Endurance racing has become very popular in recent years and the advent of the Hypercar category of prototype racers has taken the popularity of endurance racing to a whole new level. It's actually so popular that some entrants to the hypercar category had to be turned away due to a lack of space on the grid.
Le Mans Ultimate, the official game of the FIA World Endurance Championship therefore couldn't come at a better time. The game was originally slated to be released now but it was shifted to the current 20 February 2024 date.
Features of Le Mans Ultimate
This is not the complete list but highlights some of the features of the game on release:
- All the official cars and tracks of the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship
- Laser scanned tracks
- Accurate car data
- Full weather effects
- Track surface progression
- Dirt build-up on car exterior
- Asynchronous gameplay
- Steering wheel and gamepad support
Tracks
- Sebring - USA
- Portimao - Portugal
- Spa - Belgium
- Le Mans - France
- Monza - Italy
- Fuji - Japan
- Sakhir - Bahrain
Car classes
The FIA World Endurance Championship features three classes of vehicles i.e. Hypercar, LMP2 and GTE. Hypercar and LMP2 are prototypes with LMP2 being slower overall than Hypercar. GTE is the only GT category comprising high-performance GT cars that are based on road-going cars but with huge improvements in downforce, acceleration, braking etc.
Platforms
Le Mans Ultimate will be PC only on release but may come to console sometime in the future. Modern consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X should be able to handle the game comfortably in terms of performance but it will be up to the developer to decide when they'll expand the game beyond PC.
Videos
There haven't been too many videos on Le Mans Ultimate but what we did see shows a game that looks and sounds like the real deal.
Le Mans Ultimate Gameplay Trailer
Ferrari 499P LMH onboard
Final thoughts
Le Mans Ultimate is a couple of months away and all the signs point to a game that should be something special come release day. The only thing we're unsure about is the reliability of its online multiplayer mode. Based on what happened at the last virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans, rFactor 2 does not do well when it comes to large grids of cars competing over a long period.
Hopefully, the developers (Studio-397) have resolved this issue and the game is what we want it to be with rock-solid reliability and several years' worth of updates and support. We're not fans of the current owners of rFactor 2 and Le Mans Ultimate (Motorsport Games) but we think that Studio-397 have done enough with rFactor 2 to show that they're committed and not in it for a quick cash grab.
Le Mans Ultimate will be released on Steam on 20 February 2024. There's no price yet for the game on Steam and there aren't any hardware requirements. However, since it's based on Factor 2, we're assuming that the requirements should be similar. We'll be updating this article as and when we receive more information.
