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Control abilities and mods are the highlight of the game (review)

I found out about Control while watching a Gamescom trailer. It looked cool, so I decided to give it a try because I haven’t played a lot of single-player games in recent months. I had a good experience and particularly enjoyed the gameplay mechanics because I like absurd amounts of power creep in my games.

Control

Story (minor spoilers)

Jesse (the player character) shows up to the Federal Bureau of Control because she was called by Polaris (a paranatural entity inside of her) about her missing brother who was kidnapped from their town of Ordinary (the irony of that name).

The current director of the bureau commits suicide when she arrives and we take his gun or object of power to become the new director. A few things happen that show people in the bureau are corrupt and we go to follow that lead, but that’s mainly a backdrop for our character trying to find her brother.

We eventually find our brother, but things get a little funky because he’s infected by the HISS (an evil force that almost destroyed the Federal Bureau of Control). He tells warns us that Polaris shouldn’t be trusted. We find out that is not true and that the Polaris actually saved our life.

Things go array, our character almost gets taken over just like other characters in the game, but we are able to overcome, sort of save our brother, and vow to defeat the HISS forever.

Gameplay, Skill Tree & Mods

Control

At one point in the game, I said to myself, “If I’m going to have psychic abilities, just make me an entire scarlet witch.” That’s how much I enjoy those mechanics. I almost wish the gun wasn’t an intricate part of your powers, because the mechanics using her psychic powers were more entertaining. Picking up things and hurling them at enemies and controlling the enemies was fun. Plus, it felt like a nice little cheat code when I was getting overwhelmed by enemies as well.

The skill tree is easy enough to use. I personally just upgraded what I found I used more. I focused on health, launch, and seize respectively. As far as mods, you can swap those around to suit your style. You’ll acquire either personal or weapon mods by collecting them or craft them using resources. My favorite weapon mod is the shatter projectile choke because you can hit multiple targets at once with a shotgun you get. My favorite personal mod is Seize speed because you seize skill regenerates faster.

Overall I would say this is a very involved story dealing with psychic abilities and paranormal/paranatural entities. Remedy Entertainment definitely put a lot of thought into this story. However, gameplay mechanics by far is the most attractive part of the Control. You have to keep moving, find objects of power (like your gun), and be strategic (especially when you are weaker than the opponent). These are all components that I like in a video game.

Game expansion and DLC pack announcements at Gamescom

A lot of cool news came out of Gamescom this week, including game-play looks at anticipated games like Death Stranding, Watch Dog: Legion, Cyberpunk 2077, Borderlands 3, Gears 5 and Doom Eternal. In addition to those announcements, we also found out about some existing games that will be updating their content for the fall season.

Bungie announces two different content loops for October expansion!

On the Xbox stage at Gamescom, Bungie showed up to discuss some of the changes being made to the Destiny 2 interface going into the fall expansion. They also released a trailer for the next story of the franchise, Destiny 2: Shadowkeep.

Later that night, they released another trailer on the Opening Night Live stage to announce the Season of the Undying content loop. While the main story of Destiny 2: Shadowkeep focuses on the Hives’ further perversion of the moon, Season of the Undying will focus on the Vex and revisiting of the Black Garden. Destiny 2: Shadowkeep will be available on October 1, 2019.

Monster Hunter World: Iceborne gets Horizon Zero Dawn crossover!

Horizon Zero Dawn’s Aloy will be a playable character in a crossover event with Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. Capcom released a trailer announces the collaboration in the Monster Hunter Worlds new expansion this week though a date has not been revealed. The full expansion for Monster Hunter World: Iceborne will be available on September 6, 2019.

DLC Packs Galor!


Several DLC packs were announced this week.

Rocket League’s Rocket Pass 4 will offer a new Mudcat Battle-Car, additional rewards, and bonus XP starting August 28, 2019.

Mortal Kombat 11’s new pack will bring Shang Tsung, Nightwolf, Terminator T-800, Sindel, Joker, and Spawn to the game as playable characters. While Shang Tsung and Nightwolf are available now, Terminator will be available on October 8, 2019, Sindel will be available on November 26, 2019, Joker on January 20, 2020, and Spawn on March 20, 2020.

Jump Force added new playable characters to its game as well. Majin Buu of Dragon Ball Z and Katsuki Bakugo from My Hero Academia will be available with early access to the DLC on August 23, 2019.

Interesting finds from Gamescom (day 1)

I watched a good amount of Gamescom day one streaming on YouTube yesterday. There were a lot of high profile announcements with Destiny 2: Shadowkeep, Gears 5, Death Stranding, and Borderlands 3 preparing for launch. But I also saw 3 games in particular that piqued my interest.

I’ve listed them below:

Dead by Daylight: Stranger Things

If you are familiar with Dead by Daylight, you know its creepy and horrifying to be chased by a huge stalking figure while trying to escape an even creepier atmosphere. The new update for this horror survival game is coming out in September and the highlight is Stranger Things. The Demogorgen a long with Nancy Wheeler and Steve Harrington will be playable characters in the game developed by Behaviour Interactive.

Disintegration

The Disintegration trailer came off with Destiny vibes. That makes sense because the co-creator of Halo, Marcus Lento helped make this property with V1 Interactive & Private Division. It’s described as a sci-fi fps. Honestly the character in the cinematic looks like a exo Titan, especially in the face. It’s a first person shooter where you sit in an oversized sparrow known as a Gravcycle while managing a group of combatants on the ground.

Need For Speed Heat

Need For Speed Heat is an upcoming release from Electronic Arts (EA). If nothing about this game intrigues you about this game, it should definitely be the assumed amount of customization . There is an app component to allow players to customize their vehicle and import it into the game that launches in November 2019. Plus, there is a level of player customization as well. It gave me GTA racing vibes honestly. And, there is said to be no loot boxes in this game.

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