Dakar Desert Racing was a pleasant surprise last year. Its unforgiving terrain and extreme weather captured the brutal nature of the Dakar Rally brilliantly. Its carnage-filled arcade racing mode also played like a modern MotorStorm. Unfortunately, the game felt unfinished, with glitches and missing content at launch.
Developer Saber Porto has slowly rectified this since then, with recent updates adding new gameplay features such as a free roam mode. Now, the latest Dakar Desert Rally DLC features a surprise crossover with SnowRunner (both titles are published by Saber Interactive).
Dakar Desert Rally SnowRunner Trucks DLC out now
Available to download now on all platforms, the SnowRunners Trucks DLC introduces an assortment of vehicles and challenges inspired by SnowRunner.
The DLC pack lets you conquer the desert in five SnowRunner trucks: the TUZ 16, TUZ 108, TUZ 420, ZiKZ 605R, and YAR 87. Each truck is playable in Free Roam or Rally Raid.
Nine new stages and two new events are also included in the Dakar Desert Rally SnowRunner Trucks DLC, which is free for Season Pass owners or available buy separately for £8.99/$7.99.
Incidentally, SnowRunner Season 9 Renew & Rebuild is also out today, where you take on the role of a firefighter restoring a location ravaged by a devastating wildfire.
Dakar Desert Rally update 1.7 patch notes
At the same time, a new Dakar Desert Rally update has rolled out on all formats.
Update 1.7 contains new gameplay features including a Steering Wheel Wizard allowing players to easily configure steering wheels, new handling style options and additional wheel support.
Full details can be found in the Dakar Desert Rally update 1.7 patch notes below:
New Premium Content
- SnowRunner Trucks DLC: test your resolve against the scorching sands with NEW SnowRunner Trucks, stages, and events in this Premium DLC.
- New Trucks:
- TUZ 16
- TUZ 108
- TUZ 420
- ZiKZ 605R
- YAR 87
- New Trucks:
- New Stages and Events.
- Sports Mode - 6 Stages and 1 Event:
- 01 Bisha
- 02 Jeddah
- 03 Alsharaf
- 04 Gayal
- 05 Al Ula
- 06 Shigry - Professional Mode - 3 Stages and 1 Event:
- 01 Jeddah
- 02 Gayal
- 03 Shigry
- Sports Mode - 6 Stages and 1 Event:
New Features
- Steering Wheel Wizard: An easy step-by-step solution for players to configure their connected steering wheels and peripherals.
- Camera FOV lets you configure your FOV for the cockpit, dashboard, hood, and front cameras.
- Added “Handling Style” to allow players to activate a more challenging experience under Gameplay Options.
- The steering wheel angle can now be set up to 2,520º if supported by the Steering Wheel Hardware.
- Cockpit Camera now simulates the wheel rotation of an actual steering wheel when a player is using Steering Wheel hardware.
Additional Steering Wheels Supported
- SIMUCUBE 2 Pro Wheel Base (PC).
- FANATEC GT DD Pro (PC - PS4 - PS5).
- LOGITECH PRO Racing Wheel (PC - PS4 - PS5 – X1 – XSX - XSS).
- HORI Racing Wheel APEX (PS4 - PS5).
- HORI FF Racing Wheel DLX (Xbox One - XSX - XSS).
- HORI Racing Wheel Overdrive (Xbox One - XSX - XSS).
General
- Added more classes of AI vehicles during Professional and Simulation modes to make them feel more realistic.
- For Professional and Simulation game modes, all vehicles will now be included in the ranking to make these modes feel more realistic.
- Removed auto-driving in the DSS when playing in Professional and Simulation game modes.
- Players can configure the Steering wheel angle up to 2,520 degrees on supported hardware.
- In Simulation Mode with Bikes or Quades when the player doesn’t have a co-pilot, the odometer will only be adjusted automatically on Waypoints.
- In Simulation Mode, the Waypoint radius opening distances were adjusted to increase the sim navigation experience.
- Reduced repetition from the Navigator AI when they speak.
- Adjusted wheels’ life so flat tires occur more realistically.
- Added a button to refresh leaderboard information.