I think the EVO in the title can mean many different things. Are they going to evolve in a less of a sim title to a simcade type deal? Is it going to be a reskin with better physics and car list? Is it going to be more controller friendly? Will is still have the crappy career mode? Who knows but we will definitely find out.
I don't think they'd ever move to a more simcade style of physics engine. The whole community saw what happened when SMS tried that and it was essentially brand and studio suicide. Then they were absorbed into Codemasters and we'll never see how pure kino Project CARS 4 was going to be, as the lord Ian Bell himself was suggesting.
It's probably going to be on Unreal Engine like ACC, maybe UR5 which would be interesting. Use the physics engine from that game and open the type of content in it up to a wider range of road models.
I think it'll be interesting to see which modes Kunos expands upon because if they've been anywhere near the community or online section of the game in the last few years, they'd probably see that the free roam and cruising community is the largest demographic of players using the game right now. Maybe they'd include some small degree of car customization in the stock game to try and appeal to that demographic a bit more.
AC is an amazing game and we here all play it a ton of course, but without mods it was a pretty sterile experience in the base game. When Kunos is claiming here they're basically going to revamp the definition of what an Assetto Corsa game is, it makes me pretty excited, but also pretty nervous about what they have in store.
That's exactly why I'm not a fan of it. An overused cliché slapped on any GT3 car, for example, because they put a new flap or body part or whatever on the car. It's just overused. Just my feeling anyways.
I see "EVO" a little differently lol. Like in real life, a car manufacturer like Lamborghini Squadra Corse for example, they record heaps upon heaps of data about everything on the Huracan from all their affiliated customer teams, then when the new homologation cycle comes up, they pour over all of it and try to find every improvement they can make from body panels, to suspension, to driver ergonomics, to software controlling all of the cars' electronics. An EVO is basically an entire refresh of the car even if they look pretty similar and share a base chassis. So it makes me wonder just how much of an overhaul we're looking at here to the Assetto Corsa formula.
Will we see an open map mode to cater to the cruising enthusiasts that have taken over the game? Will we see rolling starts and proper flag rules from ACC come into the wider range of car classes this game has to offer? Will there be multiclass support at launch? Will they add in any degree of car customization beyond tuning sheets? It's an interesting question for sure.