I finished up Control last night. What a ride. The gunplay and narrative rarely ever felt all that in-sync with each other, but both were excellent in their own rights. I think this is the first time a game not made by From Soft hooked me enough to read every single lore document I came across. The world is just so compelling. My only other experience with Remedy was Alan Wake, which I found boring, so I didn't expect to get such a kick out of Control. I'm definitely going to have to go back in to check out the rest of the sidequests I missed (and I guess the DLCs as well).
That said, what is with AAA games shoehorning in loot/crafting mechanics with zero sense of physicality? This has been happening since Far Cry 3, and it's the worst. In a loot game like Diablo, items are distinct, equippable, and even take up physical space in your inventory. They feel real. The same goes for crafting games, where the items you build occupy space in the world. But in Control and seemingly every other AAA game out there, you get all of these pieces of loot that are completely intangible. They're numbers in a menu, and it's soooo dull.
That said, what is with AAA games shoehorning in loot/crafting mechanics with zero sense of physicality? This has been happening since Far Cry 3, and it's the worst. In a loot game like Diablo, items are distinct, equippable, and even take up physical space in your inventory. They feel real. The same goes for crafting games, where the items you build occupy space in the world. But in Control and seemingly every other AAA game out there, you get all of these pieces of loot that are completely intangible. They're numbers in a menu, and it's soooo dull.