AT Digital foundry became interested in the situation, deciding to compare the original releases on the platform in Steam with new options from Microsoft Store… Despite the initial information, both games have a lot of problems in the new store.
For example, NieR: Automata is still advised to play through Steam – at least this version supports custom modifications, with which you can fix some problems like unstable performance.
The key innovations in the Game Pass version were the appearance of HDR, scaling the interface for screen resolution and the introduction of FidelityFX. Otherwise, this is the same version with the same problems.
In the same scenes, the Game Pass version performs worse than the Steam version
The Evil Within is a little more interesting – in the version for Game Pass, there were innovations like first-person modes or infinite ammo, as well as adjusting the field of view. They are activated when you sign in to your Bethesda account.
However, the performance has not improved – on a mid-budget computer with a GTX 1060, it will not be possible to achieve a stable 60 frames per second. Periodically, the frequency will decrease by several frames, which may cause microfreezes.
In the Steam version, this can be bypassed by disabling vertical sync, but in the Game Pass version, this cannot be done – the option is forcibly enabled.
Digital Foundry advises playing The Evil Within through Steam as well, as some of the issues can be circumvented, while for others you can find workarounds, custom mods or fan patches. The Xbox Game Pass version lacks these features.
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