It's been a long four years, but the patch to fix Nier: Automata's janky Steam port is finally ready, with Square Enix dropping the update later this week.
The upgrade patch was initially announced back in April over on the official Nier Twitter account. It followed a rough few weeks for Square Enix, who found Nier: Automata was getting review bombed over on Steam thanks to the Xbox Game Pass for PC release being substantially more stable. The Game Pass version wasn't perfect, mind you, but most found it superior to the Steam version.
While a mod that fixes most of Automata's Steam issues has been around for a few years, Square Enix has never taken the liberty of fixing the problem itself. Until now, which makes this the first major fix made to the Steam port since the game released in 2017.
The #NieR:Automata Steam patch is coming July 15th at 9am PDT / 6pm CEST, implementing the below changes:HDR detectionBit rate improvementsUI texture upgradeFrame rate adjustmentsOther minor fixesFull details here: https://t.co/Q83twdVv8I pic.twitter.com/f12flZzU8PJuly 13, 2021
Most of Automata's major issues seem to be getting fixed. That pesky recurring mouse issue has been addressed, which means the cursor should no longer pop up in the middle of the screen every 10 minutes while using a controller. Cutscenes are mercifully getting a bump up to 60fps, and will no longer awkwardly stretch to different aspect ratios. Borderless window support is finally being added too, a simple option that was bizarrely absent at release.
A few graphical options are getting thrown in as well, like UI textures getting a 4K upgrade and being able to toggle different levels of global illumination. The game will now detect HDR and boot the game in HDR mode if it's activated, along with some small adjustments to anti-aliasing.
The fixes essentially seem to do what the popular FAR mod has been doing for years, but it's nice to see Square Enix finally pull its finger out for an official fix. The update will go live on July 15 at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET / 5 PM BST. Better late than never, eh?
