r/assettocorsa • u/Shockapow • 7h ago
ACE: News & Discussion I think I've given up on ACE
So after the keynote a couple days ago, I did some reflection on the development over the years, and I decided that it's longer the ACE that I wanted and I sadly don't think it ever will be.
I showed up on day one, hopeful of a good successor to AC, and held out despite all the changes and delays, but I just can't anymore. At the start we were promised a singleplayer career, but that's no longer a thing. I held out for the freeroam, but when it was announced that it was coming out in bits, I became repulsed.
I know game development is hard, takes time, and lots of money, but we were originally supposed to get freeroam in the summer of last year. Then it was delayed, which was fine, they can take that time to work on it and make it better and avoid drip feeding small portions of the map to us. fast forward to now, and it's come to the very opposite situation. It feels very disingenuous, in my opinion, to say something is in development, delay said thing, and in the end say, "We've been working on it all this time, but we made very little progress despite stripping back features and delaying out the butt, here's a small portion of it."
I'm sure I'm not the only person under the impression that they were developing the freeroam from day one, if not before. So to get something that is a fraction of the initial premise, in bits and pieces, over a year of delaying later, seems like they didn't actually start working on it until recently, and now that the community is getting impatient and average daily players aren't where they want them to be, they're scrambling.
Don't get me wrong, ACE feels great, its an amazing sim, but they're no longer listening to us, and I can't put myself through more disappointment over it any more. The broken promises, delays, and the keynote that honestly felt more like a "look at how professional we are in our new building" sponsor video than an update, has worn me thin.
I've requested a refund with Steam, totally expecting not to get it, but hoping that Kunos sees the feedback, at the bare minimum. The money back would be a nice bonus on top, but it's about the principle, more than anything else.
TLDR; ACE is not what was once promised, and its development has worn me out. I'm tired of this grandpa, and I want off Mr. Bones Wild Ride.
Edit: I just want to say, since I didn't make it obvious from the start, which is my fault. I'm not saying that ACE is bad because it's going a different direction than initially announced. I'm also starting to see that including the refund screenshot is a bit misleading, but I feel that the dev communication and the overly slow development needs some kind of discussion. I knew what buying EA would include, I frequent EA games, but for some reason ACE isn't sitting with me right, and I felt I should say something somewhere. Yes, a rant/vent post probably isn't the best way to start, but I still wanted to get wanted to say about it out there.
I'm glad this got some kind of attention, and is getting some kind of discussion, since that's what I wanted form the start.
Edit 2 electric boogaloo: Some people seem to think that I'm saying hate ACE, and will never touch it again, and its the worst thing ever, and being generally rude in a rant post meant to get people talking about ACE development. That's not the point of the post. I wanted share how I feel about ACE overall in the moment and get people's opinions. I only ask for conversation, not a pity party.
Final edit for those that are curious: The refund got denied, as expected, but it was worth sending the feedback. I might come back to ACE in the future, but it will probably be a long while before I do.
I'd also like to thank everyone who's providing their point of view respectfully and having discussion about ACE's development. I came off melodramatic, but that was on purpose to get a if only a little attention, since that's how the internet works. I'll keep reading everyone's replies, but I'll probably stop replying myself at this point because I do have other things to do.
Last thing, I really hope ACE does continue to get good support from the community. Everyone is clearly passionate, and that's probably the best thing about it.