Consistency is everything. Nailing one hot lap is fine - the real trick is stringing together a succession of scorchers all within a split second of one another. That's the essence of endurance driving, really, and it's something that's baked into Assetto Corsa Competizione, a racing-focussed spin-off from Kunos Simulazioni's sensational driving sim Assetto Corsa. It's an officially-licensed take on the Blancpain GT series, which itself feels quietly remarkable; racing games rarely look beyond top-flight series such as F1, but when they do - as in TOCA or GTR 2 - the results can be incredible.

So that's the developer of one of the most satisfying driving sims of recent years picking up the faint lineage of some of the greatest racing games of all time. That's setting some expectations...

And Assetto Corsa Competizione comes so close to delivering on them. It helps that its subject is one of the most vibrant, healthy motorsport series around at the moment - there aren't many places you can see marques such as Aston Martin, Ferrari and Porsche going toe to toe - and Kunos plays to the strengths of GT racing. The cars are sublime in sound and vision, modelled with an enthusiast's eye for detail. Assetto Corsa Competizione has so much of what makes GT3 racing a joy nailed down pat; the door handle-to-door handle racing, the assorted barks and bites of engines, the slapback reverb when coursing down the enclosed concrete walls of the pit straights, and the astounding sensation of pushing a squat GT car to its limits and feeling the heavy splash as it rides out over kerbs.

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I'd call it motorsport's best kept secret, but at this point it's most definitely not. At the very least Porsche, Bentley, Lamborghini, McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari and BMW are all in on it - where else can you see motoring's finest marques going head-to-head across some of the world's finest racing tracks? Blancpain GT has more than a fair shout at being the most interesting, exciting motorsport series around at the moment (and its rounds are all free-to-air on YouTube - this lot get it), so the prospect of a game centred around its antics is an exciting one indeed.

Throw in the Assetto Corsa name - Assetto Corsa being the most exquisite driving experience in recent years, of course, and a new standard-setter when it comes to crafting believable handling cars in video games - and you've got the ingredients for the most exciting racing game in an age. Well, for myself at least - and I've been relishing the chance to play around with the early access version of Kunos Simulazioni's Assetto Corsa Competizione this past week.

But it's worth pointing out that this is an early access title with an emphasis on the early part at present - there's a full roadmap laid out that leads all the way to the full release next year (including the implementation of VR support next month, excitingly), but right now all you're getting is a single car and a single track, as well as a small discount on the full price. It's slim and a little disappointing - especially when you consider that the combination of a Lamborghini Huracan GT3 and the N rburgring is hardly inspiring - but when you consider that the original Assetto Corsa was at its best when it was stripped back to the basics some of that sadness ebbs away.

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