Four-wheeled survival nightmare Pacific Drive gets free update, paid cosmetics DLC, and 2024 roadmap

Pleasingly bizarre four-wheeled survival game Pacific Drive has officially sold 600K copies, and its developer Ironwood Studios has announced it’s celebrating that milestone with a series of content updates throughout the rest of this year. And the first of those updates is now live, offering a bunch of free additions, as well as a bit of daft cosmetic DLC.

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

Photo mode arrives alongside the new Juke Jet car ability which, once mounted on your station wagon’s side rack, provides a horizontal boost that should be handy for dodging and drifting. There’re also two new upgrade nodes to be found in the garage’s Fabrication Station, unlocking the Smart Matter Deconstructor and Vargas Auto-Pac-Vac. The first lets players toss junk into the Matter Constructor from anywhere in the garage, while the latter deposits materials into the transfer trunk before being filling the rest of the vacuum storage.

Elsewhere, there’s a new performance mode specifically for the PS5 version of Pacific Drive, new points and interest and worldbuilding details in Junctions, a new Coastal Highway map, a new Believer Sticker and Golden Hood Ornament, and more – as outlined in Ironwood’s patch notes.

The free update (officially version 1.6.2) arrives alongside a new bit of paid DLC known as the Friendly Dumpster Customisation Pack. This features a selection of trash-themed cosmetic items for decorating your station wagon, including the Re-Cycled Steering Wheel, Dumpster Devotee decal kit, Gift Shifter, Air Trashener, Dumpster Idol, and Cuddle Can.

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

And if you’ve not yet taken Pacific Drive and its sentient station wagon for a ride through its gorgeous weird rendition of the Pacific Northwest, it’s well worth investigating. Eurogamer’s Chris Tapsell called it an “exhausting, oddly lovable nightmare” in his four star review, and there’s currently 40 percent off, meaning you can pick it up for £14.99 on PS5 and PC.