In our latest Community Spotlight, we look at Yasmin's incredible in-depth work exploring one of Alan Wake 2's most mysterious characters, Freya Anderson. .
Before we settle into 2025, let's take a quick look back into the past twelve months, revisiting the milestones and events that took place at the studio and in the community.
We recently spoke Tiia Öhman about working as a photographer on the Alan Wake 2 set. Her stunning work can be seen in-game, in marketing, and on merchandise.
To celebrate the game's 10th anniversary, we sat down with Matthew Porretta, the incredible voice actor behind Alan Wake, to talk about his experiences and memories.
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 Rustalbum. 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.
Back in December, Remedy hosted a fan art competition following the reveal of CONTROL Resonant at The Game Awards. Hosted on their official Discord server, the challenge received over 140 incredible entries. Ahead of the weekend, the developers announced the six winners of the challenge: three selected by community votes, and three selected by the studio.
The challenge tasked players with creating CONTROL Resonant fan art in any style or medium they chose. While described as a "fan art" competition, the studio revealed that submissions could include images, videos, or written work to explore the different levels of artistry in the community. The challenge ran over the holidays and concluded in mid-January.
Prizes centred on rare game merchandise, including the highly-prized The Art and Making of Control book, published by Future Press in 2020.
The chosen pieces centred on a range of imagery and topics from the repeated patterns shown in the reveal trailer to explorations of the siblings' relationship. Designs ranged from potential comic book covers to dramatic posters.
Check out the winning submissions on the Control website, HERE.
If you can't wait until the release of CONTROL Resonant, Remedy has published a new teaser revealing the books and shows that influenced the team during its development. If you're looking for your next watch, or your next read, you may want to check out some of these titles!
Some of the inspirations have carried over from the original Control adventure, such as the New Weird genre, including The Southern Reach series by Jeff VanderMeer. However, there's also plenty of new titles for you to explore.
For CONTROL Resonant, the list includes The X-Files, Fringe (also featuring Lance Reddick!), The Twilight Zone, and Neon Genesis Evangelion, alongside Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. As with Alan Wake, Twin Peaks and House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski also made the list. Another clear inspiration, though not mentioned by name in the teaser, is Inception, which was also listed as a contributing influence on their 2016 adventure, Quantum Break.
If you're looking to do some pre-release investigations, let us know on social media what you're reading or watching! Our plan involves Roadside Picnic, which I actually bought back in October 2022, and just never got around to reading. It's now at the top of the TBR list.
CONTROL Resonant is the sequel to Remedy's 2019 adventure, Control. It is set to launch later this year on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC (via Steam and the Epic Games Store), and Mac (via Steam and the App Store).
At yesterday's PlayStation State of Play showcase, Remedy gave viewers the first glimpse of gameplay for their highly anticipated sequel to Control, CONTROL Resonant. After going live, the teaser was neatly paired with a new PlayStation Blog article by Sergey Mohov (Lead Gameplay Designer), which expands on the footage shown.
Let's start from the top! The three-minute gameplay snippet, narrated by Creative Director Mikael Kasurinen, is taken from an early mission in the game and showcases one of the first skills and encounters. In the segment, Dylan is tasked with investigating a potential Resonant following distress calls from the nearby Theater.
To help set the scene, we are introduced to a new character, Zoe De Vera, an FBC Field Agent and Dylan's mysterious handler, who communicates remotely as he ventures out into the twisted streets of Manhattan. She is there to offer guidance and advice, though there's more to her; in his article, Sergey hints that "her relationship with Dylan is an important part of the story, pushing him to confront who he is, what he’s capable of, and what it means to hold onto his humanity in the middle of a supernatural crisis."
To get to the Theatre and deal with Resonant, Dylan must cross the West Incursion Zone. A journey that is no easy feat, combining a twisted landscape with brutal enemies on the prowl. Unfortunately for them, Dylan is backed by the Aberant and a set of supernatural abilities... and some things to work out.
Brutalism doesn't just stay with The Oldest House, but carries through to the game's melee combat (Eyy, see what we did there. Yeah, a bit of a stretch.) With close-quarter fighting at the heart of the gameplay, things can get intense and more than a little hairy. To help out, the Aberrant can transform into multiple tools, including Hammer, Blades, Scythe, and Fists, as shown in the gameplay footage.
We've also learnt about two new Dylan's abilities: Reach and Shift. Reach, described in the article, allows him to "navigate spaces that no longer obey regular rules of physics". Whereas Shift was given centre stage in the gameplay teaser, showing how Dylan can now quickly adjust to sudden landscape changes. Both are essential skills when faced with Gravity Anomalies, areas where "gravity and orientation shift entirely".
At the end of the gameplay clip, we get our first look at one of the game's Resonants, the creatures that give the game its name. These bosses are the shells of powerful people, "corrupted and twisted by the same mysterious force threatening reality itself." Feeling weirdly topical there. While dangerous, each defeat grants Dylan a new combat ability.
If you haven't yet, make sure to check out the gameplay teaser below, and read Sergey's full article, HERE!
CONTROL Resonant – Official Gameplay Reveal | State of Play
(In-Game) Dylan: Zoe, I see the spotlights.
(In-Game) Zoe: Then you're getting closer. Listen, Dylan, we're getting distress calls from the theatre. But Research thinks we might have a Resonant on our hands. No one should have survived that.
(In-Game) Dylan: Then I'll hurry.
Mikael Kasurinen: Hello, everyone. I'm Mikael Kasurinen, and I'm the Creative Director of CONTROL: Resonant, the game-changing sequel to CONTROL. What you are seeing here is an early mission, captured from our in-development build. We play as Dylan Faden, our supernaturally gifted hero, in a version of Manhattan like you haven't seen before.
We recently acquired Shift, an ability that empowers Dylan to seamlessly move through gravity anomalies and adapt to the world around him. Here we are showcasing a set of different forms of Dylan's main weapon, the Aberrant, can take, and his supernatural abilities. There are a lot of different ones you can discover to suit your playstyle.
While in combat, we encourage you to play aggressively, balancing between melee attacks and abilities.
(In-Game) Dylan: Any updates for me?
(In-Game) Zoe: Uh, kind of. You'll know it when you hear it. Just try to stay alive out there, okay?
(In-Game) Dylan: Almost there, Zoe... What the hell is that thing?
(In-Game) Dylan: I think I hear something. I know where the Resonant is, Zoe. I'll call you back.
Mikael Kasurinen: Resonants are the dominant threat in what's our most ambitious game to date, and we can't wait to share it with you later in 2026.
