Dakar 18 (PS4, XOne, PC) - Release date September 25 2018
- Thread starter er185es
- 587 comments
- 71,758 views
- 2,323
- United States
Completed Treasure Hunt. Mercifully stage 13 was a cinch after stage 12. The distance to the treasure location is almost comical. You don’t even need to drive if you don’t want.
Stage 14 was a little odd. I searched without using help from videos and got stumped for a moment after finding what I thought was the location. After moving on to some nearby areas where I found a cool football stadium (and can play car football if you wish), I ultimately cheated and referred to a video anyway. The treasures wound up being where I searched in the first place. As god as my witness they weren’t there the first time until I trekked back. Strange.
That takes care of that minus the two trophies that didn’t unlock. ‘The Bolivian’ is still glitched and ‘Dakar 18 Explorer’ is stuck until The Bolivian unlocks I guess.
View attachment 818476
As long as you're talking about Stage 14 which has the treasure near a Difunta Correa shrine, I would like to mention that I passed the mother of all Difunta Correas the other day in San Luis on the way back from Rally Argentina.
I didn't find any soccer balls there, though.
And with an urge to yank my own chain, just LOOK at this pic I shot of Ott Tänak:
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- 7,073
- Birmingham, UK
- GOTMAXPOWER
You might not want to read this, the trophies which glitched for me never unlocked with the new game updates, as far as I can tell the only way to get those will be to do the entire thing again and pray.Completed Treasure Hunt. Mercifully stage 13 was a cinch after stage 12. The distance to the treasure location is almost comical. You don’t even need to drive if you don’t want.
Stage 14 was a little odd. I searched without using help from videos and got stumped for a moment after finding what I thought was the location. After moving on to some nearby areas where I found a cool football stadium (and can play car football if you wish), I ultimately cheated and referred to a video anyway. The treasures wound up being where I searched in the first place. As god as my witness they weren’t there the first time until I trekked back. Strange.
That takes care of that minus the two trophies that didn’t unlock. ‘The Bolivian’ is still glitched and ‘Dakar 18 Explorer’ is stuck until The Bolivian unlocks I guess.
View attachment 818476
- 111
- Ontario
I bought this some time ago but finally dug into it last week. Wow, these stages are quite the commitment of time and focus. I'm playing on the easiest difficulty to familiarize myself with the game, finished the tutorial and first two stages. You folks able to complete stages on Legend without the assistance and the other added challenge the hardest difficulty brings truly deserve the title.
I tried to do the treasure hunt on the first stage and couldn't find the flute or drink. On or around the crown spot on the map is a desert wasteland, no hotel or remnants of to see, and the village nearby doesn't have anything either. What am I doing wrong?
EDIT - Checked the previous page here and saw tips and will watch the video to learn.
UPDATE - I found them, the drink was sitting by the ladder going up the water reservoir, the flute was next to a tree by the lagoon. Yay!
I tried to do the treasure hunt on the first stage and couldn't find the flute or drink. On or around the crown spot on the map is a desert wasteland, no hotel or remnants of to see, and the village nearby doesn't have anything either. What am I doing wrong?
EDIT - Checked the previous page here and saw tips and will watch the video to learn.
UPDATE - I found them, the drink was sitting by the ladder going up the water reservoir, the flute was next to a tree by the lagoon. Yay!
Last edited:
- 336
- Brookyln
How good is it and how sim
Like
Like
- 2,323
- United States
It's an interesting game. In a nutshell: a great Dakar simulation, a not-so-great vehicle dynamics simulation. And it's a VERY unique experience. Here are my review and patch follow-up to watch:
- 6,362
- Nantes
- P308R
This game will stay very unique and I think any car enthusiast should pick up on.
Another reason is that this will most likely the only Dakar game you get to experience! As I have understood Dakar 2019 probably won't come and many have left BigMoon. I think the project was to ambitious with not enough funds to get it all done. Such a shame and I am a bit sad having heard this.
So if you don't have the original Dakar 18, get it. Just get it because the experience is truly unique and simply said "awesome" !!!
Another reason is that this will most likely the only Dakar game you get to experience! As I have understood Dakar 2019 probably won't come and many have left BigMoon. I think the project was to ambitious with not enough funds to get it all done. Such a shame and I am a bit sad having heard this.
So if you don't have the original Dakar 18, get it. Just get it because the experience is truly unique and simply said "awesome" !!!
- 6,838
- Europe
- GTP_Slim
- PzR Slim
Fully agree, a truly unique experience. Forget about it being a driving game and it's really very good. If the driving dynamics had been close to that of something like Dirt 2.0 or WRC 8 then this could have been one of the greatest driving games ever made.
Every fan of motorsport should buy it and a bit like the truck sims, every fan of driving games should buy it.
It will be a real shame if this is the only game in the series that gets made.
Every fan of motorsport should buy it and a bit like the truck sims, every fan of driving games should buy it.
It will be a real shame if this is the only game in the series that gets made.
- 2,323
- United States
They're still alive: https://venturebeat.com/2019/10/18/...oon-entertainment-announces-two-new-projects/
- 6,362
- Nantes
- P308R
I'm thinking about getting this once I have a PS5. It interests me enough to pick it up, but my PS4 is a 500GB -- it's difficult to justify the HDD space this game requires for anything short of an outstanding must-have title that I will play regularly. 
- 6,362
- Nantes
- P308R
I'm thinking about getting this once I have a PS5. It interests me enough to pick it up, but my PS4 is a 500GB -- it's difficult to justify the HDD space this game requires for anything short of an outstanding must-have title that I will play regularly.
The game requires some serious investment and it isn't something you play for 10 to 15 minutes. The stages are long and require time to navigate. Between 10 to 60 minutes depending stage. However it is really satisfying to navigate and great fun. Your HDD would need around 80GB and that is because of the huge maps. With a 500GB HDD it could indeed be a bit problematic
die996
(Banned)
- 387
- Spain
STORY TIME!
So back in March 2018, I answered one of BigMoon's job offers over on Facebook. They asked for someone that knew about racing games and the Dakar Rally but not necessarily about programming. I guess I must have done the couple of tests they sent me fairly well because I was the one chosen, I am in the game's credits! I started working for them in April and from day 1 I was both surprised and somewhat disappointed.
My initial task was to do the basic tune of all of the vehicles. The 3D models were all there but the values were immensely wrong. My disappointment came because I thought the game was closer to being done and because some of the supposedly definite values were wrong. Me being a huge nerd of rally raid I knew that 4x4 vehicles, both cars and trucks, had a limit on the suspension travel (25cm for independent suspension, 30cm for the others) but the team had set suspension to around 45-50cm for cars and trucks. I had to literally screenshot the FIA rulebook to convince them but they eventually realized I was right.
From then on I started working trying to tune the cars. Since I knew certain stuff (like how the HiLux uses the RC-F's V8 engine and the minimum weight possible), I knew what figures when it comes to acceleration I should be aiming for. The test area was incredibly basic (an oval, some hills and some barriers I could move for each of the 20+ terrains available in the game) but it made the trick. 4x4 vehicles were somewhat easy to tune. They did not drive great but they were 100% controllable. RWD vehicles, on the other hand, were basically impossible to tune within reason. The situation was so bad with buggies, quads and motorbikes that I considered quitting, I thought it was my fault, I thought I was underqualified.
Here comes the bane of my existence while working for BigMoon and for the game itself. BigMoon was using a vehicle-making software called Vehicle Physics Pro but that software was made for Unity while the game is on UnReal! Dakar18 was supposed to be a Unity game but, as it turns out, that engine hates big maps. They optimized the game a lot and Unity just did not do the trick so they moved everything to UnReal. This move is why the game is so well-otpimized and why it drives horribly. They tried to convert VPP to UnReal and pretty much failed, the converted software is missing quite a few features VPP has when you use it for Unity.
After my mini-depression, my next task started and it is possibly the one I am most proud of: I am the game's ouvrier! I had the task to play each and every stage and give the notes so the roadbook could be rewritten accordingly. I did not write the roadbook but I did give a ton of indications on distances, headings and warnings. This was both fun and terrifying in a way because I was basically the first human to really drive the course and some notes were so wrong that the smartest thing to do was to restart the stage and follow an AI driver as they knew the route. This task also made me realize the second basic mistake the game had: nobody at BigMoon knew that cars and trucks never refuel during a stage! Sadly, this mistake was never solved because they did not know how to deactivate refueling points without remaking the whole stage.
My final big task (outside of trying to find bugs and other issues) was somewhat similar to the one before and this one would be my favorite if it was not for something that I will explain later: I was supposed to be the game's benchmark, the real man behind the top difficulty level. I played the Dakar Rally on cars, bikes, trucks, UTVs and quads and tried to set the best possible times without being a tryhard (I never played any stage more than twice and I always did full attempts) while playing the hardest difficulty. I guess I was really fast because they did not want the times I set, they thought almost nobody would be able to actually beat me on any of the classes. Here are the times I set with the HiLux V8:
Day01 - 5 minutes
Day02 - 34 minutes
Day03 - 36 minutes
Day04 - 42 minutes
Day05 - 34 minutes
Day06 - 36 minutes
Day07 - 53 minutes
Day08 - 43 minutes
Day09 - 33 minutes
Day10 - 37 minutes
Day11 - 30 minutes
Day12 - 52 minutes
Day13 - 55 minutes
Day14 - 15 minutes
Once I had done everything and they were still preparing the Ruta 40 and Desafío Inca I just played for both fun and trying to find bugs, which I did find a bunch but I guess I could have messed around more. By that time, the game was being released and was doing rather poorly due to a number of complications. For example, physical copies were sent in a very uneven way, with Dakar-unfriendly markets like North America receiving thousands and thousands of copies while the core fans (France, Spain, BeNeLux and Russia) did not have many. This might sound silly but, if you know typical offroad fans, you know they want a physical copy even if it does not mean much at all nowadays. Deep Silver did not admit their mistakes and, with not much money left, I was fired. My last job? I was the ouvrier for the Ruta 40 but NOT for the Desafío Inca.
I talked to Paulo Gomes quite a lot during my days working for his team. His ideas are rather good, both for the Dakar Rally games and for his yet-to-be-born parallel series. My former boss has met Roger Norman, owner of SCORE International, and has/had the intention to make a Dakar Rally-sized baja game. We are talking about recreating all of Baja California (and maybe some area representing California/Arizona/Nevada) and allowing players to play a Baja 1000 where the Sun would go up and down. God, I need a game like that in my life. BigMoon only needs to solve the driving physics, it is a small issue with huge consequences, but it can shoot them into legendary status. We were never more than 40-45 people making Dakar18 and we got really close to making one of the greatest driving/racing games ever. So damn close.
PS: I am only credited as a QA guy because of legal stuff, IDGAF.
So back in March 2018, I answered one of BigMoon's job offers over on Facebook. They asked for someone that knew about racing games and the Dakar Rally but not necessarily about programming. I guess I must have done the couple of tests they sent me fairly well because I was the one chosen, I am in the game's credits! I started working for them in April and from day 1 I was both surprised and somewhat disappointed.
My initial task was to do the basic tune of all of the vehicles. The 3D models were all there but the values were immensely wrong. My disappointment came because I thought the game was closer to being done and because some of the supposedly definite values were wrong. Me being a huge nerd of rally raid I knew that 4x4 vehicles, both cars and trucks, had a limit on the suspension travel (25cm for independent suspension, 30cm for the others) but the team had set suspension to around 45-50cm for cars and trucks. I had to literally screenshot the FIA rulebook to convince them but they eventually realized I was right.
From then on I started working trying to tune the cars. Since I knew certain stuff (like how the HiLux uses the RC-F's V8 engine and the minimum weight possible), I knew what figures when it comes to acceleration I should be aiming for. The test area was incredibly basic (an oval, some hills and some barriers I could move for each of the 20+ terrains available in the game) but it made the trick. 4x4 vehicles were somewhat easy to tune. They did not drive great but they were 100% controllable. RWD vehicles, on the other hand, were basically impossible to tune within reason. The situation was so bad with buggies, quads and motorbikes that I considered quitting, I thought it was my fault, I thought I was underqualified.
Here comes the bane of my existence while working for BigMoon and for the game itself. BigMoon was using a vehicle-making software called Vehicle Physics Pro but that software was made for Unity while the game is on UnReal! Dakar18 was supposed to be a Unity game but, as it turns out, that engine hates big maps. They optimized the game a lot and Unity just did not do the trick so they moved everything to UnReal. This move is why the game is so well-otpimized and why it drives horribly. They tried to convert VPP to UnReal and pretty much failed, the converted software is missing quite a few features VPP has when you use it for Unity.
After my mini-depression, my next task started and it is possibly the one I am most proud of: I am the game's ouvrier! I had the task to play each and every stage and give the notes so the roadbook could be rewritten accordingly. I did not write the roadbook but I did give a ton of indications on distances, headings and warnings. This was both fun and terrifying in a way because I was basically the first human to really drive the course and some notes were so wrong that the smartest thing to do was to restart the stage and follow an AI driver as they knew the route. This task also made me realize the second basic mistake the game had: nobody at BigMoon knew that cars and trucks never refuel during a stage! Sadly, this mistake was never solved because they did not know how to deactivate refueling points without remaking the whole stage.
My final big task (outside of trying to find bugs and other issues) was somewhat similar to the one before and this one would be my favorite if it was not for something that I will explain later: I was supposed to be the game's benchmark, the real man behind the top difficulty level. I played the Dakar Rally on cars, bikes, trucks, UTVs and quads and tried to set the best possible times without being a tryhard (I never played any stage more than twice and I always did full attempts) while playing the hardest difficulty. I guess I was really fast because they did not want the times I set, they thought almost nobody would be able to actually beat me on any of the classes. Here are the times I set with the HiLux V8:
Day01 - 5 minutes
Day02 - 34 minutes
Day03 - 36 minutes
Day04 - 42 minutes
Day05 - 34 minutes
Day06 - 36 minutes
Day07 - 53 minutes
Day08 - 43 minutes
Day09 - 33 minutes
Day10 - 37 minutes
Day11 - 30 minutes
Day12 - 52 minutes
Day13 - 55 minutes
Day14 - 15 minutes
Once I had done everything and they were still preparing the Ruta 40 and Desafío Inca I just played for both fun and trying to find bugs, which I did find a bunch but I guess I could have messed around more. By that time, the game was being released and was doing rather poorly due to a number of complications. For example, physical copies were sent in a very uneven way, with Dakar-unfriendly markets like North America receiving thousands and thousands of copies while the core fans (France, Spain, BeNeLux and Russia) did not have many. This might sound silly but, if you know typical offroad fans, you know they want a physical copy even if it does not mean much at all nowadays. Deep Silver did not admit their mistakes and, with not much money left, I was fired. My last job? I was the ouvrier for the Ruta 40 but NOT for the Desafío Inca.
I talked to Paulo Gomes quite a lot during my days working for his team. His ideas are rather good, both for the Dakar Rally games and for his yet-to-be-born parallel series. My former boss has met Roger Norman, owner of SCORE International, and has/had the intention to make a Dakar Rally-sized baja game. We are talking about recreating all of Baja California (and maybe some area representing California/Arizona/Nevada) and allowing players to play a Baja 1000 where the Sun would go up and down. God, I need a game like that in my life. BigMoon only needs to solve the driving physics, it is a small issue with huge consequences, but it can shoot them into legendary status. We were never more than 40-45 people making Dakar18 and we got really close to making one of the greatest driving/racing games ever. So damn close.
PS: I am only credited as a QA guy because of legal stuff, IDGAF.
Last edited:
- 6,362
- Nantes
- P308R
@die996 fantastic read with sheds some light on several things. For such a small team something really beautiful has been made. No matter how some things didn't turn out like they'd should.
If they get the physics sorted they could end up very high up there but come on: Dakar '18 is an amazing title and you get huge value for money. Simply need to realize the content you get in terms of milage.
I can't praise this game enough since I simply LOVE it
If they get the physics sorted they could end up very high up there but come on: Dakar '18 is an amazing title and you get huge value for money. Simply need to realize the content you get in terms of milage.
I can't praise this game enough since I simply LOVE it
- 7,073
- Birmingham, UK
- GOTMAXPOWER
A Dakar 19 would've struggled because of the route. We would've essentially had 5 stages on similar terrain then similar in reverse. I do hope the series isn't dead, for all of its problems it's still entertaining enough to throw hours at.
I don't think I've ever worked for a studio that didn't have NDAs in place, even at the smaller companies.
- 6,362
- Nantes
- P308R
Currently on sale for €12,50 in the PSN EU Store. Grab this beauty 👍
- 336
- Brookyln
- 2,323
- United States
A new one is coming in 2020. This time published by their new owner Saber. According to some info Paulo gave out on Discord, it will have Perú '19 and Saudi Arabia '20, and they are working on the physics together with the Spintires: Mudrunner guys.
EDITED: corrected publisher
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- 134
- Canada
Picked one up for $13 CAD on the PS Store. Haven’t tried it yet, but looking forward to it!
I figure I can’t go too wrong for $13
die996
(Banned)
- 387
- Spain
Outside of the Mitsubishi (gotta pick the small Pajero/Montero because WAHMEN DRIVER), they literally picked just the top vehicles of each class. I guess it would've been "fun" to like have more KTMs, Minis, HiLuxes and so on (to fill the field) but, yeah, they picked the top vehicles in each class... except Iveco, because Iveco thought it'd be stupid for them to appear in a Dakar Rally game (TRUE STORY, I swear!).
DID YOU KNOW... that Kamaz refused to send data about their vehicles? BigMoon had to contact Red Bull every single time. Red Bull would then "blackmail" Kamaz so they'd send the actual specs of the truck. Size, weight distribution, power, transmission... even the lights (that was the final question, BigMoon didn't know the function of some of the lights on the Kamaz, they couldn't find photos or video that showed their function)! The Russian Army (Kamaz is part of it) just refused to send any info about their vehicles to BigMoon (military secrets, I guess) and it was Red Bull, through essentially blackmail ("tell them stuff or I stop sponsoring you"), the one that helped in delivering Kamaz trucks for Dakar18.
By the way, up until Dakar18 I always thought the whole Red Bull Games thingy was just some half-useless branch to promote e-sports but, nah, they actually do nice stuff in Red Bull-sponsored videogames. They actually want to appear in good videogames and they'll help if they can.
SestoScudo
(Banned)
- 3,000
- Australia
- Decepticon 47
Dakar will now be racing in Saudi Arabia.
To be honest I cant wait for the game like this come out.
Because navigating the vast Arabian desert is going to be bloody awesome.
To be honest I cant wait for the game like this come out.
Because navigating the vast Arabian desert is going to be bloody awesome.
- 134
- Canada
I purchased the game on the PS Store a couple weeks ago and gave it my first try tonight (excitement building for Dakar starting in a few days!). Maybe I was doing something wrong, but I couldn’t figure out how to set up my Fanatec CSL Elite wheel in the game.
The game didn’t seem to recognize the wheel in the control menu and was treating it like a controller. I couldn’t map my paddles and pedals.
Has anyone else experienced this? My wheel works fine in all other racing titles I’ve tried it on..
The game didn’t seem to recognize the wheel in the control menu and was treating it like a controller. I couldn’t map my paddles and pedals.
Has anyone else experienced this? My wheel works fine in all other racing titles I’ve tried it on..
- 2,323
- United States
I don't own one, so I don't know what this means, but I saw in the Discord something about using Purple mode
.
- 134
- Canada
I don't own one, so I don't know what this means, but I saw in the Discord something about using Purple mode
Good to know! I will try using purple mode next time. Purple is typically used for ‘unsupported’ games.
I expected my hand brake to possibly not work, but would never have expected the wheel to not work.
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