PS4 vs Steam vs Windows Store/Game-Pass

[MalachiX]

I've been wanting to try this game for a while and now, with the remaster/remake of Replicant, I'm feeling like taking the plunge. However, I seem to be getting conflicting information on which version is the best.

Early reviews suggested that the Steam version with very poor at launch (part of the reason why I waited to play it because I was hoping for a patch). Then others said that the Game-Pass version fixed a lot of issues and now I see that there's been a new Steam patch though it seems opinions are mixed on how much it improves (especially when it comes to performance). Basically, I just want to play the best version of the game without going insane trying to tweak it. I don't mind installing MODs if they're easy to get working but I heard that FAR no longer works with the new Steam version.

I have a base PS4 and a decently powerful PC (i7 10700k | RTX 3070 | 64 GB RAM). Any suggestions as to which version I should grab between PS4/Steam/Game-Pass?

[Skeeka]

The old Steam version without mods was worse in a few ways than the PS4 version. With the FAR mod however it was way better. After the recent patch the unmodded version still isn't quite on the same level as it was with FAR, but it is a decent port now and certainly better than the PS4 version.

The Gamepass version was sort of in-between fixes, they fixed the infamous fullscreen resolution issue but it still left a lot to be desired. Though it eventually received the same update that the Steam version got, so there shouldn't be any difference.

[v00d00m4n]

Publicado originalmente por Skeeka:

The old Steam version without mods was worse in a few ways than the PS4 version. With the FAR mod however it was way better. After the recent patch the unmodded version still isn't quite on the same level as it was with FAR, but it is a decent port now and certainly better than the PS4 version.

The Gamepass version was sort of in-between fixes, they fixed the infamous fullscreen resolution issue but it still left a lot to be desired. Though it eventually received the same update that the Steam version got, so there shouldn't be any difference.

Dont fool yourself, with FAR it was worse than current version - FAR broke lighting in many areas, it did not change much of buffers to be in resolution other than 1600x900 and did not interpolate them properly when upscalled, it did not fix cutscenes stuttering (at least it never worked on my setup), it never fixed LOD loading with MSAA enabled, also performance was worse than in current version and far did not fix it.

There was tons of other issues far did not fix, but recent patch did!

With all the appreciation for fixing attempts from Kal in FAR - it was not panacea and fixed the bare minium of very basic issues, and people fooled themselves too much with it, prising it like a fix of all issues, and this allowed SQUARE to get of radars for 4 years, because they saw that people happy with FAR despite many issues still existed, and FAR calmed people down too much to let SQUARE run away without patching game... only Replicant release and MS store re-release forced people to finally open their eyes and forced SQUARE to turn on a little care mode as they knew if they would not patch game, this will tank sales of Replicant!

While FAR tried to help to make game better it accidentally helped SQUARE to care the less for patching the game and made people blind to remaining issues for 4 freaking years...

And this blindness still continues! People of cult of FAR still spreading misinformation and saying it fixed everything ans game was better with it than it is now with patch!

Please stop fooling yourself and others! Patch fixed wide range of problems FAR never did and few issues that FAR fixed, are fixed better in this patch.

The only thing FAR now does better is HDR support and probably frame rate limiter and texture dumping and injection. Right now its not necessary, and what is necessary now is LodMod that fixes lod and ambient occlusion leaking issues and improves render distance and quality of meshes and shadows... which FAR also never did.

[TheSeek]

Publicado originalmente por v00d00m4n:

only Replicant release and MS store re-release forced people to finally open their eyes and forced SQUARE to turn on a little care mode

This is false, the first sign of them working on this patch(being a DLC branch called "depot" appearing in the steamdb page) was 1 or 2 weeks before the announcement/release of the new MS version, so well before started complaining again and review bombing.

Publicado originalmente por v00d00m4n:

Right now [FAR] is not necessary, and what is necessary now is LodMod that fixes lod and ambient occlusion leaking issues and improves render distance and quality of meshes and shadows... which FAR also never did.

While it's true that now FAR is not needed anymore, it's wrong to say the LodMod is necessary, the game is perfectly playable without it.
Yes, LodMod improves and fixes those aspects of the game, but they're definitely nothing that makes the game unplayable, so it's not necessary, unlike FAR(on the pre patch version of the game) which fixed issues that made the game literally unplayable for a lot of people.

tl;dr: necessary = fixes gmebreaking issues that literally prevent you from playing the game, so it's needed to play the game, and that's not the case for LodMod.

[v00d00m4n]

Publicado originalmente por TheSeek:

Publicado originalmente por v00d00m4n:

only Replicant release and MS store re-release forced people to finally open their eyes and forced SQUARE to turn on a little care mode

This is false, the first sign of them working on this patch(being a DLC branch called "depot" appearing in the steamdb page) was 1 or 2 weeks before the announcement/release of the new MS version, so well before started complaining again and review bombing.

Publicado originalmente por v00d00m4n:

Right now [FAR] is not necessary, and what is necessary now is LodMod that fixes lod and ambient occlusion leaking issues and improves render distance and quality of meshes and shadows... which FAR also never did.

While it's true that now FAR is not needed anymore, it's wrong to say the LodMod is necessary, the game is perfectly playable without it.
Yes, LodMod improves and fixes those aspects of the game, but they're definitely nothing that makes the game unplayable, so it's not necessary, unlike FAR(on the pre patch version of the game) which fixed issues that made the game literally unplayable for a lot of people.

tl;dr: necessary = fixes gmebreaking issues that literally prevent you from playing the game, so it's needed to play the game, and that's not the case for LodMod.

MS version appeared before patch in DB, you are messed MS store version with release of Replicant which happened as well as announce after bombing and complains about lack of updates which forced SQUARE to announce patch. Steam DB had no patch in works prior bombing, and it even did not appeare few weeks after announcing, so people complained even more that they was cheated.

LodMod is necessary because AO leak happens very often and its very annoying, as well as very low lod popins in many places... for people who dont have eye cataract its pretty much unplayable and causing eyes to bleed!

[TheSeek]

Publicado originalmente por v00d00m4n:

MS version appeared before patch in DB, you are messed MS store version with release of Replicant which happened as well as announce after bombing and complains about lack of updates which forced SQUARE to announce patch. Steam DB had no patch in works prior bombing, and it even did not appeare few weeks after announcing, so people complained even more that they was cheated.

100% wrong.
I'm talking about the "TEST008 個のデポ"(the japanese part literally translates to "depot") that appeared on the DLC section of Automata's steamdb page on March 5th(roughly one week before the announcement of the MS version on March 17th/18th) which has received literal daily updates until it was removed at the exact same moment the new ext1 depot branch appeared(which we all know became this new patch), showing this "TEST008 個のデポ" was an initial test branch for this patch, started before the MS version was announced.

And again, does the LodMod fixes issues that make the game unplayable?
No, so it's not necessary, the game runs fine without it and has no gamebreaking issues without it.
You finding a graphical setting annoying doesn't mean the game unplayable, it means you don't want to play it due to lower visual quality.

Unplayable =/= "i don't want to play this game because the visual quality is low and i can't stand it"
Unplayable = "i can't play this game even if i wanted to because gamebreaking issues literally prevent me from playing it, regardless of my tolerance for the game's visual quality"

[MalachiX]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I ended up getting the free trial of Gamepass so I could try out the game and see if I liked it. Unfortunately, I had a bunch of issues trying to get my Switch/PS4 controllers working on Gamepass (even with some 3rd party plug-ins), so I ended up just taking the plunge on Steam. I'm enjoying it so far (especially now that I'm not having to use a mouse/keyboard); and the performance has been fine.

That said, I thought the Steam version now had better cutscenes. It looks like they're still capped at 30fps when I view them and rather low-rez.