Control has captivated several of our team members like a supernatural parasite and will probably do the same to the rest of us once we set aside the time to play it, as the voices keep suggesting. James Davenport makes it sound like SCP if it was a videogame in his review, and also says it makes playing with destruction physics and telekinesis as fun as the gravity gun in Half-Life 2. Jarred Walton has been concentrating on the technical side. Control's the rare game where ray tracing is worthwhile, it seems.
Steven Messner has gone back to WoW Classic, joining the server queue so he can join the quest queues. Joking aside, his story of reconnecting with old friends is honestly the best thing I've heard about WoW Classic. I'm glad the social aspect modern MMOs seem to have lost is bringing people together again.
Christopher Livingston has been playing Vane, which at first looks like another indie bird game in the manner of Fugl or Feather. But it's also a game where you transform into a child to explore a dark world, solving puzzles and teaming up with others, whether a flock of crows or a gang of kids who'll help you push a giant golden ball. It looks surreal and gorgeous.
Andy Kelly went back to 1992's Police Quest so he could point-and-click his way through the life of an ordinary beat cop working his way into the narcotics division. Police Quest's dedication to the mundane aspects of cop life still stand out, as do some apparently pretty annoying driving sections. Andy came out the other side realizing he misses some of the old-fashioned adventure game touches, like Sierra games' many deaths.
I've been replaying Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel to get ready for Borderlands 3. It's the Borderlands game I've played the least, though I do like it—especially the sidequests where you get to meet authentically Australian NPCs. What I don't like is how easy it is to fall to your death. The Borderlands games do away with fall damage, which suits their cartoonish nature, and The Pre-Sequel adds low-gravity leaping and ground pounds. But then it also puts in a bunch of bottomless pits you have to cross, sometimes via precise vehicle jumps, and I die to those more often than any of the enemies.
But enough about us. What about you? Have you too been sucked into The Oldest House of Control? Have you been playing Hunt: Showdown now it's out of Early Access? Or maybe walking through the woods and patting your dog in Blair Witch? Let us know!
