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There are so many great games that were released last year, and one of them still intrigues me. Pacific Drive is a survival adventure where you will travel around in your tricked-out car, investigating supernatural dangers and scavenging for resources. It's a fun game, though it has always had some trouble running on the Steam Deck. However, there was a big new update for the game that was released with the new Whispers in the Woods expansion, which has some pretty big changes.

Pacific Drive is on sale for $14.99 over on the Humble Store for the next 11 days. Head on over there to get 50% off the game!

Pacific Drive New Update

The new update has a ton of changes with it, but the biggest, apart from the expansion support, come from performance improvements. There have been some massive changes across the board, from optimized physics with reduced complexity for better CPU performance, to a massive reduction in geometry for better CPU performance. There were also improved load times, video memory, and much more.

It's pretty amazing to see exactly how much optimization they put in, and I immediately wanted to test it out and see if it made any noticeable difference on the Steam Deck. Before the patch, the game was tough to run with constant drops below 30 FPS, even on the lowest settings. So, I dove back in, and while it is more playable now, it's still a little hard to recommend.

PacificDriveNewUpdate2

I got into the game, and after setting everything to the lowest possible quality, including the rendering scale, or Screen Percentage, as low as possible, I went ahead and started testing. I would consider the game playable at this rate, though the visuals are not enjoyable in the slightest. It was extremely pixelated and blurry, making it hard to point out any details in the world. Bringing up the Screen Percentage to 50% does help a lot, and makes the game look a lot nicer, though it brings the framerate down to almost below 30.

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One interesting thing I noticed is just how demanding our car is. When walking around and looking away from the car, the game ran especially well, hitting above 40 FPS most times, even going above 50 some of the time. However, as soon as I looked back at the car, the framerate dropped completely. Even when not in the car, it will drop. This continued even when in the car. If you look out the window and away from the inside of the car, the framerate will go back up. There must be a lot going on with the car to cause this, which makes some sense since the car is the most important part of the game. Still, it's interesting to see.

While this all makes Pacific Drive more playable, and I would say it could be playable throughout the game, there is still a lot of compromise and areas where the game could drop. Still, if you already have the game, it's worth trying out. Otherwise, it may be best to wait a little and see what others think. However, with it being 50% off on the Humble Store for the next 11 days, I would say it's worth checking out for yourself. It's an awesome game and one worth playing; it just needs a little more love for the Steam Deck.

Pacific Drive is available on Steam for $29.99, but you can get it on the Humble Store for $14.99 right now.

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Noah Kupetsky
A lover of gaming since 4, Noah has grown up with a love and passion for the industry. From there, he started to travel a lot and develop a joy for handheld and PC gaming. When the Steam Deck released, it just all clicked.
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