4th March 2026 Embargo Lifts on CONTROL Resonant Hands-Off Gameplay Preview [Media Wrap-Up]

Today, an embargo on a hands-off gameplay preview of CONTROL Resonant was lifted, bringing in a new wave of exciting information and teasers ahead of the game's launch later this year.

The press event was scheduled following Resonant's impressive gameplay reveal at State of Play last month. Writing on Twitter, Remedy's Communications Director, Thomas Puha, explains, "This preview was always planned as an extension of the State of Play, as we obviously couldn’t get into every detail there, so this Extended Look was heavy on gameplay details. Of course, ultimately you gotta play it to get a feel for it."

Select press and influencers were invited to one of two virtual events hosted by Remedy, which both featured a behind-closed-doors showcase of the game in action, followed by a Q&A session with Mikael Kasurinen (Creative Director) and Sergey Mokhov (Lead Game Designer). 

Below is a collection of the reports from the event. As always, we'll keep this list updated with any new articles that surface:

• IGN: Control Resonant First-Look Preview – This Is No Soulslike. It’s Faster by Ryan McCaffrey [Archived]
  
  
• Kotaku: Control 2 Doesn’t Feature A Parry Button And 6 Other Things We Just Learned About It by Zack Zwiezen [Archived]
  
  
• GameSpot: Control Resonant Gameplay Preview: Doing The Unexpected With The Familiar by Tamoor Hussain (unable to archive)
  
  
• Polygon: Why Control Resonant is an action-RPG — and not fully open world by Michael McWhertor [Archived]
  
  
• Xbox Wire: Control Resonant: Getting to Grips With Remedy’s First-Ever Melee Action Game by Will Fulton [Archived]
  
  
• PCGamer: Control Resonant is far more of an RPG than I expected, complete with talent trees, stats screens, and build-crafting that wouldn't feel out of place in a Diablo game by Robin Valentine [Archived]
  
  
• GamesRadar: Control Resonant trades shooting for a shapeshifting sword because "melee is cool", its creative director tells me, and he's not wrong by Oscar Taylor-Kent [Archived]
  
  
• But Why Tho?: ‘Control Resonant’ Becomes A Big Standout In A Crowded Video Game Year by Travis Hymas [Archived]
  
  
• Shacknews: Control Resonant is the story of Manhattan under supernatural quarantine by Ozzie Mejia [Archived]
  
  
• 80 LEVEL: Control Resonant Will Be an 'Action RPG' Taking Advantage of Remedy's Northlight Engine by David Jagneaux [Archived]
  
  
• MMORPG: Hands-Off Preview: Control Resonant Is As Heavy On The RPG As It Is On The Action by Jason Fanelli [Archived]
  
  
• Stevivor: Control Resonant Preview: Remedy explains its upcoming action RPG by Steve Wright (unable to archive)
  
  
• Bloody Disgusting: ‘Control Resonant’ Preview Reveals Choice and Combat Are Key Changes in Bigger, Reality-Bending Sequel by Aaron Boehm (unable to archive)
  
  
• GamingTrend: CONTROL Resonant gameplay preview by David Burdette [Archived]
  
  
• Gaming Bible: Control Resonant Is An Action Masterpiece For Total Sickos, Like Me by Olly Smith [Archived]
  
  
• Gamer Braves: Remedy Entertainment Showcases Gameplay, Combat, and What to Expect from CONTROL Resonant by Ralph (unable to archive)
  
  
• Dexerto: Everything we know about Control Resonant by Brad Norton [Archived]
  
  
• GamesBeat: Remedy’s game leaders take a deep dive into Control Resonant gameplay by Dean Takahashi [Archived]
  
  
• wccftech: Control Resonant Devil May Cry-Like Gameplay Will Target 60 FPS On All Platforms by Francesco De Meo [Archived]
  
  
• GameSpot: Control Resonant’s Gameplay Is An Exciting Genre Shift | Preview by Tamoor Jussain (video)
  
  
• HiddenMachine: Everything We Know (so far) About CONTROL Resonant by Matt & Jordan (video)
  
  
• PlayStation Access: 6 Reasons Why We're Excited for CONTROL Resonant by Ash Liguori (video)
  
  
• GameRiot: CONTROL Resonant NEW Gameplay & First Look by Scott Coleman (video)
  
  
• Video Games Chronicles: Here’s some new gameplay of Control Resonant in action by Chris Scullion (video)
  
  
• IGN: Control Resonant First-Look Preview – This Is No Soulslike. It’s Faster by Ryan McCaffrey (video)
  
  
• [Japanese] Famitsu: シリーズ最新作『コントロール レゾナント』は変形武器を駆使したハイスピードなインファイトSFアクションに。多彩な強化システムにより自分だけのビルドが組めるのも見どころ！ デジタルイベントで判明した気になる要素をお届け by Qマイン [Translated]

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27th February 2026 Poets of the Fall Reveals Early Carnival of Rust Iteration

Today, Poets of the Fall has shared a snippet of a very early version of their iconic song, Carnival of Rust, teasing back the curtain into what goes in throughout the iteration process.

In case you didn't know, 2026 marks the twentieth anniversary and the Carnival of Rust and the incredible song that gave the album its title. Perhaps their best known collection, the piece is still a standout in the Finnish music industry two decades later, and still rating high in those community-driven music leaderboards.

Their songs usually going through twn to thirty iterations before they're fully completed, and with Carnival of Rust they hit gold on the fourteenth version. In today's teaser, the main riff is played with an electric guitar, and with a slightly faster tempo.  

If you're wondering why we're talking a lot about Poets of the Fall recently, you may know them by their alter-ego, Old Gods of Asgard. Their collaboration with Remedy started back in 2003, when their debut song, Late Goodbye, was featured in Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne. Later, they took on a different form, adopting the in-game name of Old Gods of Asgard for Alan Wake, Control, and Alan Wake 2. 

Check out the full video from Poets of the Fall, HERE! 

Transcript

Sound familiar?

This is an early demo of Carnival of Rust from around 2005

The main riff is played with an electric guitar.

The tempo is also slightly faster and the key is E.

It's a semitone higher in the final.

The lyrics already contain a lot of familiar phrases. 

But we bet you can spit a few differences too.

This kind of sounds like the chorus we know, but also not?

This chorus would eventually become the 3rd chorus in the final version, with some lyric changes.

Typically each song goes through about 10 to 30 iterations until it done

Carnival of Rust (the released track) is vession 14

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26th February 2026 Alan Wake Remastered Receives HDR Update [1.33]

Today, Alan Wake Remastered received a new update on PC, fixing a number of community-reported issues, bringing improved DLSS support, and adding HDR to the experience. It's been discribed by the press as "one of the most significant updates" that the game has received since its launch in 2021

Alongside the update, Remedy has published the full list of improvements detailing the twenty four areas of progress, from unlocking 240 FPS to a new opttional modern camera. 

You can check out the full list of improvements below....

Patch notes – Version 1.33

(Epic Games Store)

Gameplay

• Added a command to skip the intro. (Shoutout to every speedrunner, and anyone on their 67th run of the game just looking to get into the gameplay quicker.)
  
  
• The sprint camera no longer activates when pressing the shift button when Alan is next to a wall or exhausted. This could sometimes cause Alan to not be able to move.
  
  
• The camera behaves the way it should when Alan is on top of a moving object.
  
  
• When loading from a checkpoint, the camera left/right side now resets properly.
  
  
• Vegetation moves the way vegetation is expected to when it’s windy or when Alan walks into some trees or bushes. Even above 30 FPS.
  
  
• Swapping between weapons takes a regular amount of time now, and not any longer than necessary.

Visuals

• Added HDR.
  
  
• Added a new, optional camera style mode. You can use this if you want the game to look a bit more modern. If you prefer to keep a look as close to the original as possible, don’t touch this.
  
  
• Unlocked the framerate from 200 FPS to 240 FPS.
  
  
• Improved DLSS and fixed grass transparency. Grass is now more pleasing to look at.
  
  
• Updated SDR to 10bit – it used to be 8bit. This reduces visible colour banding.
  
  
• Improved FOV scaling. (The math was off. Whoops.)
  
  
• Improved the way lens flare works. It now fades in/out much more smoothly.
  
  
• Improved the DX12 rendering path – this lowers the risk of crashes and glitches.
  
  
• Fixed polygonal rendering errors and visible depth buffer issues. This has greatly reduced the amount of visual glitches.
  
  
• The videos you could play on in-game TVs used to be affected by display brightness settings. Not anymore – fixed it!
  
  
• Fixed the enemies’ dark shield burning effect flare. It looks the way it’s supposed to now.
  
  
• In Ultrawide, fixed the enemies’ visual distortion effect looking weaker so that it displays properly.
  
  
• In Ultrawide, fixed cutscenes having both pillarbox and letterbox. You can now enjoy cutscenes in native 21:9!
  
  
• In Ultrawide and 4:3, fixed FOV and lens flares not scaling properly.
  
  
• Fixed DPI awareness where you had to set your display to 100% scaling to not crop the image. You don’t need to do that anymore.

UI

• Added a setting to scale the gameplay UI. It was quite tiny by default – you can now make it bigger.
  
  
• Fixed multiple issues related to mouse input
  
  
• Fixed it so that custom settings no longer leave multiple settings undefined. You are once again able to customise your settings, and the game will actually remember what you told it.

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24th February 2026 Poets of the Fall Announces New Echoes of the Carnival Tour Dates

This week, Poets of the Fall announced the latest dates for their Echoes of the Carnival tour, celebrating the twentieth anniversary of their spectacular Carnival of Rust album. Their new social media post not only shares the new dates but also teases an unreleased track from the original Carnival of Rust album sessions and special upcoming merch.

While the merch and unreleased track are for another time, fifteen tour dates for the Echoes of the Carnival Tour have now been revealed. So far, they are planning to take the tour across Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK, supported by Rabbit Cult.

The majority of the gigs in Finland are part of open-air festivals, culminating in a special dedicated evening, Carnival By The Sea, at the Allas Seapool in Helsinki. 

FINLAND TOUR

27th June - HYVINKÄÄ, Vauhti Kiihtyy Festival

3rd July - OULU, Rokki Raikaa Festival

11th July - TURKU, Vauhti Kiihtyy Festival

24th July - TAMPERE, Rokki Raikaa Festival

31st July - KEMI, Satama Open Air

8th August - VANTAA, Vauhti Kiihtyy Festival

14th August - KUOPIO, Vauhti Kiihtyy Festival

15th August - LAHTI, Vauhti Kiihtyy Festival

29th August - JYVÄSKYLÄ, Vauhti Kiihtyy Festival

4th September - HELSINKI, Carnival by the Sea / Allas Seapool

EUROPE TOUR

22nd September - HAMBURG, Fabrik

23rd September - COLOGNE, Kantine

24th September - AMSTERDAM, Melkweg

26th September - NOTTINGHAM The Palais

27th September - LONDON, O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire 

Poets of the Fall are also known by their fictional alter-ego, Old Gods of Asgard, from the Alan Wake and Control series. The band was formed in 2003 and first gained attention with their debut song, Late Goodbye, featured in Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne. Over twenty years later, Carnival of Rust remains one of their most popular albums and a strong fan favourite. It proved that the band had the talent and drive to continue and build upon success. 

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