Topic: Push Square Game Club Spooktacular: Resident Evil 4

@KilloWertz must be the hardware then I guess! I should've sprung for control Ultimate on Xbox and played it on the One X. Problem is, that I'm going to feel like this any time I play a graphically intensive game on base PS4 now.

@Keith_Zissou cheers bud, had some more time with it over the last couple of days. I think I'm a couple missions away from the end of the main story. Only got a couple non-story trophies left for doing bureau alerts so I'll probably do them just to mop up the platinum too. Every time I've tried one though, I just die lol

I did a side mission which was quite hard, bearing Tomassi for good. Tomassi himself isn't too bad but one of those things that drains a whole life bar by vomiting red stuff on you spawns during the fight. I ended up just getting the high ground and finishing Tomassi away from the vomiter.

There are moments where the game clicks for me, stuff like finding hidden areas or bits where the upgrades I choose add up to my exact amount of available ability points. But then I end up trying to look for pulsating mould balls to shoot in a side quest and the click goes away 😅

I've unlocked the Alan Wake DLC but everything I've read says to wait until I'm fully upgraded. Having done the first tier jukebox token and some other hairy fights, I think I'll take that advice and wait until after I've finished the game!

Just watched the credits roll....

I think it was a good game in the end and worth a play.

I especially liked the Ashtray Maze.

Going to crack on with the DLC over the next day or two...

I just got the platinum in the base game of Control. My last trophy was doing some shield burst stuff. I'm most of the way through the foundation DLC now, just gota do the final confrontation or whatever it's going to be. It's actually a good bit of DLC, quite lengthy and self contained so it's quite rewarding to see the fruits of your effort so soon after making the effort.

Just gota finish that then I'm onto the Alan wake DLC! Not sure if I'll go for all the trophies in the DLC, some seem quite grindy. Maybe I'll use a guide for some of the trophies once I've finished the game completely, maybe not!

@ralphdibny congrats on the platinum and agree with the ashtray maze, its cracking level! Hope your settling in post move, you must have really flown through this game when you got settled down to it 👍. I still haven't finished the alan wake dlc, I must get back to it as I suspect when Alan wake 2 comes out, there may be some call backs to it.

@ralphdibny Well done on the plat!! I collected all the DLC trophies as well and I'm pretty sure that they were all straight forward bar one - Vending Spree. That one glitched on me and I had to reset my save to the endgame to fix it. If you are bagging them all then hopefully yours won't do the same but there's the solution if you need it.

@ralphdibny It’s a shame you left that DLC to last as the multi-launch ability is one of the most useful in the game and the weapon you get is also ridiculously useful!

The vending machine trophy @render mentions is a faff but not too tricky and you get some pretty good items from them too.

@R1spam @Keith_Zissou @render cheers peeps! I've finished foundation now, still on the fence about going for trophies. It's like hidden locations/collectibles/deployed ranger actually kill 5 things and a hidden trophy for finding maneki nekos

Gona start AWE in a minute. I still have to finish Halo Infinite. I got Mirrors Edge and possibly it's sequel lined up for the Pure Xbox Game Club. Then I can finally get on to Yakuza 4 and subsequently Dead Souls which I've been meaning to play for months!

@Thrillho it's cool, the DLC skill tree abilities incorporate into the main game. I actually got multi launch really early as I maxed out my Launch branch real quick because it was easily the most useful power!

I guess that's the surge weapon you are talking about, there's a trophy for getting kills with it. I'm sure I'll see it soon enough!

@Keith_Zissou ahh that's brilliant. Seize is actually a really good move but it was one of the last really useful things I fully upgraded. (The actual things I've left to last and haven't fully upgraded are the melee attacks and the ground slam as I barely use either).

When you can seize large enemies, you can actually seize one of those red health regenerating circles and it will heal you instead!

@Keith_Zissou Great work, it’s good to hear you found a combination that worked for you. Boss fights are always harder where there are additional enemies thrown into the mix, it’s just the overhead of splitting your attention between them and the boss itself.

I think you are doing quite well in terms of overall progress too 👍

@Keith_Zissou Nice! Good job! That boss fight was tough. I expect things should be a little smoother for the remainder. There is another couple tough bosses coming up, especially the DLC bosses, but Salvador was one that I struggled with a fair bit too.

@Keith_Zissou nice!! I remember being taken aback by the difficulty spike at that boss! Progress should be a bit more even now.

@ralphdibny did you play and like Alan Wake? I really enjoyed it, playing it on 360 only a couple of years ago. I kinda fell of both dlc but have a sneaky feeling it might be something you need to know about for Alan wake 2. Let me know if you enjoy the AWE dlc as it's something I keep meaning to come back to.

@Kidfried I'm a sucker for that cinematic quality in a game but its the Stephen King vibes which are rare in games that grabbed me. I agree about the gameplay, hell it probably didn't even stand out for that when it released! I started the AWE dlc but the foundation stuff just grabbed me more. How do you feel about the alan wake sequel being a survival horror game? A remedy take on survival horror could be really interesting!

@Keith_Zissou shield toggle eh? I'll have to check that out. I literally never used the shield until I realised near the end of the game there were trophies for killing enemies with it 😅. I just ran around and jumped a lot to avoid fire!!

@R1spam I played Alan Wake as part of the Pure Xbox GC back in like May I think? I'd echo @Kidfried 's comments and say that the gameplay was a bit off for me. But overall, I enjoyed it and loved the Stephen King aspect of it. It's most similar to the book The Dark Half, but I seem to remember there being lots of other Stephen King tropes peppered through it, though I struggle to remember what. I'll have to look over what I wrote on the PX forums back then to remind myself!

I actually didn't mind the light/shoot combo, the thing I really hated was how slow Alan Wake was and the stamina for the "run" (more like a slightly faster jog) running out so quick. I know it fits the world of the game but it really discouraged exploration which I did quite a bit of and unfortunately just made the pacing of the story too glacial in nature. What was more annoying was the lack of stuff in corners. You kind of explore a bit and find stuff, then you drag Alan's slow body across half the map and there's nothing there 😅.

I actually did a lot less exploring in Quantum Break because of that, I kind of "learned" that maybe Remedy makes the sort of game you should just play and only go off the beaten path if you fancy it instead of scouring every level methodically. Funnily enough, the main character in QB runs a bit faster than Alan Wake. The main character in Control is way faster than that too so exploring is bearable again! With that statistical curve, I'd say Remedy will probably be making a new Sonic the Hedgehog game next!! 😅

I did play both AW DLCs but I am really struggling to remember them now. I think I remember them being good though. American Nightmare was pretty good too, I played that much more recently so I can remember it a lot better.

Great soundtrack in all of Remedy's games too!

I've made a start on the AWE DLC, it's good so far. There's one particular returning character who I really can't remember from Alan Wake at all so it's a bit lost on me 😂. Maybe I'll read a recap of the story on Wikipedia or something before I fire it up again on Monday!

@ralphdibny @Kidfried @R1spam I played Alan Wake remastered a few months back and I’m with you on the dated comments. I enjoyed the story and even some of the setting but just found it a drag in the end. The environments and action didn’t change throughout the entire game and juggling the torch and gun just got too frustrating for me.

I could see where the idea was going and I like that they carried that into the AWE DLC in Control but there was just something about it in AW that made it laborious. Perhaps it was that most of the weapons felt they had no impact or that trying to stagger multiple enemies coming at you from different directions at the same time was near impossible in some cases. In the end completing the game felt enough for me.

I’m with you on the running thing ralphdibny. I basically made peace with that by reminding myself that the guy’s a middle aged writer called Alan. Also imagining him as an ex-smoker with a poor diet helps 😆

@render definitely makes sense within the context of the game world for sure 😅. Not sure if he's the most enjoyable protagonist to play as in a traditional action adventure-ish horror game though. Even if it was a fun story and a fun character in terms of actual characterisation!

@Keith_Zissou nice one mate! I definitely thought first ending was a tad abrupt but when the credits went all messed up I realised what was going on. Maybe they added that fake out because they knew the second ending would feel very abrupt without it? 😅

But yeah defo agree that it felt like the ambition for the scope of the title was way more than they were able to actually put in the game. It was good still though!

Enjoyed reading everyone’s experiences with Control which is one of my very favorite games from the last couple years and a joy to play on the PS5 where it runs so smoothly and looks so good. I’m really looking forward to the sequel.

What @Th3solution said.

Control was my 2019 Game of the Year and a rare game I've played multiple times, with a third playthrough happening at some point whenever I actually play the Ultimate Edition on PS5. It didn't click with me right away and I gave up on it, but I restarted it to give it a second chance and obviously the rest is history. I'm glad it was a pretty successful choice for the Game Club.

Maybe someday I'll actually participate.