Hello hello and happy holidays and new years to everyone everywhere! Before the team here has a chance to wind down and take a well-earned break, everyone's been working very hard on today's update, which, alongside various bugfixes, increases the length of the game by about 10%! Featuring a new level, new cosmetics, new car paint jobs, new driver and passenger skins and more, here's everything you're getting when you unwrap The Holiday Heist.
A DOG'S NOT JUST FOR THE HOLIDAYS ...
One of today's major additions is an adorable (if slightly addle-brained) doggie as a playable passenger, with art by Jason, fully functional with custom animations courtesy of Max/Deadcat, voice acting by Joey's dog Queenie and additional sounds by Garrett ... and without progression or rating-gating involved. That's right! This little fella roams free, and is available to play for everyone who's purchased a copy of Backseat Drivers.
Said pooch comes in a variety of breeds:
He's playful:
He's mischevious:
He's cute:
And most importantly, he's yours (if you can stay out of a jail cell):
... IT'S ALSO FOR ROBBING BANKS
The second major piece of content released today is a new level, The Holiday Heist, in which the occupants of the Harlow Patchwork, back in the city of Pebkac and en route to holiday shopping, take a detour which has them stumble into a tense police standoff situation, then commit some larceny maybe, and make a get-very-far-away. All totally by accident, your honor, I swear.
This level also isn't gated and is available to play for everyone no matter how far through the game you've got, as a thank you to all players for accompanying on this long and winding journey. Thank you all for riding with us. You're hilarious and we love you and we've loved having you with us. A road trip without good company is no company at all. You are the ones who have made all the work worthwhile.
OTHER NEW STUFF
For some reason, even though the so-called heist was totally by accident, Gramma and Grampa also just so happened to be wearing bank robbing gear:
Grampa's grand larceny gear, in which he is known as the Gramburgler
Gramma's great heist outfit, in which she goes by Grammaclava
There's also some new cosmetics to unlock and to pick up, with associated achievements:
And a host of new (or uhhh forgotten-and-unused-til-now) car paint jobs, some of which were available in the demo, are at long last available in the full game to everyone:
We've also made some improvements to gamepad controls, and fixed errant bits and pieces of localization here and there.
DETAILED PATCH NOTES
As follows:
New level, The Holiday Heist
New passenger, Rex, a harebrained hound, in a variety of color variants
New driver skin, The Gramburgler, in various skin variants
New driver skin, The Grammaclava, in various skin variants
Several new music tracks on tapes in The Holiday Heist
New cosmetic pedal pickup, the money stack, and associated achievement "Vacation savings"
New cosmetic shifter unlockable, the crowbar, and associated achievement "One last job"
New cosmetic pedal unlockable, the C4, and associated achievement "Pond's 2"
New cosmetic window roller unlockable, the gun, and associated achievement "The slow and the calm"
New cosmetic steering wheel unlockable, the Christmas star, and associated achievement "Point (winter) break"
"New" (actually restored from the BSD demo) car paint job, super cool lava rally flames
Another new-to-you car paint job, the mind bending purple polka dots
Another new-to-you car paint job, go-faster stripes, in various colors
An actually new car paint job, "Rusty White"
Another actually new car paint job, "Fuddy-duddy Fuschia"
Fixes to the play experience with gamepad
Fixes to busted bits of localization
That's all for now.
Have a great Christmas, Holiday, New Year, or just December if that's all it is to you!
Pick you up when it's time for the next one.