Dakar 19 - The Game

[Paul Jeffrey]

Bigmoon Studios have seemingly confirmed a sequel to their debut DAKAR simulation - posting a teaser image for the upcoming DAKAR '19 racing game.

Although only a generic image posted to the developer Facebook account following the conclusion of the latest running of the real world DAKAR rally, it is nevertheless reassuring to see that the young Portuguese team seemingly have the required licences and funds to move forward with a new title this year - having made plenty of strides forward with the current 2018 variant of the software that made its debut back in September of last year.

Although the first game certainly launched with plenty of room for improvement, however the following months DAKAR 18 has received numerous updates and enhancements to the core gameplay features. That isn't to say that DAKAR 18 is a polished product, far from it in fact, but I for one certainly hope that Bigmoon Studios have used the experience of this first title to fully understand the depth of the project they have undertaken, and take those lessons forward into the next release. Many consider DAKAR 18 to be exceptionally good in certain situations, and if Bigmoon can enhance the aspects they currently do well, and work on the areas where improvements are required, it could well be an exciting new release when DAKAR '19 rolls out later this year.

DAKAR 18 is available for £39.99 on Steam now.

To keep in touch with all the latest news from this simulation, and to share the excitement with your fellow fans of the great event, be sure to check out the Dakar 18 sub forum right here at RaceDepartment.com!

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[FeltHat]

didnt they confirmed it with 18 announcement? im pretty sure i remember they talking about 18 and 19 versions

 

[Matthew327]

Let's just hope '19 is not just a few new textures and one or two new competitors. The physics need an extensive overhaul, not to mention the ridiculously small number of drivers/riders when compared to the real thing.

 

[CC]

Cant remember anything exciting happening with 18 to be honest the preview videos was shocking,
must sell well on consoles we can all simply presume from this announcement.

 

[whip]

i thought sms were bad for moving onto the next game

 

[Apuleyo]

This is the best way to show us that they are pretty hungry for money.....Another mediocre fail incoming.

 

[Deleted member 6919]

Oh god why..

 

[Filip Carlén]

Well, from what I've seen, it can only be better Great to see that they try at least, rather a bad game than no game at all

 

[VirtuaIceMan]

It'll have to be different to last year, as Dakar 19 was only in Peru, not multiple countries like the last one!

Not sure where this leaves the DLC of an event in Argentina that's supposedly coming to Dakar 18.

 

[clemencaman]

Hopefully VR support in Dakar 19

 

[R1Joel]

I am hopeful. Been watching Dakar and thinking of Dakar 18, but I am not willing to buy it. Hopefully some overall improvements for this title.

 

[Case_]

Well, it was always clear it's coming, and while I'm not a big fan of the "Early Access" approach to a full retail game, Dakar 18 is in many ways a great game with some very unique things to offer (and I'm not being sarcastic here, I do consider the game to be a very underappreciated title because a lot of people did not "get" what the game is all about), so hopefully the next one might be even better.

Shame that it is probably destined to fail given the negativity people feel towards Dakar 18.

 

[Tylda]

Well, it was always clear it's coming, and while I'm not a big fan of the "Early Access" approach to a full retail game, Dakar 18 is in many ways a great game with some very unique things to offer (and I'm not being sarcastic here, I do consider the game to be a very underappreciated title because a lot of people did not "get" what the game is all about), so hopefully the next one might be even better.

Shame that it is probably destined to fail given the negativity people feel towards Dakar 18.

So Dakar 18 is about bugs, bugs and glitches?

 

[Case_]

Not in my experience. Can't say I've experienced any real glitches or bugs in Dakar 18.

I've mentioned it many times before, but in my experience, it's generally about driving through a huge desert for 40+ minutes at a time, trying to navigate from checkpoint to checkpoint with little guidance, desperately trying to not get lost, while also trying to not damage the vehicle too much and still going as fast as possible at the same time.

But you can certainly laugh at that and have some more sarcastic comments, that's fine by me.

 

[omanrak]

How is their game studio still in business?

 

[UnixRoot]

This time with wheel support and realistic terrain slopes?

 

[VirtuaIceMan]

Hmm, what's with this "your game studio isn't big and your plans are too ambitious, with too many initial bidb therefore you're rubbish" attitude? No one would try anything like this with a triple A studio, as it's too risky.

Why now see how it goes with Dakar 19 and try to remain slightly optimistic?!

All the famous racing game studios started small.

 

[AlexBfromG]

well, we should be happy about them not tanking but actually having a success with an at best average game, shows that even these genres and titles can make enough in the current market

 

[Metla]

I wish them all the success in the world, All great game companies started somewhere. And if we punish every new effort there will simply be no new games outside the big marquees.

 

[Ruy Horta]

I wish them all the success in the world, All great game companies started somewhere. And if we punish every new effort there will simply be no new games outside the big marquees.

On paper that sounds great, but the game market is not well suited to this principle unless you don’t mind paying your “hard earned” money to invest in the promise of a good product 2-3 games in the future (which may be never). In general gamers are not investors looking at the long term, when they buy a game they look for instant gratification - unless it is correctly labeled as a kickstarter* or early access product).

Dakar ‘18 was not only a little rough around the edges, it lacked basic functionality on release and was also pretty buggy, not to mention poor physics (especially motorcycles) It has improved somewhat, but it will never be a good racer - most have called it an experience (VR candidate?).

Now we have to buy Dakar ‘19 to get an updated product?

Well after getting ‘18 on release and if the reviews are good I’ll get ‘19 on a deep deep sale - certain to come, only requires a little patience. I don’t see that as punishment. They had their moment of good faith, now they have to earn their place in line.

*in hindsight WMD Slightly Mad did have a nice concept with their funding and development of the original Project Cars. I bought in at a modest amount - I think it was the regular price of a game - and waited, played the early builds, did not like it much at some point, wrote off the money, BUT...

...the game developed, it released, it improved even more after that until it was pretty stable, at some point my rig could run it stable at the highest visual settings and I had my wheel dialed in. The game was pretty good. Not only that I got a return for my original investment. I think I got about double of what I had paid - I remember buying PCARS2 season pass with the last payment. Why mention this? Well if you want us to act like investors, treat us as such, like WMD tried to do with the original PCars. Kickstarters are mostly money askers, they promise a product and some goodies, but F that - I don’t want my name in a game or a special avatar, give me money.