Control

[ItsThere]

Supporting the staying indoors initiative downloaded this for £20. So far. It's great. As with lots of things at the moment I have more time for everything so I'm taking more time over this than I normally would. Loads going on in the world, so many things to read in all the collectibles.

Looks like some DLC came out for this recently (today?) but I'm loving it so far. One thing I particularly like is the MASSIVE text when you get to a new area. Very Tarantino

[prinnysquad]

I saw this for download earlier but I’m brassic. I’ll have to get it in a few days so PayPal won’t claim it out of my account until Tuesday!

[QualityChimp]

I never got another chance to play this after my lovely BD Secret Santa sent me a copy, but I was thinking today how I'm itching to get back to it as it's right up my street.

[Family Fry]

Will have to wait out for the DLC to hit Xbox in June as it’s PS4 timed exclusive, good news is it’s only DLC 1 that’s a timed exclusive and DLC 2 is due summer/autum on all formats, probably to coincide with the Steam release due August.
Hope more people play as it’s a cracking game.

[charlesr]

35% off on xbox at the moment https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/p/control/BZ6W9LRPC26W

[Neon Ignition]

After finishing Mafia: DE I wanted another linear experience and with the DLC out I decided to revisit this now that 4K60fps Ray Traced is on the table too. Probably because I'm in the right mindset I've enjoyed it much more this time and I've coped much better with the nature of the art style. I'm right at the very closing moments of the main campaign so it'll be interesting to see what the DLC brings. The main things I still hold as the same is that this is the weakest story of Remedy's games by far and it still has an air of a fun but PS3/360 era gen title in its gameplay.

[Lebowski]

I've seen the setting get a lot of hate Its not a bland game, its a foreboding and cold environment their is a difference. i loved the way it mixed the mundane with the fantastical. The oldest house is a cold 70s style office block and while this may not sound interesting at first, the way it gets twisted and warped by the Hiss and the things its hiding in its darkest corners made it a game world i wanted to spend time in.


The Way it handles lore is brilliant too, to take a mundane item like a floppy disk and build up a mythology around this that takes into account it's history and use, and that this could alter the mundane item and imbue it with weird powers pushed the right buttons for me. I loved any of the missions relating to hunting new artifacts of power. i just wish they had been braver with them, a few more strange curve ball powers would have really elevated the game for me to a ten out of ten.

[charlesr]

Just fired this up. If you die it takes forever to reload.... I gave up playing Little Nightmare for the same reason. This is more compelling so far though

[fuse]

Friends have been banging the Alan Wake 2 drum lately and on asking if I needed to play the first game before it, the recommendation I got was that there's more linkage to Control than AW1. Given it's also a lot more readily available (Ultimate Edition was on PS+ a while back, AW is Windows-only), I figured this was my way to test the waters... and I'm pleased to say I'm enjoying it more than I expected.

Quite like the cinematic approach they've taken, and while an office is arguably fairly sterile, the environment being something of a character in and of itself is pretty neat. I will usually be the first to complain about overabundance of text/audio logs, but these ones are definitely on the more tolerable side of things; decent world building helps, but I think redacting huge sections of them makes them feel a bit more interesting too?

The combat's not perfect - I find that I either get sprayed with bullets and take no damage, or get caught by a rocket and die immediately - but the telekinesis stuff is a fun supplement to the gunplay. For me, Mass Effect is still the gold standard when it comes to this kind of toolkit, but as a solo character without team-mates to jointly mess around with, it's pretty good. By having it in third person there's some slight jank to the movement that I actually find quite endearing (those stepladders in particular, hah), but I also think it's nice to see your character for a change rather than just having a disembodied voice.

If the mission structure is anything to go by I figure I'm about halfway through, will carry on with it and see how I feel by the end before committing to anything else.

[egparadigm]

Thanks for sharing. I’ve started Control twice and have given up on it at about the same (early-ish) point both times. Super stylish but there’s something a bit insubstantial and mildly annoying about the combat. I will go back and persevere soon hopefully!

[fishbowlhead]

I really liked this up until about 2/3 the way through then just hit a brick wall, I just couldn’t progress. No direction, no new ability to move out the confines I’m in, nothing. I’m not the only one apparently on this particular point. Very very frustrating as I want to finish this off but I’m not spending my valuable time stumbling for 5 hours until i randomly find the way forward.

[fuse]

I think when it first was on PS+ I stuck it on and had a very distracted 30m with it (I don't even remember making it to the Director), but this time I think I'm in for the long haul. Whether I stick about for all the side missions towards the end is another question entirely.

Also big love to [MENTION=2540]teddymeow[/MENTION] for flagging that I also had AW1 Remastered on PS Plus! I completely forgot about that happening and was looking just at Steam and lamenting it being Windows-only. I might try that next.

[fuse]

Had another bumper Sunday session with this. Finished the main campaign, did some side quests, even dipped my toes in some of the DLC.

Particularly with the sideshow stuff, I think the combat is pushed a little bit further than is enjoyable, and the story definitely felt weaker towards the end of things too, but I'm glad I've played it and might even stick around a bit longer to see how much I can mop up.

So, what have I learned about Alan Wake from this? Basically that he is Garth Marenghi.

[Atticus]

So, what have I learned about Alan Wake from this? Basically that he is Garth Marenghi.

[fuse]

Ok, walking away from this now. All quests I could find completed, 100% trophies on main game and all DLC, weapons fully upgraded and loaded with crazy strong mods... yeah.

Biggest takeaway remains that whereas parts of the game are plenty entertaining, and I'm definitely keen to try out other stuff going on in this world (that last DLC is clearly there to set up AW2), the combat has good ideas but in practice is not always that strong. I ended up turning on assist mode for immortality by the very end of the trophy hunt, as it honestly just got a little tiresome. Boss fights in particular were a lowlight - none were memorable in an enjoyable way.