Current Events > Is Control (2019) worth $32?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've heard it's one of the best games to get to show off raytracing if you have an RTX card, and the Ultimate Edition is on sale on Steam right now (comes with all expansions and DLC)

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If it's the Ultimate Edition, that's a must buy then.

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Jagr_68 posted...

If it's the Ultimate Edition, that's a must buy then.

Yeah it is.

I guess I'll get it.

I just beat Prey (2017) and that game was ****ing great.


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Yeah definitely. It's like X-Files and SCP Foundation meets third person shooter with superpowers in the vein of Mass Effect's adepts. It's also sort of a sequel to Alan Wake.

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Murphiroth posted...

Yeah definitely. It's like X-Files and SCP Foundation meets third person shooter with superpowers in the vein of Mass Effect's adepts. It's also sort of a sequel to Alan Wake.

That sounds awesome.

I've seen a few gameplay clips and it also has a bit of Max Payne to it as well. I loved the original MP.


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It's good. Definitely worth that price.

That reminds me that I also need to try Prey's DLC Moonfall.

Man, I loved Prey so much. Hell of a game.


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Initial impressions.... Raytracing murders performance (I get about 45fps with everything maxed at 1080p) but DLSS is actually pretty impressive in this game (goes up to about 80fps with minimal visual loss)

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Those reflections mein gott

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Itachi157 posted...

There's like a million collectibles in the game, some of which have some cool stuff written in them.

They kind of remind me of the scans in Metroid Prime where they tend to have a lot of lore and worldbuilding and then some of then are just funny.

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Glass reflecting another room with glass. Holy crap.


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This game is cool af

It's a little bit wonky and weird, in the way the best games are

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I thought that the game was alright, but it felt like the story didn't really go anywhere interesting

as someone who loved Max Payne 2 and Alan Wake, I ended up being disappointed.

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This is the first game I've played where DLSS actually seems like it's worth it

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It's worth even at full price so yeah definitely. Great game.

would have been my game of the year if Outer WILDS didn't come out the same year

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DarkRoast posted...

This is the first game I've played where DLSS actually seems like it's worth it

It's also supposed to be pretty great in Death Stranding. Because of the type of AA that game uses, DLSS to 4K from a 1080p base will often resolve to a sharper/less artifacted image than native 4K with its AA solution according to Digital Foundry analysis.

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What is SCP Foundation?

Definitely gave me strong Secret World Vibes and no other game has done that for me.

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Jabodie posted...

It's also supposed to be pretty great in Death Stranding. Because of the type of AA that game uses, DLSS to 4K from a 1080p base will often resolve to a sharper/less artifacted image than native 4K with its AA solution according to Digital Foundry analysis.

I can't help but feel like Nvidia may actually be on to something with DLSS. I figured it was going to be a gimmick up until the last few games came out that utilized it, and got massive performance gains on relatively weak cards.

It almost seems like they've found a way to inadvertently even the visual playing field between midrange and high end cards.

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Hexenherz posted...

What is SCP Foundation?

It's a fictional organization where they scout, analyze, and contain weird objects or things that don't make logical sense or break rules of reality

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DarkRoast posted...

I can't help but feel like Nvidia may actually be on to something with DLSS. I figured it was going to be a gimmick up until the last few games came out that utilized it, and got massive performance gains on relatively weak cards.

It almost seems like they've found a way to inadvertently even the visual playing field between midrange and high end cards.

I've personally been convinced DLSS type solutions will be the way of the future. If you like Digital Foundry type videos, I'd recommend watching 1) the Death Stranding DLSS video as well as the 2) checkerboard rendering vs. DLSS comparison. Super interesting.

In the age of dynamic resolution and intelligent upscaling techniques, it may be that there is a huge jump in typical gaming resolutions without big sacrifices in performance coming up sooner than we think.

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Came to say no, but only because the Ultimate edition exists and you should get that. So yes. Absolutely yes.

DarkRoast posted...

Those reflections mein gott

Right? They're insane. I've played through the game 3 times, and am playing through the AWE expansion for the first time now, and I still find areas where I'm blown away by the reflections, both off of glass as well as other surfaces causing distorted reflections or color scattering. It's just amazing.
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So there's been a shift from "throwing as much raw compute muscle at something" to "rendering less with better results."

It's interesting and bodes well for the longevity of PC hardware for sure.

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Corrupt_Power posted...

Came to say no, but only because the Ultimate edition exists and you should get that. So yes. Absolutely yes.

Right? They're insane. I've played through the game 3 times, and am playing through the AWE expansion for the first time now, and I still find areas where I'm blown away by the reflections, both off of glass as well as other surfaces causing distorted reflections or color scattering. It's just amazing.

There's nothing I find more irritating than the people who see Minecraft RTX and go "lol it's Minecraft, big deal"

It's a surefire sign that they clearly have no idea how advanced the raytracing tech is in Minecraft RTX. It's like looking at an out of place artifact graphically - we shouldn't have the GPU compute power to allow that kind of raytracing.


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DarkRoast posted...

There's nothing I find more irritating than the people who see Minecraft RTX and go "lol it's Minecraft, big deal"

It's a surefire sign that they clearly have no idea how advanced the raytracing tech is in Minecraft RTX. It's like looking at an out of place artifact graphically - we shouldn't have the GPU compute power to allow that kind of raytracing.

For sure. It's one of those things where I wonder if, since it's how our brain just expects light to work in the world around us, some people downplay it, not understanding the technical mountains being overcome to simulate it.

And I recognize your username now, you were in the topic that was trying (and pretty miserably failing) to troll Nvidia. Too bad it looks like it was locked, was going to suggest you post your Control screenshots there.
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DarkRoast posted...

That reminds me that I also need to try Prey's DLC Moonfall.

Man, I loved Prey so much. Hell of a game.

man i put like 6-7 hours into prey and just found it incredibly bland. If it gets better Ill play it again but honestly i didnt find anything fun about it

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I need to play Prey again. I don't think I had my 2080Ti last time.
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Its worth more. Remedy is one of the best devs out there

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Corrupt_Power posted...

I need to play Prey again. I don't think I had my 2080Ti last time.

It runs well above 100fps at max settings even on my laptop 2080. The 2080 Ti is like 2x the power of even my GPU.


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It's a fun game

But I don't get the "Look at the reflections and shadows!" crowd

Does that really matter?
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I mean I'm not complaining, if it makes you happy then great

I've just never felt like "Oh MGS2 would be a great game but man those shadows and reflections suck so it's not."

I just don't see what it's adding to the experience
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Can I max with RTX 2080 super?
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The only thing driving me nuts about the game is those rooms with infections / mold / growths in them that hurt you when you enter them. I don't know if I'm just not far enough to avoid the damage / clean them or what and I'm paranoid about forgetting about them later on.

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DarkRoast posted...

It almost seems like they've found a way to inadvertently even the visual playing field between midrange and high end cards.

That doesn't help Nvidia sell more expensive & profitable High End cards.

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Hexenherz posted...

The only thing driving me nuts about the game is those rooms with infections / mold / growths in them that hurt you when you enter them. I don't know if I'm just not far enough to avoid the damage / clean them or what and I'm paranoid about forgetting about them later on.

There's a late game sidequest called Old Growth that leads to you getting mold immunity and allows exploration of those areas. It also features some of the toughest enemies in the game.

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I got it for 28 and thought it was good fun.

Do the side quests too. The entire game plus side quests should give you at least 20-30 hrs.

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Murphiroth posted...

There's a late game sidequest called Old Growth that leads to you getting mold immunity and allows exploration of those areas. It also features some of the toughest enemies in the game.

Thank you.

Does the game also have you revisit certain areas? I'm so used to shit like Far Cry and Assassin's Creed now where you can just go max out your character after you open up an area that I'm paranoid I'm missing something in the Maintenance area (still have a lot of ??? areas).

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Hexenherz posted...

Thank you.

Does the game also have you revisit certain areas? I'm so used to shit like Far Cry and Assassin's Creed now where you can just go max out your character after you open up an area that I'm paranoid I'm missing something in the Maintenance area (still have a lot of ??? areas).

Nothing is missable.

Yes you can revisit areas with abilities learned later

Also if you're interested in achievements do the radiant quests while you're doing the main story as there are achievements for doing a ton of them and you have to wait like 10/15 minutes for a new one to turn up

At the end of the game the only achievements I didn't have where "Find all da things!" and "Do 40 billion radiant sidequests" when I'd done like 2
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Ab. So. Lutely

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KamenRiderBlade posted...

DarkRoast posted...

It almost seems like they've found a way to inadvertently even the visual playing field between midrange and high end cards.

That doesn't help Nvidia sell more expensive & profitable High End cards.

Yet they still did it

Hmmm

UnfairRepresent posted...

Nothing is missable.

Yes you can revisit areas with abilities learned later

Also if you're interested in achievements do the radiant quests while you're doing the main story as there are achievements for doing a ton of them and you have to wait like 10/15 minutes for a new one to turn up

At the end of the game the only achievements I didn't have where "Find all da things!" and "Do 40 billion radiant sidequests" when I'd done like 2

Thanks for all the tips!

Been doing the radiant quests, it's a little annoying when you get a series of like 10 in a row for getting kills with something you haven't even unlocked yet lol

shit and I did just fail some timed mission to kill high profile targets and now it's gone :(

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What is DLSS?

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More pixels rarely factor in a game being good or not, Coffee dear. Control is pretty gosh darn good game in itself, not because MOAR particles but because it's good. Yes, I'd say it's worth 32 USD :)

And it's not particularly a reference in jaw-dropping graphics. If you want that, Ghost of Toshiba is what you want.


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Hexenherz posted...

shit and I did just fail some timed mission to kill high profile targets and now it's gone :(

They will come back later even if you fail it just takes 10/15 minutes

That's what messed me up. There's an achievement for doing a bunch of them
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UnfairRepresent posted...

I mean I'm not complaining, if it makes you happy then great

I've just never felt like "Oh MGS2 would be a great game but man those shadows and reflections suck so it's not."

I just don't see what it's adding to the experience

@UnfairRepresent I always like to point to ambient occlusion as an example of what realistic lighting can do for a game.

"What is Ambient Occlusion? (SSAO, HBAO, HDAO and VXAO)" https://www.gamedesigning.org/learn/ambient-occlusion/

It's one of those things that you don't realize isn't there until you see direct side-by-side comparisons. It just adds a ton of depth to the scene.

The lighting (and by extension reflections) in Control are ray-traced, which means they're much more accurately simulated than "pre-baked" traditional lighting. By actually simulating how light rays bounce around the scene, you can simulate things like:

Accurate reflections (an actually very difficult thing to accurately simulate with traditional methods, to the point where most games either cheat with a low quality moving texture and don't actually reflect anything, or actually have a 3D recreation of the room on the other side)

Color bouncing - if you have a bright red object with strong light on it, objects near it will have a red shade to them.

Ambient occlusion! Ray tracing just makes it happen, since that's how light works. No need for a special system to add it on top of the base lighting engine.

The tech behind it is also just plain impressive, so a big chunk of excitement for it for some people, myself included, is just nerding out over it.
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Corrupt_Power posted...

It's one of those things that you don't realize isn't there until you see direct side-by-side comparisons

<_<

See this just screams "Well who cares then?" to me lol
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ofc there's a Poets of the Fall song in this game.

love it!

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