I was just watching a review of the RTX 3050 on JayzTwoCents, in which he mentions Control. One of his crew loves it to death and plays it over and over again, but apparently Jay isn’t a fan. He refers to it as a “playable benchmark.” I thought that was kind of funny.
As an aside, I think I’m going to go with a 3050 if they come down closer to $300 or less.
Maybe, just maybe, there is a chance.
Just a heads up, Remedy just released a new update to Control for PC that adds a few new outfits, and a new level, as well as a slew of improvements and bug fixes:
It’s a huge update file (like 23 GB). The new outfits are the original pre-order exclusives, the new level is “Dr. Yoshimi Tokui’s Guided Imagery Experience, featuring voiceover by Hideo Kojima”.
I rate any game that I can complete as “Good” but Control isn’t great. 1. They have optional missions that suddenly appear on the other side of the map so you’re lucky you can get there on time. 2. There’s several missions where you just have to wander around hoping you find the clues. 3. All of the other dimension hotel missions were way too complicated.
The new level is odd. No combat, just a narrated tour in Japanese of a virtual beach. It’s pretty funny though.
This is probably the one thing about the game that bothered the crap out of me. The other things you mentioned weren’t too bad IMHO, just made the game a bit harder.
I still think Control is one of the best video games I’ve ever played, in agreement with the thread title.
The timed optional missions were completely optional and just of the “Kill 15 Hiss with Grip” variety. And IIRC, they only appeared places where there was a Control Point nearby that you had already cleared, so it took at most 30 seconds to get there.
I bought a gaming PC a couple years ago, and in a thread I had started asking for PC info, ‘Control’ was a game recommended to me as a good test / example of a gorgeous-looking game. I was a late blooming gamer newbie, and it was the first ‘modern’ video game I ever played (‘modern’ meaning, the last video games I played before it were of the Asteroids / Galaga era).
I is indeed a beautiful-looking game, and it was fun to play, though as much of a newb as I was, I found the gameplay pretty challenging. I hardly knew what I was doing half the time, and I died so often at certain levels I thought I’d never get past them. I finally stopped at a level where I was trying to stop the central reactor from blowing up, or something, because I was also playing Fallout 4 and I really got into that game. I should start a new play-through, now that I’m a somewhat more experienced gamer.
Control is nice even if only as a ray tracing demo.
I found / find Control to be extremely fun when I race to max out Launch right out of the gate. The first time I played I carefully distributed my skill points roughly evenly among four different things, or possibly five. (Hit points, mana, Launch, and one or two others.) I got through the game but I didn’t start feeling super powerful until very late in the game.
Last year I tried replaying, racing straight to Launch, and oh my god, that is so much more fun. You are like a god in the early levels.
Unfortunately the game started crashing around halfway through the main story. I couldn’t get past it no matter what I tried, so I was forced to give up.
I absolutely would like to give it another chance. If it’s had a major update, maybe whatever crashing bug I ran into is resolved now.
Shame. My primary memory of the game is the absolutely amazing 20 minute or so mission/sequence near the late game.
For those who played, it was the one where even the character says, “That was awesome,” at the end.
Agreed, it’s hard to overstate how fun Launch is. I was like you on my first playthrough; I was trying to even things out until I started using Launch and then that’s all I wanted to do. 
Same here. I just did a second playthrough a few months ago and also focused on Launch. Just a ton of fun. I also barely bothered with any optional timed missions and that also increased my enjoyment (which was already very high).
The Ashtray Maze! Great stuff.
Such an amazing game. I may have to buy a new gaming system when Control 2 comes out just to play it.
I did not adore Control the way some do, but that is an amazing moment. I had ZERO clue it was coming, so about midway through it, I was remember pausing and thinking, “Wow.” Closest I’ve felt to a Matrix-like superhero.
I played Alan Wake 1 forever ago. I wonder if I should play its sequel since it is the same company.
It would be nice if Alan Wake 2 would come to steam. (Currently still an epic exclusive.)
Just saw that. Weird.
It’s actually published by Epic, so not that weird. The official word on when they’ll port it to Steam is, apparently, “Go fuck yourself.”
I wonder if I can get it to run on Steam Deck. I have Guardians of the Galaxy on Epic and it ran fine on Deck.
I was sure I had Alan Wake 2 on Steam, but I was thinking of “American Nightmare”.
It also just started to actually make money in late Feb 2025, after having been released in October 2023. The studio says they’re starting work on Control 2 and I wonder if they’ll do the same thing a second time or leave themselves open to a Steam release right out the door.
Was it on the level full of clocks with the boss that shot hundreds of clocks at you? That was a known bug with a weird workaround: You had to override some settings in the executable. - scroll down to the instructions with “Control Flow Guard”. That worked for me. No idea if the update fixed it.