Competizione (also on PlayStation 5) and it immediately struck me how the overall impact of Kunos' title is still better than its competitor today. We're not talking about a severely insufficient rendering, but it was reasonable to expect more from every point of view: both circuits and cars are average, although the car park is particularly limited, and if you're going to focus on limited content, it should at least show a higher level of attention.

Moreover, the in-game interface itself is anything but easy to consult. There's a screen to interact with the hub, but it's extremely far from being user-friendly. Some texts are tiny, and the choice to mark both our car and opponent cars on the minimap with the same color doesn't help at all. Yes, we are a triangle while others are dots, but since all competitors are represented in red, it's easy to understand how chaos reigns supreme. Very appreciated, however, is the ability to adjust the camera, even extending the view and changing the field of view's amplitude, a very convenient option that all video games should have. As for the sound compartment, the engine rendering is good, and overall we can't complain.

There are a few scattered bugs, especially in collisions, but the most concerning factor is the opponents' artificial intelligence. First, there are no options related to the skill of the other cars on the track, so the level remains almost unchanged, although the real challenge of Rennsport is managing to master the available cars, but we'll talk about that later. Our opponents often exhibit incomprehensible behavior, including sudden changes of direction and cornering trajectory management, so much so that in some situations I managed to create a gap behind me because all the other participants in the race had decided to tackle a corner in a nonsensical way, delaying themselves by looking for a less effective racing line that systematically ended up sabotaging them. Up to this point, the Rennsport review seems to speak of a largely insufficient project, but what elevates the package, though not enough to make it sufficient, is the driving model, accompanied by the car physics.

Rennsport: An Engine Alone Doesn't Make a Supercar

From this point of view, the developers have done a good job, and the driving provides satisfying sensations, although some cars seem to have received more attention than others, especially in weight management, with the result that understeer and oversteer lose consistency. However, we are talking about occasional situations: in general, I had a lot of fun trying to master each of the 17 cars at my disposal (all available from the start) and managing to improve my lap time by interpreting each circuit better and better gave me the sensations I look for in a driving simulator: throttle management, weight, brake pressure, and so on do not disappoint and benefit from a good use of all the peculiarities of the PlayStation 5's DualSense, giving the experience that something extra that only Sony's adaptive triggers can provide.

We cannot compare the experience to that of a setup with a steering wheel and pedals, but when it comes to racing and controllers, PlayStation 5 is a sure bet. Naturally, we are not talking about an experience suitable for everyone: driving in Rennsport is not accessible, and without the right practice, you will only achieve laughable results.

Unfortunately, however, all the good things we can find in Rennsport's driving model clash with a truly meager amount of content and fail to entertain in the long run: alone, we can enjoy trying to refine our driving and interpretation of cars and circuits, but when it comes to competing with the AI, the problems mentioned above arise. In multiplayer, the errors I encountered several times prevented me from fully enjoying the experience, with the result that, as of today, Rennsport has a satisfactory driveplay held hostage by too many shortcomings, starting with the list price, which is really too high for what is offered. Needless to say, if Teyon and Competition Company can work intelligently on patches and expansions, they can leverage what they have done well, but today the road seems really long and complicated.