Driving

You can exit the vehicle at any time, and explore by foot.
You can fix the car, by having to exit and walking around.
Collaborating with (NPC if you’re inside of a car or truck, was meant as repairing the car together)
You can drive these 5 categories : Motor, ATV, Cars, Trucks, SSV
Each category has several teams, all of them will be official
Aiming for the old experience of realism (“with internal and external”, think this is about perspectives, cockpit view confirmed :P)
Navigation system, or roadbooks ( as used in Dakar) are going to be how you navigate, it’s the same as in real life. Very easy to get lost so you need to focus on navigation.
They are implementing a system to influence the driving aspect to cover the different climates and weather ( it’s different on sand, mud, water)

Pilots

Pilots are real, not only the hands/heads. Full body. (in regards to real life)
They are scanning and using pictures of all of the pilots, so their faces will be in the game
Creating your own is not possible, you can only choose an existing character.

Map

Open world, more than “15.000km2” ( perhaps that might be a mistake, that's fucking huge)
Different kind of weathers/climates
Because they are going from Peru to Bolivia to Argentina. All of the countries are scanned, they have collected pictures ( high resolution, 4k is what he said.) which are projected on the 3d map using filters(?). “Exactly the 3d replication of those. “
Because these locations have different climates they will have different dynamic weather.
One of Open worlds biggest
14 stages
Each taking 1 -2 hours depending on your skill (navigating and driving).

Engine and physics

Unreal Engine 4, PhysX and own technologies
Created their own system of vehicle and physics, combined with technology that’s on the market. But they are creating their own technology. >“That is able to make sure that all the suspensions, all the details, all the aspects of the vehicle are really really implementing. So you can feel that.

VR probably not going to happen, they said maybe ( maybe before release, maybe after as an update or perhaps with Dakar 19) “VR is something we have on the wishlist. We'll see if it can be added to the release date, at a later date, or skip it entirely until Dakar 19.”

On the physics in the trailer This trailer uses game assets exclusively. However, the physics system present in the trailer isn't the one you'll be able to find in the game. That is currently being refined and adjusted with the help and feedback of Dakar pilots and riders. We figured that if we're aiming for a realistic experience, we might as well consult with the real experts :) We'll be releasing a gameplay trailer soon and hopefully, you'll get a better insight into the
game physics there. Thank you for your support!

“ we're working with Dakar riders and pilots, gathering their feedback to tune in the gameplay physics to each of the vehicles and terrains present in the game”

Testers

They have gotten some very experienced pilots to help them develop and test, they help every week by testing and explaining their views and have the same experience in the game as in real life. ( two are brought to the stage now)

Pedro Bianchi
Roadbook is very important, finding the way is the challenge. And that is brought to the game, you need to know the instruments and the systems in the game, so a very hard. “Because if you lose the way you are lost, and the game is so big that you can be lost for hours.”
One of the things he also said is that they’ll probably train using a roadbook for navigation since it’s hard to train for outside of the actual race.( interesting.)
Mário Patrão
“One of the things he wants to make sure that happens, that’s transferred to the players is the navigation system but also the feel and the adrenaline of driving at high speeds and using the roadbook to make sure you don’t get lost. That is not easy and takes a lot of years of experience and training.”

Game

Release in summer 2018
Edition every year ( so there will probably be a dakar 19 and a dakar 20)
Simulation focussed, everything we’ve heard so far has been indicating that it will be a full on simulator, which they are aiming for in terms of physics and everything else. They call it a “true simulation game” “Expect a simulation and not an easy one at that “
A gameplay trailer is said to be in a few weeks ( said in the end of November), not a pre-rendered trailer, should demonstrate how the engine shows the graphics quality ( very weird sentence but yeah he said it somewhat like that). However recent messages said somewhere around February-march ( the actual trailer) but gameplay snippets will be released already before that on social media. “ Soon :) We'll be releasing bits and pieces until we release a gameplay video. Stay tuned to the facebook page”
They have also been working on it for a few years now. On wheel support: “We're working on it, yes. :) it should be available, at least for the major brands.” Also constant mentions of how hard it will be, both in the presentation and on social media, saying you might never finish the stages or the full rally.
“Our development team have +40 elements.” whatever that might mean ( possibly team members, which is a lot!)

Multiplayer

Local MP confirmed, split-screen. According to steam 2 - 4 players.
Maybe this will be a driver - co-driver pair. So two cars 4 players. Since 4 players is genuinely a lot. Perhaps this will also mean just shorter stages. Since I think it would be very tough to handle all of that * 4 or even * 2.
Hot seat mode also confirmed.
Online multiplayer should probably function the same way as offline singleplayer.

Some vehicles shown in great detail

Pedro Bianchi posted this pic
Carlist:

Bikes: KTM, Honda, Yamaha, Husqvarna, and official riders.
Cars: Peugeot, Mini, Toyota, Renault, Mitsubishi and official drivers.
Trucks: Kamaz, Maz, Tatra, Mammoet Renault, Veka MAN and official drivers.
Quads: Quad riders Ignacio Casale, Sergei Karyakin, Alexis Hernandez and Rafal Sonik with Yamaha Raptor.
UTV: UTV XtremePlus Polaris official teams.