Control

[one-armed dwarf]

I think most are positive on Control. It has this indelible 90s TV sci-fi channel thing about it that I really like. 

 

Remedy make the most stylish games in AAA right now, even if not necessarily the best playing

[Maryokutai]

I think it plays really well. I recently picked up the consumer unfriendly Ultimate Edition which more than doubles the framerate from what I experienced on Xbox One and it's a really enjoyable shooter at its core. How frictionless the telekinesis works is unrivalled in games, usually these kinds of mechanics are super cumbersome.

 

The problems are more certain encounter/boss designs and how you often get hit by stuff that drains 60% of your life without ever seeing it coming.

[DANGERMAN]

probably clear from this thread already but I loved Control. I've chipped away at a 2nd playthrough on Steam Deck, and another one with the fancy RT stuff on big PC. It's a great game, much better at a better frame rate, so playing it first on PS4 and still enjoying it is testament to the quality of it I suppose, that version was probably carried by its atmosphere as much as gameplay

[mmmark]

I recently picked this up, ultimate ed, for dead cheap. I’m a monster who sets his games priority as graphics which adds ray tracing and locked at 30fps here.

 

So far I really love it. It’s incredibly stylistic the way that information is presented to you as you’re running around. I don’t think anything is presented generically. Even the map is live, which I haven’t seen in years.

 

I’m very early on but the first time someone was harder to kill than the regular ones I died a few times. They just seemed to be able to kill me so fast. But then when I did it I did so easily and have no real idea what I did differently so moving forward should be fun.

[AndyKurosaki]

That’s the real problem I had with this game. Fairly early on, there’s these rocket launcher type enemies, and they rip through your health bar very quickly. I kept dying constantly because of them, and eventually I lost patience and sacked it off. 

[one-armed dwarf]

There are cheats in the game I think which can help

 

I don't say that as a slag, I used the cheats for a really shit boss fight. Went further on PC and just cheated all the skill unlocks with cheat engine. It still remained a great game to explore and figure stuff out, it's just a world that leaves you with enough breadcrumbs in its narrative design to be curious. If you're into the kind of fiction that this is aping.

[AndyKurosaki]

There’s cheats? Well that I didn’t know. Might make it actually more bearable then. 
I finished Alan Wake 2, and I know there’s various references to Control that I wasn’t properly getting. Mind you, the story in that game is all over the bloody place. So I don’t think I missed that much.

[Nag]

You didn't...

[AndyKurosaki]

Fair enough. I’ve seen people saying “Should I just jump straight into Alan Wake 2, without playing Control, or the first one?”

To which I go “You must be kidding”. 

[one-armed dwarf]

People exaggerate how weird the stories are in these games tbh. There's lots of stories like these, some far weirder. When you boil Control down to its core 'plot' it's actually pretty straightforward and they tell you all the things you need to know

[Maryokutai]

I remember thinking that as well when it first came out. Somehow nobody bats an eye when Harry Potter runs headfirst into a wall at a public train station to hop on an invisible train that leads to a magic castle undiscovered by 21th century technology. But a haunted rubber duck that pulls you in an alternate dimension? Nah, too weird, not buying it.

[Maf]

This came back on Gamepass and the Ultimate Edition has different achievements to the regular version so I downloaded it on PC

 

😋 It looks kinda sick.

 

This my 3rd time playing this. Original version on Xbox One, Ultimate Edition on PS5, and now UE again on PC. The ray tracing is immediately stand out and I think generally very noticeable because of all the glass and reflections. Not sure if this has RT shadows as well or just higher image quality but the first cutscene with Ahti is very moody and good. 

 

It has a weird LoD bug (Same as Alan Wake 2, actually) where things not that far away are too slow to load in the better asset, and I had to cap it at 120 because even on my PC the jumps up and down were a bit much. And my aiming sucks on mouse. 

 

Between this and RE4 I'm realising I'm bad at M&K because I don't aim and move at the same time. It takes too much thinking where as on console I whirl both around without thinking, and controller probably has some aim assist, too. But I have to learn to be able to move and shoot at the same time instead of standing still trying to make tiny adjustments for headshots. 

 

But, yeah, very cool and another test for my computer. I will play it properly at some point because it's a been a few years, but just wanted to check it out quick. Still holds up and the game looks great!