When EA first announced Need for Speed: Heat, one of the promises the publisher made was that there would be no lootboxes. Instead, the biggest plans were to add DLC car packs for people to buy. EA also said it would be adding time-saving microtransactions later that year. While the time-savers didn’t release in 2019, they’ll be hitting the game on January 28th, 2020. Called “Keys to the Map,” it will mark the locations of all collectibles, activities, and gas stations on the map, along with making all safe houses (except for one story-based one) instantly accessible for the player. You’ll still have to complete the activities and collect the collectibles yourself, but you’ll now know where to go.
In addition, the update will also be adding steering wheel support to the game. EA hasn’t had a chance to test every possible steering wheel peripheral, but they did confirm the following popular accessories will definitely work:
- Thrustmaster T300RS
- Thrustmaster TX
- Thrustmaster T150
- Thrustmaster TMX
- Logitech G29
- Logitech G920
- Fanatec CSL Elite Racing Wheel
Other racing wheels can’t be guaranteed to work, but the update notes that they “might work as well.”
The other major addition in this update comes in the form of a chat wheel. It’s a revamped version of the emote wheel from Need for Speed: Rivals, and will allow players an easy way to communicate without using a microphone or typing out messages.
Although they haven’t added any car packs to the game yet, developer Ghost Games does tell fans to pay attention, as the next update will bring the first new cars with it. While there’s no timeframe on when that will be, it seems likely it will be part of February’s update.
