Dakar Desert Rally (PS4, PS5, XOne, XSX, PC) - Release date 2022

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SnakeOfBacon
...there's still hope that they can fiddle with the friction physics so my car is less likely to crawl to a halt, give up, and slide backwards down the not-particularly-impossible-looking hills of Al Ula 2020 Stage 2? :D
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That Shigry stage and that hill in particular is definitely fine now - I've taken bikes, quad, car and truck up there - all good now! Sorry, meant to swing by and confirm this a week or two ago - got distracted...
 
Ace, looking forward to the USA stages, the one thing I find about this game is that I really don’t like Saudi Arabia as an environment as much as South America from Dakar 18. Don’t get me wrong, they’ve done a great job with it and everything, but I can’t wait for an environment that’s a bit less….middle eastern sandpit.
 
Deluxe edition now on sale on Xbox. I've bought it.

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It's heavily discounted on the PS Store too but before you buy it you should know that the most recent update broke the events in the expanded Saudi map (everything in USA if you have that DLC, and the original map works fine) so trying to race them will crash the game.

Hopefully there will be positive news before the sale ends at the end of the month but at the moment the official line is that last weeks was the final update and they have no plans of releasing a patch to fix the broken events.
 
yeah apparently the new update has broken the Extended Saudi’s Arabia map or something. Game just crashes when you try and start the events. People are worried because the devs stated this would be the final update for the game, so it won’t get fixed - but if it’s this game-breaking I can’t see them not fixing it. But beware at the moment and probably avoid the DLC.

That said, I’ve tried the DLC and love the new US environments particularly Yellowstone, so nice to have a completely different environment to race in, actual trees and gravel. But I feel with the increase in trackside detail comes a nasty juddering again when turning, such a shame because this game is 95% superb and 5% absolutely shocking, which is never a good ratio because it just leaves you frustrated at what could have been. It makes all the complaints about EA Sports WRC look like total nitpicking, properly chugs along on my SX. Saudi Arabia seems better but obviously sand dunes are easier on the processor than trees and mountains.
 
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"As you can see, Dakar Desert Rally will be available for free from February 15 to 22, 2024 at 5 p.m. (French time) from the Epic Games Store."

 
I've been playing EA Sports WRC lately and absolutely loving 28km+ single-stage rallies. It is giving me itch to try my hands on dakar rally.

From reviews and from posts here, I understand that this game is a navigation sim (driving is not so sim) and that is good enough for me since I find the concept of roadbook interesting, even if I have to wait for 25 levels before getting to use it. I plan to pick it up the next time this game is on sale on PS5 (deluxe edition so that I can have American DLC).

Just one question- Did the crashing problem of American and expanded Saudi maps been fixed? There is not a lot of information about it and I think it has been fixed but wanted to confirm. Thank you in advance! :)
 
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I have no idea to be honesty 🤷 However, it is a fantastic game and I think it looks gorgeous on PS5. As said a navigation game but don't let it fool you. Huge speed garanteed on certains parts 👌☺️
 
I’m thinking of buying this , can someone answer a question for me please. What FOV options do you get for driving ?. I’m not a fan of driving a vehicle from behind and slightly above.
 
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I’m thinking of buying this , can someone answer a question for me please. What FOV options do you get for driving ?. I’m not a fan of driving a vehicle from behind and slightly above.
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There are sliders for different views and you have multiple views in cockpit too. However since this is a navigation game, your 3th person view helps a lot when orientating
 
I bought Dakar 18 instead of Dakar Desert Rally as I wanted a more sim experience and did not want to spend tens of hours in arcade before getting the sim, especially with a high risk that the game might be either completely broken or crash and wipe out the progress.

Have to say that Dakar 18 at "Competitor" (medium) difficulty had no learning curve in the sense that you are just catapulted into the race with zero handholding.

After countless restarts and many moments of almost quitting the game altogether due to two reasons- getting stuck at dune tops due to slowing down to avoid damage on landing (turned out that I don't actually get damage on landing from height) and getting lost, I finally completed Peru stage 02. It felt so good to finally complete it only with a few minutes of penalty due to overspeeding. Now I am a lot better in understanding navigation. I am using the truck to keep the game easiest for myself.

I am looking forward to complete all the 14 stages using the truck!
 
I ended up completing Dakar 18 and its DLCs Ruta and Inca. I enjoyed the navigation sim. I am happy to say that I am now good at following navigations, including following multiple caps for long distances with barely any visual references, and backtracking successfully in case of a mistake. At the same time, I am happily tired, and don't want to play anymore of it (like picking another vehicle).

Since this game does not exactly have a photomode and I did not feel like stopping mid-race to take photos despite monster lead, here are two photos I randomly took that I will cherish as a fond memory of this game.
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Maybe another time I will purchase the newer Dakar Desert Rally. No more Dakar rallying for me for now. :)
 
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Ah well. I could not resist and downloaded the newer Dakar Desert Rally. It still feels weird that they locked the simulation behind the highest difficulty so I had to pick medium difficulty where I don't have a beacon always telling me where to go but with no speed limit (except at certain areas). Without a speed limit, it feels so hectic and possibly harder than the highest difficulty!

Photomode was easy to use. Fast forwarding in replay is a bit frustrating though.

Sorry Porsche! Despite sprawling desert, I found it pretty difficult to steer the truck and avoid you.
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I like seeing other participants time to time and in a diverse set of vehicles. Like this bike with sidecar!
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Controlling the truck feels pretty difficult but I am getting to grips to it fast despite having poor Dualsense haptics implementation (and thus no sense how much brake to apply or how much throttle to apply). In the tuning menu, I could not find a way to distribute more power to front wheels (its rear is spin-happy) so either this setting is not allowed or this truck is a RWD (likely not as it feels kinda AWD to drive).
 
Wow, Dakar Desert Rally (DDR) is legit awesome! Exceeds my expectations. Some points:
  1. It's actually a proper sim. Reading reviews online, I had assumed that Dakar18 was more sim and more serious. But nope, DDR is actually more sim. I am still stuck at professional (medium) level, but navigation is not exactly easier than Dakar18. Some points:
    • Damage is dead serious. Dakar18 has moon gravity where you will always land perfectly regardless of height, while I have lost my wheels on landing from height in DDR. Repair time is also much higher.
    • AI rivals are much better. They are not bone-headed unlike in Dakar18 where they keep overshooting every turn. If there is rubber-banding in DDR, it is way better than in Dakar18. I also like that AI rivals can actually be seen in DDR and their timings are real. In Dakar18, they just randomly popped up and their times didn't relate to what they were doing (Only other classes keep popping up randomly in DDR).
  2. I like the visibility issues due to snow/sandstorms or from the sun glare. But I don't like the way the message "waypoint achieved" blocks my vision.
  3. Players from other classes are unpredictable. Sometimes they actually avoid crashing into you, sometimes they will keep speeding up on being overtaken by you, only to slow down again. I like this much better nonetheless compared to Dakar18 where they would practically jump out of the way whenever I approached them from behind.
  4. The range of sceneries I have seen is just incredible. Day, night, snowstorms etc, and even the day-night transition requiring me to turn on headlights.
  5. I like the driving physics. I initially struggled a lot with fishtailing, but now I have learnt to avoid it most of the time by being patient and slower to avoid unexpected high braking. I am also much more careful jumping off dunes, something I never did in Dakar 18.
Some eye-feasts from this incredible game. I am also pumped about what I will eventually do after unlocking simulation difficulty and completing all the rallies. Like, custom rallies made by others and maybe even the amateur difficulty to do some Motorstorm-ing!
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Aw man. The initial honeymoon phase on Dakar Desert Rally wore out fast. It is simply not a good game. There are too many issues which makes this game rather boring. Like:
1. The acceleration is too fast between 90kph-140kph for trucks, making the simulation mode a speed-simulator where I am constantly driving at 10% throttle with 90% throttle bursts.
2. The navigation is too dumbed down. You will always get waypoints frequently so you can just drive in a general direction instead of being obsessed with accurate cap. Got lost? No problem, just drive back to the last point as it is not too far so you can ignore co-driver's cheat code "drive to CAP xxx".
3. The roadbook is frequently inaccurate and the co-driver is frequently ambiguous. I don't listen to co-driver anymore.
4. The arcadey fishtailing problem is persistent through every class of vehicles, forcing you to slow down and drive gently.
5. The 1-hr simulation rallies are mind-numbingly boring, nothing like Dakar 18 where long rallies somehow felt diverse, intense, and satisfying to complete. Different maps like snow and USA rallies (only available in sport/professional) don't help. At this point, I am not motivated enough even to try custom rallies made by community.
6. I explored more of sport and professional levels as well in addition to simulation but they get boring fast for some reason. And I do like arcade racing games. Though, admittedly the last arcade games I liked was long ago, like Flatout, Need For Speed Most Wanted'05, and Burnout Paradise.

I have uninstalled Dakar Desert Rally now. Dakar 18 will remain in my fond memories while Dakar Desert Rally will fast become a forgotten memory. Some nice screenshots from Dakar Desert Rally as a goodbye!
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I agree that overall Dakar 18 is a bit of a gem, if, IF, you have the time to dedicate hours to it, study how to do the navigation properly, overlook the poor handling physics etc etc. The South American environment is more interesting and it’s more of a challenge, the kind of challenge you don’t really see often in console racers. I spent some time on it ages ago and have fond memories of that - at the same time knowing I’ll probably not go back to it any time soon.

I do appreciate that Dakar Desert Rally takes the same idea and kind of remembers that it’s meant to be a game that’ll appeal to more than a tiny niche group of enthusiasts, and I find the more arcadey/gamey aspects of it are bits that probably work best. I could never summon up the energy to really get into the simulation mode though. What I did play of it, didn’t grab me as much. I think the physics and ‘game’ aspects are improved upon, but something’s lost and I don’t know if that’s the games fault or the event’s fault for switching into the Middle East in all honesty.
 

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