Four-Wheeled Survival Nightmare Pacific Drive Gets Free Update, Paid Cosmetic DLC, and 2024 Roadmap

Pacific Drive, a rather bizarre four-wheeled survival game, has officially sold 600,000 copies, and its developer Ironwood Studios has announced that it will be celebrating the milestone with a series of content updates throughout the rest of the year. And the first of those updates is now live, delivering a bunch of free additions, as well as a bit of wacky cosmetic DLC.

Pacific Drive’s first free update lets players document their travels through the anomaly-riddled forests of the Olympic Exclusion Zone using a new photo mode. It’s available directly from the pause menu and gives players access to various camera settings – including depth of field, focus control, and exposure – as well as a host of aesthetic filters. It’s also possible to change the weather conditions and time of day while you’re at it.

Photo Mode arrives alongside the new Juke Jet car ability, which, when mounted to your station wagon’s side stand, provides a horizontal boost that should come in handy for dodging and drifting. There are also two new upgrade nodes to find in the garage’s crafting station, unlocking the Smart Matter Deconstructor and the Vargas Auto-Pac-Vac. The former allows players to throw junk into the Matter Constructor from anywhere in the garage, while the latter deposits materials into the Transfer Chest before filling up the rest of the vacuum storage.

Elsewhere, there’s a new performance mode specifically for the PS5 version of Pacific Drive, new points of interest and world-building details in Junctions, a new Coastal Highway map, a new Believer decal and gold hood ornament, and more – as detailed in the Ironwood patch notes.

The free update (officially version 1.6.2) arrives alongside a new paid DLC known as the Friendly Dumpster Customisation Pack. It includes a selection of trash-themed cosmetic items to deck out your station wagon, including the Recycled Steering Wheel, Dumpster Devotee Decal Kit, Gift Shifter, Air Trashener, Dumpster Idol, and Cuddle Can.

As detailed in Pacific Drive’s new post-launch roadmap for 2024, this summer DLC slate will be followed by two more releases before the end of the year. This fall, players can expect a free update featuring new difficulty modes, game customization settings, and cosmetics, as well as another paid cosmetic pack. This will be followed by a winter update, but details on that remain under wraps. More details will be revealed “in the coming months.”

And if you haven’t yet taken a spin on Pacific Drive and its sentient station wagon in this beautifully eerie take on the Pacific Northwest, it’s well worth checking out. Eurogamer’s Chris Tapsell called it “an exhausting and strangely adorable nightmare” in his four-star review, and it’s currently 40% off, meaning you can pick it up for £14.99 on PS5 and PC.