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We are joined this episode by video game and programming blogger Shamus Young, a writer I have been following for a very long time. A friend of mine had informed me of his DM of the Rings series of comics in College, and since then I’ve been reading his work for pretty much my entire adult life. He has, in some way, been a continuing influence on my own efforts to write about games. The episode of his YouTube show I mention regarding the Skinner Box can be found here, and comes highly recommended.

Steve and I were inevitably going to discuss Control, but after having read Shamus’ three-part series on the game I felt as if I should reach out and see if he’d like to be a guest. He agreed, even after we had to delay a week due to the suffering of colds here in New Jersey. He even endured the tragedy that is using Skype in order to make this podcast happen, which is largely why the audio quality sounds as if it is being powered by a potato.

Actually, I think even GLaDOS had better audio quality when she was a potato.

I do sincerely hope to get a post of my own regarding Control posted soon. Though we cover most of the major points in our conversation, I feel like this is a game that is constantly contradicting its own design goals and thus becoming a lesser experience. As I state at the end, it is not a bad game, and I can certainly understand Steve’s enjoyment of it through a certain lens. However, like Shamus, I can only see all the ways in which the game could be improved if they’d only listened to my Galaxy Brain and made certain changes to… well, to be less modern. For a game whose aesthetic is built upon out-dated tech, they chose to imitate modern trends rather than take inspiration from games twenty-five or so years old.

Regardless, I hope you enjoy the podcast. Apologies for my audio being somewhat quieter, I have a tendency to turn my mic down when recording to avoid some of the sharp volume spikes. It results in some of my monologues being a bit more challenging to decipher against the musical backdrop. If we’re lucky, Shamus might even agree to be on the podcast again! ...though hopefully we can figure out a solution superior to Skype.

Did you have strong feelings on Control? Feel free to comment below, or send us an e-mail with your thoughts.

Opening theme music by my buddy Brandon, a.k.a. Fallen Prophecy.