Pacific Drive’s ‘largest ever’ update adds endless expeditions to the vehicular survival game, but it’s a big change to how saving works that has me pondering a reinstall

Pacific Drive received its “largest ever free content update” this week, one which introduces a brand new way of playing Ironwood Studios’ vehicular survival game. But you’d better step away from the newswheel, bucko, because I’m hijacking this article for my own devious ends. While the headline addition of the update is some fancy-sounding expeditions, it’s a secondary feature developer Ironwood Studios has folded in, which actually made me consider reinstalling the game.

You see, although I admired much about Pacific Drive, from its anomaly-strewn slice of West Coast woodland to its surprisingly intense vehicle simulation, I ultimately bailed on the game for one specific reason: saving. Previously, Pacific Drive only autosaved upon entry to a new junction (the game’s name for its open-ended, driveable map chunks) with manual saving limited to your garage.