So I’ve been playing Control some more too. It’s been interesting and fun playing on PS5 since I already finished the main game on PS4 a while back. Was really happy to get the next gen version as a PS+ freebie since I wasn’t keen to double dip - I don’t usually play AAA games more than once - but the performance improvements are so huge over base PS4 I’ve been having a lot more fun than I expected and it probably would’ve been worth paying for (on sale at least!).
Interesting to hear people’s different preferences on performance vs graphics mode. I’ve flicked on the latter a couple times just to stare at some glass reflections or whatever but after chugging through this game on base PS4, there’s no way I can enjoy this at 30fps - the whole point of replaying it, for me, is the higher performance. Absolutely agree with MegaSigil though, a 1080p60 RT mode would’ve been cool - 4K is nice but it’s less meaningful to me than pretty effects. It would be great if more big budget games gave this range of options on the new consoles as we progress through this cross gen period.
As for the game itself, it’s as much of a blast as ever. As I said earlier, I tend not to replay these kinds of games - my game-playing time is limited and precious! But being able to smash through a second run really rapidly with the new smooth high framerate, well, it just feels real good, so why not. Grateful to be able to skip all the cutscene dialogue though. I enjoyed the story first time round but it is pretty cheesy and X-Filesy and I’m just here for the gameplay this time.
I think this game is just lightning in a bottle. Since playing it I’ve tried, and bounced off, Quantum Break and Alan Wake - might give the latter another shot some time because of all the personal recommendations I’ve received for it, but Quantum Break just left me cold. There’s something about Control… like they achieved something they’d been aiming for in previous games but fell short of (imo) due to a combination of technical restrictions and lack of experience. Probably not at all how it seems for anyone who’s been playing Remedy games at release for years, god knows ‘old’ games can come across really poorly without the benefit of nostalgia.
Control is like a contemporary TV series that is so much fun and does enough interesting stuff that you can forgive, and even relish, all its goofy elements, like the B-grade acting and slightly dodgy ‘metal’ music. So it’s… the Mr Robot of video games? Whatever it is, I really like it.