Dakar Desert Rally Available to Pre-Order, Launching October 4th


Dakar Desert Rally, the latest game by Portuguese game development studio Saber Porto, is right around the corner. The game is now available to pre-order on all digital storefronts.

Features of Dakar Desert Rally​

Promising an authentic Dakar Rally experience, the studio promises over 30 stages of full rally racing from the official 2020 and 2021 Dakar Rallies.

The officially licensed vehicles, teams and pilots will be playable across multiplayer and single-player game modes.

Furthermore, following the formula of their previous title Dakar 2018, Saber Porto is delivering an immense open world of the Saudi Arabian desert.

This open world will simulate all seasons and even a complete day-night cycle. The studio promises sandstorms, desert heat, rain, snow and deep mud as negotiable terrains.

As this is a rally raid simulation, road books show the player the way around Saudi Arabia. Cars, bikes, trucks, quads and SSVs will allow your exploration of the desert country.

Last but definitely not least, Saber Porto promise a wide array of supported steering wheels, catering to the sim racing crowd.

My Hopes and Fears​

A while back, I tried out Dakar 2018, and I hope they learnt from that game.

The issues did not make the game unplayable, however, some wonky physics and "interesting" road books in the later stages of the game made it feel a little incomplete.

Now I know that was under a different publisher, with which apparently there were some troubles for Dakar 2018. I just hope they manage to polish Dakar Desert Rally enough to make it feel done and complete.

Furthermore, let's hope the QA department does its job thoroughly and some bugs, that to this day persist in Dakar 2018, are not repeated.

Anyways, Dakar Desert Rally will release fully on October 4th, until then, if you pre-order, you receive a bonus exclusive Audi RS Q e-Tron off-road futuristic prototype vehicle.

As, despite its flaws, I thoroughly enjoyed Dakar 2018, I look forward to this release. And the promise of wheel support will finally let me use my rally wheel again, after having laid dormant in the corner of the room.

How do you feel about this upcoming release? Ready to dive into Saudi Arabia? Let us know in the comments down below!
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About author
Julian Strasser
Julian Strasser
Motorsports and Maker-stuff enthusiast. Part time jack-of-all-trades. Owner of tracc.eu, a sim racing-related service provider and its racing community.

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Comments

Y
Always looking for a new way to play. An open world rally where I can get lost, day night cycle and wide variety of vehicles? I'm 100% in.

I'll wait for the review though, I don't expect cutting edge physics as long as it feels natural (predictable) That's ok with me.

The previous games didn't get a great write up on the physics side so I almost pulled the trigger but in the end I held off. Hoping they have the best of luck in getting this in a good place for release. I really hope they succeed.
 
LB031
Finally! Been waiting for some sortve release date since their teaser trailer which, by October will almost be a year later. Never tried the title before but Im looking forward to open world driving with navigation - sounds fun. The supported wheels list still isn't great so hopefully they are adding more at a furious pace.
 
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Z
Yogi99 said:
Always looking for a new way to play. An open world rally where I can get lost, day night cycle and wide variety of vehicles? I'm 100% in.

I'll wait for the review though, I don't expect cutting edge physics as long as it feels natural (predictable) That's ok with me.

The previous games didn't get a great write up on the physics side so I almost pulled the trigger but in the end I held off. Hoping they have the best of luck in getting this in a good place for release. I really hope they succeed.
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The hope dies last… it will be disaster as the first one i’m 99% sure :) 1% for miracle :)
 
Ole Marius Myrvold
Staff
Premium
Eckhart von Glan said:
and that's how I learn present day Dakar cars are electric. Are they really?
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The Audi is. That's it. It's not fully electric in that sense either. It got one electric motor on each axle, and one a part of an "energy converter". Which is the DTM Class1-engine being run in a certain range, to use as little fuel as possible, while charging the electric motors well enough. The MGU is from their FE car, and of course it regenerates energy while braking. It's actually a somewhat fascinating car, and are using existing technology from where Audi have been/is racing.

Now, for the short trailer. It sadly looks as bad as the original game :(
 
Luciano Santos Filho
Ole Marius Myrvold said:
The Audi is. That's it. It's not fully electric in that sense either. It got one electric motor on each axle, and one a part of an "energy converter". Which is the DTM Class1-engine being run in a certain range, to use as little fuel as possible, while charging the electric motors well enough. The MGU is from their FE car, and of course it regenerates energy while braking. It's actually a somewhat fascinating car, and are using existing technology from where Audi have been/is racing.

Now, for the short trailer. It sadly looks as bad as the original game :(
Click to expand...
I don't think it looks (visually) bad. I just think that 1,5 month before the launch, to give it some credibility, the trailer should be a lot longer and show some gameplay, instead of a very short cutscene.

I think Dakar is such an interesting kind of competition that I even tried really hard and even MANAGED to finish it in the first game, despite all the issues. I really want this don't to be good, but I won't hold my breath, and I will wait very patiently for the reviews.
 
Ole Marius Myrvold
Staff
Premium
Luciano Santos Filho said:
I don't think it looks (visually) bad. I just think that 1,5 month before the launch, to give it some credibility, the trailer should be a lot longer and show some gameplay, instead of a very short cutscene.
Click to expand...

Graphically it looks fine. It's the car behaviour that looks as bad as the first game for me :/

I really wish for a staggered start multiplayer system, a multiplayer system that adds time from stage to stage and also a randomized stage thing. That combined with an OK spectatormode would've made RDDC a possiblity. Sadly, that will just be dreams for now.
 
C
Really looking forward to this. The 18 version, was so close, but not really quite there, if they can keep what made 18 have so much potential. and add in some of that Saber *runner physics, we might have a winner. I'll wait for reviews before buying at full price, and some more details about the DLC before considering the deluxe version.
 
T
Dakar 18 was a lot of fun, even with the weird (at times) physics). If this is going to offer the same experience but with better physics, it will be worth the money. It's one of the very few games that i expect to be good because Saber developed Snowrunner. Doesn't mean that this will be using the snowrunner engine and physics, but at least they have a pretty good idea what they should be doing with off-road physics.
 
Sauberfan42
i love the Dakar Rally and i really liked the 18 game despite the physics but as it looks right now neither the Winning Mini of 2021 nor the Rebellion car are in the game. (or aren't listed on the website as of now) which is a big shame since i was looking really forward to drive the car of my second favourite racing team in Motorsport.
 

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