On the cusp of a new console generation, 2019 was gaming at its very finest and worst when you think about it. Old legends returned to glorious new heights as single-player games surged forward in quality as gamers got fed up with peak live service game launches, indies remained as groundbreaking as ever and pure thrills based on proven formulas filled the spaces between big budget releases. Which means that obviously , its award season time.

Remedy’s Control is a game that centres on unexplainable events, pitting newly appointed Director of the Federal Bureau of Control against pretty damned weird phenomena. It is one of my favourite games of the year, and I’m terribly excited for the game’s impending expansions. I’m now even more tickled, given that it looks like they’ll explore some loose threads merely hinted at in the main game.

Control, from Max Payne and Alan Wake maker Remedy, is a lovely game – and one of my favourite games of the years so far. It’s a mind-fuck of a game that blends Metroidvania-styled exploration with tight 3rd person shooter mechanics and super powers, all wrapped up in some intriguing, eyebrow-raising exposition.

We came, we saw and we played a lot of games last month! August may have been the calm before the Q4 storm, but with a month that included the likes of Astral Chain, Control and Ion Fury, there was no shortage of new material to sink your thumbs into. So if you’re looking for something to play, got some cash to burn and need an opinion to help justify your purchases, here you go! Here’s a look back at the best of August…and the worst.

Even without that fancy futuristic lighting, the game is incredibly demanding. While it runs pretty well on a suitably-specced PC, there are many reports that the game doesn’t run as well on consoles - especially the base ones - as anyone would like.

We’ve got a guide here that’ll get you through some of the trickier parts of Control, so sit back, take some notes and let your ol’ uncle D help you get back to what matters most in Control: Unrelenting gunplay and superpower action from the masters of Max Payne and Alan Wake.

The third-person action, while slick and elegant, is perhaps a little pedestrian, but the completely bonkers story and the rewarding sense of exploration and discovery help cement Control as one of Remedy's best games.

Maaaaan, I’m excited for Control. Not only is it a new game from the folks who made Max Payne, Remedy, but it’s also a game that ticks off a lot of boxes of things I like. Those things? Weird, completely bonkers sci-fi stuff that doesn’t make sense on the surface of it – like Twin Peaks. Yeah, it’s got that. Great, third person gunplay with interesting abilities and upgrades? Yeah it has that too.