A modder has released their final Nier: Automata HD texture pack after four years of development.

GPUnity's texture pack mod began life soon after Nier: Automata launched on PC in March 2017. They've continued to work on the mod since then, and now, four years later, released the final version.

Nier: Automata's PC version is infamous for a raft of technical issues that were fixed by modders, including a constant stutter tick due to the game running at around 59 frames per second (this is something explored in the Digital Foundry video below).

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I don't think anyone at Square Enix saw Nier Automata as a multi-million-selling, genre-defying hit. The action-RPG sort of stumbled into the spotlight in 2017, tasked with amassing attention in the months following the Nintendo Switch's incredible debut with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. A tough act to follow, no doubt, but one that Automata somehow managed, going on to land multiple game of the year accolades, draw millions upon millions of fans to a previously-unknown franchise, and selling upwards of five million copies over four years later.

Examining why Nier matters is a bit like doing a jigsaw puzzle backwards. There's so many different ways you can deconstruct it: is it the elegant gameplay that's stuck with millions of players around the world, or is it Keiichi Okabe's grandiose score, crashing down with waves of emotion on the player? Alternatively, are Automata's zany and inspired storytelling methods the reason it's so highly revered, or is it perhaps the unpredictable creative director himself, Yoko Taro, that's responsible for pushing the game to legendary heights?

The answer could simply be all of the above. There's something so effortlessly unique about Nier Automata everywhere you look, starting from the moment you descend out of the atmosphere as 2B in a personal gunship to battle hordes of robots in the sky, to crash-landing and fighting a towering mechanical monolith with gigantic buzzsaws, all in the opening minutes. The debut sections are greatly representative of how the smooth and fluid gameplay is married to imaginative foes for brilliant battles, but it's the story that unfolds later on that really got its hooks into players to form a community.

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Four years after its release, the Steam version of Nier: Automata is finally getting an upgrade - although details remain pretty light on exactly what the patch will do.

Over on Twitter, the official Nier Series account has confirmed that an "upgrade patch" for Steam is in development, and more information will be shared at a later date.

The Steam version of Nier: Automata has famously struggled with performance and technical issues, and players have turned to community-made solutions such as Kaldaien's "FAR" mod (Fix Automata Resolution) to solve these.

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Nier: Automata is better on Xbox Game Pass PC than on Steam, it has emerged.

The PC version of Nier: Automata that launched into Xbox Game Pass this week is a port of the Nier: Automata Become as Gods Edition that launched on Xbox One in 2018 with the DLC thrown in.

This port, handled by developer QLOC, includes a number of enhancements, such as a borderless video setting, FidelityFX options, HDR, and user interface textures upscaled to 4k. The borderless video setting is particularly welcome - it means Nier: Automata runs at the right resolution when it boots. In a post on Facebook, QLOC said these enhancements were made "on special request from PlatinumGames".

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An intrepid modder has discovered Nier Automata's "final secret": a cheat code.

Lance McDonald, who Eurogamer has covered multiple times for his varied work on the likes of P.T. and Bloodborne, found a cheat code in the early 2017 release that lets you skip to the last ending immediately after killing the first boss and unlock the bonus modes.

Over the weekend, the English language Nier Twitter account congratulated McDonald for the discovery, and Nier Automata development chief Yoko Taro, who two years ago had teased there was still one final secret no-one had yet found in the game, shared the work, pointing out it took three years and 10 months for the cheat code to be discovered.

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We've scoured the lands looking for some top gaming deals and, shining brightly on the horizon, is this offer on Red Dead Redemption 2 over at Amazon UK.

The swish and stylish edition of Rockstar's western opus comes with a collectible SteelBook and is now only 33.99 on PS4 and Xbox One. A quick look elsewhere shows most standard versions of the game going for around a similar price, so you're getting a nice case for free here!

In fact, if you flick through the site some more, you'll see it's one of the many games on sale ahead of Amazon Prime Day 2019, even though the big bargain event doesn't start until next week.

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Square Enix has formally unveiled Nier: Automata's Game of the YoRHa Edition, which bundles up 2017's superb action RPG, its DLC expansion, and a few extra goodies - all ready for launch on PS4 and PC next February 26th.

Nier: Automata's Game of the YoRHa Edition was first spotted last month by way of a listing on the ESRB ratings website, and its official announcement gives us a clearer idea of what will be included when it launches next year.

Both versions will feature the wonderfully eccentric, Platinum-developed base game, as well Nier: Automata's 3C3C1D119440927 expansion DLC, the Machine Mask Accessory, and four pod skins: the Grimoire Weiss Pod, Retro Grey Pod, Retro Red Pod, and Cardboard Pod.

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It seems like things aren't quite over for Nier: Automata, as with a title to rival any Eurogamer pun, it seems the game will be returning with its own game of the year edition. Sorry - Game of the YoRHa.

The title has appeared on the ESRB ratings website, where it is listed for PC and PlayStation 4: the two platforms on which Nier: Automata was first released. There's no news yet on when this new version will appear, and Xbox is omitted from the listing. The new version could possibly include some of the improvements made to the recent Xbox port, or perhaps Xbox players are simply going to have to wait a while longer (again) for this. Sorry Xbox users.

Many players are hoping for some improvements to the PC edition, which some people complained suffered from some performance issues and required third party mods to improve. There haven't been any patches for the original PC version of the game, making the release of a game of the year edition feel somewhat cheeky.

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