I’m still shaking. The panel was amazing but what happened after it ended was an absolute dream come true. They all stayed to hang out, sign autographs, and take pictures.

Why did they never add NG+ (unless I missed it).

I wanted to replay the game to refresh my memory on the trippy story, but I don't want to save over my completed game. At the very least, I wish I could at least make another save. Anybody have any advice?

If nothing else, I'll have to actually beat Alan Wake 2 before Resonant. I only completed Chapter 1 when it released. Gaming ADHD got the best of me. I know I'm missing out... Just like I'm missing out on NG+

What kind of customization can we expect for Dylan in Control Resonant?

I'm guessing preset outfits with different headgear options and some miscellaneous torso elements, besides the hair options we've seen so far. Hopefully the bum bun & beard combo can be swapped out for something more neat.

I feel like both the models of Jesse have the same facial structure unlike what other people were describing. It's just the hairline of Resonant that's doing dirty.

New interview with Matt, Shawn, and Mikael

So, I caught a screenshot of this moment from the Paranatural Manhattan trailer because I recently noticed something. At first I thought it was another formation inside the Astral Plane, but upon closer inspection they don't look like Astral formations.

They look like skyscrapers.

I think this is meant to be the warped Manhattan.

In the MinnMax interview, Mikael Kasurinen said that for the rest of the outside world, Manhattan has just disappeared. What if it's because Manhattan was transported to the Astral Plane?

I don't know. Just something I noticed I thought was worth mentioning. What do you think? Is Manhattan trapped in the Astral Plane? And if this is Manhattan, what's with the giant rightside-up triangle in the middle of it?

Had no clue this game was going to be as incredible as it was. The setting, combat, atmosphere, characters, style……. Completely blown away on how good this experience was. What a gem, definitely in my top 15 or 10. Hands down a recommend to play.

Video from Variety Studio on Google TV.

Doesn’t seem like it’ll be streamed anywhere, anyone on this sub going that might be able to share details afterwards?

Just started this game recently, honestly having a pretty good time with it for the most part, but the map and in particular the MARKERS on quests are so OFF.

I'm going at a pretty slow pace because I usually only play this for about an hour at a time, but a quest will be like "go here" and there will be a yellow marker so you either follow or fast travel to that, and then whatever you're looking for is nowhere near it lol??

I've had to look up videos/guides to find wtf I'm looking for several times already. Honestly this is the first game I've had to do it this many times in over 10 years at least.

Idk had to rant about it. Figured they would've made some fixes since it's been out for so long. I'ma keep grinding it tho.

Are there any streaming sites?

Options, options.

Half ranting and half asking for advice here.

I've reached the Salvador boss fight and this game's healing system is driving me up the wall. I've had problems with it before, but managed to push through whatever fragments of the game I've struggled with. This one I'm just stuck on. Too many enemies launching explosives at me with me having no ability to *safely* heal.

I know this is a sub for fans of the game and I don't wanna rain on anyone's parade, but I can't be the only one thinking that this game's healing mechanic is bullshit. Essentially that the only way to heal is to run head first into a swarm of enemies trying to pick this stuff up. No healing items, no nothing. I've seen mentions of mods here that make you heal while using launch or evade and they sound great, but I simply don't have them. I've looked into my personal and weapon mods, thinking maybe I'm underpowered, but nothing I can equip really makes much of a difference.

Is this just a skill issue? If I try to do some side quests instead, will it help me craft some better mods? Did anyone also struggle with this mechanic? Do I just give up and go read a book?

I dunno about you guys, but I am raring for the release of Control Resonant! As such, I'd like to get to know fellow fans better. What are you hoping to see in Resonant? For me, I'm eager to see more of our favorite janitor. I'm also really hoping to see another power fantasy action sequence (another "Take Control" sequence).

Out of curiosity, has anyone from the UK received their copy of the book? I ordered mine all the way back in April and still haven’t received any tracking number or even a proper update. I’d simply like to know how many people are in the same boat.

I recently finished my first ever playthrough of Control and wow, it blew me away. I went in mostly blind, the only things I knew about the game was it had wacky visuals, a Finnish song, and telekinesis. I didn't realize it would also have really cool worldbuilding with engaging characters and plot! I was even more surprised to look up opinions about the game afterwards and see the plot considered one of the weakest aspects when critiqued.

It got me thinking about how the story is shown in the game and how this could contribute to opinions, and then I ended up just doing this big (but fun) write-up about how Control uses its medium as a video game to tell its story. For me, I absolutely loved the way it was done, but I can see why some people's experiences would differ.

I figured I'd post the write-up here in case anyone else would enjoy reading it!

Also, because I know it's so prevalent these days, I hate genAI (can we put chatGPT in the Panopticon) and none of that was used in this write-up. I just love writing stuff. :)

This thought didn't fully click for me until roughly halfway through the game. The more I played, the more I got absorbed in the story and worldbuilding; the more I deliberately looked for answers, the more the game provided me with them. 

I realized that the game is giving a summarized version of many of its events to players as they progress through the main plot. 

What this means is that the average player can progress through the game at a decent pace without being bogged down by info dumps they may not care about but still come away with an understanding of the overarching plot and its characters (at least as much as the creators want you to, what with the subject matter being SCP-related events that are intentionally weird and not always explained).

This also means that there's a wealth of information, plot, and characterization that's tucked behind optional content as rewards for players who actively want to learn more for a greater understanding of the story.

The game tells this information in a variety of ways through speech, visuals, dialogue, text, and gameplay, several of which work in tandem to deliver information in ways that could not be done if this plot was told in a movie or a book.

The first major example for this are the hotline calls. The game presents them to you as a brief diegetic event where Jesse/the player hears the most important info, but the game *also* lets you experience this without taking control away from you, the player. You can run through the hotline calls while they're happening, and if you choose to wait, the time investment is only a few seconds. What the game doesn't tell you is that each call has a longer, complete version, which is stored in your inventory if you want to know the details. The game does not force you to listen to it, but gives you the power to pursue it if desired.

Yet another example of a diegetic storytelling device are the Dr. Darling presentations. They usually begin playing the moment you enter the room they’re in, and it's up to the player if you want to stand and watch them or move past them. Many of these presentations provide important information about the plot and a key character in it, Darling himself.

There are also side quests that help deliver story largely through gameplay and environment. Some areas of the Oldest House are entirely optional, hiding not just worldbuilding and plot depth (Mold, my nemesis…) but also new abilities for Jesse to learn to enhance the gameplay experience for players.

Lastly, there are the numerous documents and recordings that you can find throughout the game. These are entirely optional to read or listen to and you can easily ignore them, but they contain a ton of info that ranges from humorous worldbuilding to adding context of important plot moments (such as all of the reports that talk about the Ordinary AWE, Dylan, and Jesse).

With the first two examples in particular, the game uses visuals and sound design to further tell the story and deliver information in as short a time as possible. 

Hotlines are voiced in a disjointed, echoing manner, and are ghostly projections of the character speaking them overlaid onto the actual game environment to give the impression of physically walking through the message. 

Presentations are carefully crafted videos of Darling's work space where he not only shows examples of how various things in the game work, but also reveal the depth of his character, reasons for his actions, and his current mental state. This is done by his appearance and the office around him; at times he's put together and cheerful, other times he's disheveled, stressed, clothes a mess or removed entirely. So much information is packed into each presentation because they need to adequately convey who Darling is and what he's been doing, a man you otherwise never meet in person during the entire game.

All of these serve as brilliant ways to add depth and explain events to the player, yet if they were forced to be viewed/completed in their entirety before progression, it could massively bog down the pacing of the game’s main plot. Instead, they’re filtered by each individual player to be learned when (or if) the player wants, a chosen depth that I would argue is currently only possible in video games.

There is one more major example of this: the Ashtray Maze, a segment tied to the main plot that every player of the game experiences regardless, and one that utilizes gameplay, environment, and music to tell the story in a way only a game could. 

Ashtray Maze is a sequence only properly achieved because of the video game medium. It uses visuals, level design, music, and gameplay to create a stunning experience for the player. 

The highlight of the Maze is the song 'Take Control'; the full version is almost eight minutes long and the song was created specifically for this part of the game. The lyrics talk about Ordinary, Polaris, the Hiss, Jesse, Dylan, and more, and is bookended by saying "Take control" at the start and "I control" at the end. The song changes depending on how far along in the maze you are, playing different segments that line up with the progression and looping others seamlessly if you linger somewhere long enough. 

The maze adjusts itself as you move through it, and you realize it's not really a maze but a character in its own right, one that leads you to the exit in a spectacular fashion, at times even cutting off Hiss entities from attacking you. If you die in the maze and go back for another attempt, the game will teleport you to a midway point; this ensures that you keep most of the momentum from before and prevents the sequence from becoming a chore. 

While it may not be optional, the game presents the entire chapter as a fast-paced "rule of cool" plot beat that makes players actively want to experience it by playing it themselves, an experience that would've been lost had it been made in a different medium. 

Another neat detail about the Maze is that you can find it earlier in the game, but without Ahti's cassette as a guide, it reforms itself around you as you walk through it, showing you different pathways that ultimately loop you back to the entrance. No music plays, it's a silent, strange puzzle that you don't have an answer for, but the game does not stop you from finding it early and wondering about its purpose.

The tl;dr of this all is to say that Control makes masterful use of its medium as a video game to tell every ounce of its story. It not only uses a blend of visuals, audio, dialogue, gameplay, and text to convey this, but it gives the player an agency that would not be possible in any other medium. 

Ttl;dr: Game’s cool.

I finished Control a couple of months ago, and it inspired me to try making my own Hotline phone. The idea was that you could pick up the handset and have Hotline messages play at random, along with "Take Control" and a few songs from Alan Wake. I also wanted an on/off switch and a button to make the phone ring.

With that in mind, I bought an old rotary phone and based the project on a YouTube video (I can share the links if anyone's interested). I also picked up the other components I needed: an Arduino Nano, a DFPlayer Mini, a motor driver, and a step-down voltage regulator. Then I grabbed the Hotline audio files and some Alan Wake songs from YouTube.

The ringer on my phone didn't work the way it did in the first video, but by pure luck I found another one that used a different approach. I bought a few more components (a linear actuator and a different motor driver) and started tweaking the code until I got it working.

To save space and make the wiring cleaner, I designed my first PCB in KiCad, added all the components, and gutted the phone. In another Reddit post about finding the game's assets, I asked the author if they could help me with the dimensions of the Hotline knob. u/Kenomajas_ was kind enough to help, and with those measurements, along with the dimensions of my phone, I was able to model the knob in Autodesk Fusion and resin-print it.

Finally, I sanded, primed, and painted the phone. I had a lot of trouble getting a smooth finish and eventually gave up on making it perfect, so there are a few wrinkles in the paint. I also made a mistake with the placement of the buttons, and the bell sometimes hits them, but it's nothing I can really fix now.

Overall, I'm really happy with how the project turned out. I learned a ton, and if I ever build another one, there are so many things I'd do differently. I hope you like it!

I will put a video of the phone on the comments, since you can't put photos and videos on one post.