That big Dakar Desert Rally Fall update has finally arrived

New content ahoy in the form of the Dakar Desert Rally Fall update. Here is exactly what you get, plus details of those new Hybrid, Classic and SnowRunner standalone DLCs.

For a while Dakar Desert Rally news has been as sparse as the Saudia Arabian desert the Saber Porto game lets you drive across in various off-roading cars, trucks, quads, motorbikes and SSVs. Now, however, I can give you the lowdown on a lot of new content.

Known as the Fall 2023 update and free to all owners of the game, Dakar Desert Rally finally gets the long promised Roadbook Editor as part of a 14GB update on PC via Steam and console though I am unaware of its file size.

Please note: This is the script from my YouTube video, click play above to watch or click here.

Dakar Desert Rally Roadbook Editor

Said Roadbook Editor can be accessed from the main menu and has four main options, two for creating a roadbook and event respectively and another two for loading them. Then you can pick a location on the map and confirm it for your start point.

Whack down the start point then create notes across the map, all of which you can move around as you see fit. Choose the game mode type, whether Sport, Professional or Simulation, and so the process of your custom roadbook begins.

Then add an ASS – nothing to do with donkeys – and watch the AI navigate what you have made or run it yourself. Validate, save your creation and voila, enjoy your custom roadbook or make a few roadbooks and combine them as an event.

Controls are shown on screen though I would recommend a controller. Use A, ‘F’ or equivalent to add a note then you can select it using a mouse click and move it around if necessary. When happy, move to the next location you want and press X, ‘F’ or equivalent to add another note.

Need to add a note in between two you have already done? Select a later note then hold X, ‘F’ or equivalent. You can use right and left to swap between waypoint types such as the ASS ending, safety waypoints, start/finish speed control and refuel checkpoint.

Dakar Desert Rally will throw up any errors so use ‘tab’ on keyboard, the three-line button on Xbox or equivalent to see what is wrong. Usually, it is because a note is out of bounds, on uneven terrain or there is too long a distance between two of them.

The Roadbook Editor also makes recommendations such as the type of note you should be using under the middle tab. You can jump to each relevant note by clicking on it. Give it a second for the game to work out whether your route is valid.

Then go into the menu, click validate path and you can then see the AI drive it or you can do it manually. If all is fine, you can save it and use it within custom events or from the Roadbook Editor menu.

Replay & Photo Mode

Also new is the Replay & Photo Mode, which – like EA Sports WRC – lets you watch a race replay once a race has finished. Use the on-screen controls to change the filter, lens type, camera view or use the custom movement view to fine-tune your replay or photo angles.

Unless I am being blind, I could not see a button to capture a photo. So I used the screenshot tool within Windows. On console, you could use the relevant method. Just remember to hide the user-interface.

Saber Porto and parent company Saber Interactive have also added a free car. It is the part-electric, part-fossil fuel Audi RS Q e-Tron though based on some admittedly short drives it appears to sound electric only.

Ignoring the fact that ‘etron’ means “turd” in French, this unusual Audi was a winner at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge in 2022 and secured four Dakar stage wins.

Now we get to the new paid DLC packs. Up first is the Hybrid Vehicle Pack, which comes as part of the Season Pass or can be bought or gifted separately for £8.99 or equivalent in your currency. It includes GCK Motorsport car and Hino Hybrid 600 and Riwald Renault C460 trucks. Excuse my pronunciations.

As the name suggests, these are renewable energy vehicles said to be embracing a future where we try to knock down fewer trees and drill a bit less oil from the ocean floor. Dakar die-hards may enjoy these, but they are not particularly different to other trucks and cars.

Then there is the Dakar Desert Rally Classics Vehicle Pack #2, which cunningly follows on from #1. For the same £8.99 unless you have the Season pass, it comes with two vehicles – one from 1982 and the other from 1985.

One is the rather small and cute Lada Niva 1600 4×4 from ’82, then commandeered by Denis Grabowski and Philippe Chéron. Expect to struggle to get up steep dunes and forget about a high top speed.

The other is the 1985 Honda Africa Twin – a legend from Dakar racing based on the Honda NXR 750 NT5A motorbike ridden back then by Cyril Neuve. Definitely the more capable vehicle of the two in this pack.

SnowRunner Cars Pack

Lastly but not leastly if you follow my channel for SnowRunner content, we have the SnowRunner Cars Pack. This one is free to all and brings with it five vehicles from the Saber Interactive off-road simulator, having already seen the not-free SnowRunner Truck Pack.

Rather amusingly, the Steam description says it includes “five of the most powerful cars from SnowRunner”, which is kind of true when you consider most vehicles in SnowRunner are trucks. All can be used throughout the game.

They are the pint-sized TUZ 166, mighty DON 71, veteran Khan 39 ‘Marshall’, the more recent Khan 317 ‘Sentinel’ and last, but absolutely by no means least, the Khan L04F. Also known as the Breadvan, Loafy McLoafFace or the UAZ 452 in real life.

The SnowRunner Cars DLC also includes rally events in the form of six-stage Sport and six-stage Professional events. But not the top-tier Simulation, which is a shame as getting lost in the desert in old Loafy would have been a whole lot of fun.

Anything else new in Dakar Desert Rally? Well, the developer says there have also been numerous fixes and quality of life improvements such as extended map events now available on PlayStation, Xbox one crashes in multiplayer and not being able to get the Monster Claw achievement on Xbox.

There is also a whole host of general issues mentioned in the update notes so check that out if you are curious about something specific. I shall put a link in the video description. Unfortunately, the list is quite sizeable but hopefully fixes come thicker and faster from now on.

And that is it for this Dakar Desert Rally Fall Update video. Whadya reckon? Let me know in the comments. Also be sure to like, subscribe and I shall see you in the next video.