- Joined
- May 30, 2018
- Messages
- 1,890 (0.88/day)
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- Cusp Of Mania, FL
| Processor | Ryzen 9 3900X |
|---|---|
| Motherboard | Asus ROG Strix X370-F |
| Cooling | Dark Rock 4, 3x Corsair ML140 front intake, 1x rear exhaust |
| Memory | 2x8GB TridentZ RGB [3600Mhz CL16] |
| Video Card(s) | EVGA 3060ti FTW3 Ultra Gaming |
| Storage | 970 EVO 500GB nvme, 860 EVO 250GB SATA, Seagate Barracuda 1TB + 4TB HDDs |
| Display(s) | 27" MSI G27C4 FHD 165hz |
| Case | NZXT H710 |
| Audio Device(s) | Modi Multibit, Vali 2, Shortest Way 51+ - LSR 305's, Focal Clear, HD6xx, HE5xx, LCD-2 Classic |
| Power Supply | Corsair RM650x v2 |
| Mouse | iunno whatever cheap crap logitech *clutches Xbox 360 controller security blanket* |
| Keyboard | HyperX Alloy Pro |
| Software | Windows 10 Pro |
| Benchmark Scores | ask your mother |
Living up to your username with that last statementSkyrim SE with 1 mod on legendary difficulty.!
Can't wait for TES VI....
I got through the main of Control's first DLC. Just gonna say right now, it doesn't have the overall quality of the base game. Among other DLC's it is simply a little above average. It's mostly cave settings, which at times are very cool, but it doesn't have that same visual charm. At a few points in the campaign it does come back. Also has probably my favorite boss fight of all. A lot of people hated it for being brutally unforgiving. Maybe I'm just pro as shit at this game, because while all of the bosses have been so hard it felt plain mean when I lost, it never took more than 3 attempts to beat them. Still have a lot of exploring to do, looking forward to getting to it all before AWE drops, which is right around the corner now.
I will say... as a fan of the main game, I still loved it. I'm glad I got the pass. I think if you played it a couple of times and enjoyed it but never picked it up after that, the expansion is not gonna be a satisfying reason to return. But if you are fully on board with the base game and really want more, it's faithful. The combat is significantly harder, but you also get new mods to help. They managed to mix it up pretty well. I felt like I had to relearn how to fight down in The Foundation. They never really let you rest on your laurels too much.
They really went in on the lore in a big way and that kept me totally engrossed. I think Remedy actually wanted to do an Alan Wake sequel, but couldn't, so they made Control to move forward. The Foundation expansion confirmed so many things I walked away from the base game thinking, stuff that made me surprised I actually got it right... and then went and left me with twice as many bigger questions. I'm right back to being in the mystified state that pulled me in the first time. The world just has that newness and freshness that makes it stand out to me among years of games. As crazy and nonsensical as it can be with webs of non-euclidean logic and causality phase shifts, it starts to feel weirdly more plausible and real than most things. At the risk of being a little pretentious, it's a thinking man's game. The gameplay and sheer visual strength may be enough to carry it on it's own, but that's arguably the lesser merit in my eyes. It is pretty cerebral. Everything truly important is in what's not told or even shown. Every criticism I've seen of the story comes off to me like they don't know the real story. That could reasonably be considered a fault, but for the deep divers it is very refreshing to see a game that doesn't think you're stupid or shortsighted.
That carries into the gameplay. I've seen complaints about the navigation. But it feels more disorienting than it is, and if you pay attention and use your head, navigation is easy. But there are no waypoints or anything. You have to use environmental clues and actually try to memorize the paths. Because the map isn't going to help you. It rewards you for finding the patterns, too. As you learn to navigate you'll start to sniff out these crazy secrets that make me feel like I'm playing Super Mario World again. There are some pretty major secret locations that the game doesn't give you a single reason to find or even be aware you should look for, let alone do the thing you need to do to find the entrance. You have to actually understand the logic of the layout and traversal which it does have.
One thing I have really appreciated about the writing of Control thus far is that it trusts you. I think that's why people sometimes think there's nothing there but a little exposition of a sparse story line with vague characters and a bunch of arbitrary, unexplained weirdness. All of those things are incredibly dense in this game - it's just that none of it is handed to you. You have to really think about it before it really starts to reward you with concepts and events that, in spite of wearing heavy influences, are completely unlike anything else. It is a full continuation of Alan Wake at this point. It added more to that universe than either of the games under that title established in the first place! By A LOT. That was swinging a flashlight in the dark (pun intended) compared to what Control gives you. So many threads to tug on that you wouldn't think go anywhere, but actually are tied to icebergs of connected things. Most of the expansion was focused on building up more of the world for the next major conflict, which I think with the base game in tow will now be much more interesting than I could really fathom just playing the base game once or twice. Explaining the story is no longer possible. Once you know it, it makes a lot of sense. But actually guiding someone through it is impossible. It basically plants seeds in your head that grow into the story. You'll get the same outcome every time, but I can't make a sapling into a tree.
It really surprised me. I think it's a really underappreciated and overlooked aspect of the game. Maybe people just aren't used to that sort of story presentation. A story world usually needs to have some relatable rules and human-centric logic in order to be engaging. It is hard to write a story in a world that can just break reality. But they're really doing it and it's a unique treat. The whole deal is that whenever you think it's breaking its own reality, the reality hasn't actually been altered from before, it just appears different, like looking at a cube on a 2d plane and then suddenly seeing it on a 3d plane. You thought it was a square. Now it makes a whole different kind of sense. You're meant to use your head and consolidate it on your own. The mystery is one you live vicariously through in your own mind. It's the gift that keeps on giving. Hard to pull off.
My one wish is for more hiss infested control points. Right out of the gate that is the coolest thing to see.
I generally love how light and color is used in this game, though. Even in the drabbest-looking spaces, everything pops juuuust right. Always on point. Combined with the materials and art design, it has a simple, consistent goodness to it. Even better, it is functional visual design. Color/light changes, along with complex scale/geometric patter shifts, actually signal several different things about spaces you're moving across, way beyond just 'there is hiss over there'. They use the light and color mixes to section off different sections of places. Always subtly directing you along and making it feel like you're really treading space by giving the part of your brain responsible for recreating strucures of space a steady flow of markers to chew on. Every corner of TOH has its own distinct aura. Maybe I'm just a visual person, but my mind locks in on the patterns and it helps me know where I am, or where I'm going. It's really brilliantly done. Striking when you catch it, but otherwise it is working on your subconsious only, guiding your actual gameplay decisions while you just think about how cool things look. That it manages to hide that and look good doing it is just the biggest little thing.
Just one of the many reasons they raised the bar for me when it comes to making level design and visual design mesh to make interaction with the world plausible and realistic. Combined with the unique, intuitive ways to get around it just puts me there. Not just the style, but the marriage of art design with the parts of game design more akin to engineering. Don't even get me started on the destruction mechanics which not only look really cool and shave-up more layers of convincing interaction with the game world, but even have major gameplay implications that are meaningful. They weren't lying when they said they wanted the game to be focused on gameplay. Everything about this visually satisfying imagery, atmosphere and motion exists to serve the bare gameplay experience. They've... figured out things about immersion that the rest of the game design world better be studying. There are several different kinds of immersion - Control nailed down the perceptual/immediate form of it. It all feels alive when you're exploring and interacting with it. It's a big, empty, intimidating, confusing, dehumanizing space that you never want to stop interacting with. You know how when you're playing a really good game you get into a flow state? This one pretty meticulously innovated a whole new form of that experience. This plus VR would be too much.
Anyway, even the simplest things look good. I almost don't want to spoil the showstopper stuff. They really thought about the design from an architectural standpoint - and an architect considers how you will move through the room and what you'll see as you do. This results in a steady stream of moments that feel like being gently guided through a painting, and again this actually serves gameplay and exploration as well. The visuals are crafted to pull you into the gameplay, and getting pulled into the gameplay rewards you with steady visuals. But even at its least impressive it looks great.
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