PlayStation's State of Play broadcast has just revealed the first glimpse of Control's upcoming DLC pack, AWE, with a rather familiar face.
While set for a mid-2020 launch (as detailed in the September 2019 DLC roadmap), the announcement still comes as a surprise to the community as there was no prior tease ahead of the broadcast tonight. Still, for those who tuned in tonight, Matthew Porretta's haunting delivery was an instant wake up call.
"Whatever you do, stay in the light."
The release date was also announced in the clip. Make sure you mark your calendars for August 27th!
While the trailer was first shown in PlayStation's State of Play, Remedy's Community Manager, Vida Starčević, posted an in-depth letter to fans back in late June covering a number of topics including the launch of the upcoming pack.
In her post, she states, "As we have said before, the AWE expansion for Control will be released on all platforms at the same time. When AWE launches, we'll also be releasing a free update for all owners of Control. This free update will include adding checkpoints to some of the tougher fights towards the end of Control's main campaign, and Control Points will be moved closer to certain boss fights so that you will get to the boss faster should you die and respawn. We're working on rebalancing some of the combat encounters as well." While the trailer shows the PlayStation logo only, we haven't heard anything to the contrary yet in terms of release dates.
[UPDATE 6th August, 11:55pm BST] New PlayStation Blog Post. Thomas Puha (Communications Director at Remedy) has written a new post for the PlayStation Blog which expands on some of the information previously teased.
In the upcoming DLC pack, Jesse will unlock a new Service Weapon form called "Surge" which Thomas describes as a "sticky grenade launcher". There will also be a new enemy type, the "Hiss Airborn Ranger" who can not only fly but is rather handy with a shotgun. The arcade machines shown in the trailer brings a new feature in the game too! The cabinets resides in Investigations Sector hub and will allow players to replay four boss fights (including Ashtray Maze) from the story campaign, after completion. Plus there looks to be a new horde mode which rewards players, including a new outfit.
You can read the full article, HERE!
[UPDATE 7th August, 12:07am BST] New Remedy Livestream. If you're eager to learn more about the AWE DLC pack, Remedy has recently announced details on their next livestream. On August 13th (next Thursday!), Vida will be sitting down with Sam Lake (Creative Director) and Mikael Kasurinen (Game Director) to talk about Jesse's latest adventure, and to show off the first fifteen minutes.
Set your alarm as the broadcast will be live on the Remedy Twitch channel at 4pm GMT / 5pm BST / 7pm EEST / 9am PDT / 12pm EDT.
Join us Thursday, August 13 at 7pm EEST on https://t.co/MPXN9jC948 for the world premiere of AWE gameplay from @ControlRemedy.
— Remedy Entertainment (@remedygames) August 6, 2020
We'll show the first 15 minutes of the game, a new weapon form, and a missing writer. Featuring @SamLakeRMD, @MikaelKasurinen, hosted by @vidaisonline. pic.twitter.com/dCwzVtJWSe
[UPDATE 8th August, 8:27pm BST] New Articles & Remedy Connected Universe. Over the past day, there's been a series of new articles talking more about Remedy's plan over the next few years and how that is being debuted in the upcoming AWE DLC pack.
- First up is Vida's blog post on the official Control website! Similar to Thomas' post on the PlayStation Blog, the studio's Community Manager talks about the arcade machines teased in the trailer, a new outfit, and the upcoming Twitch stream. You can read her letter to the community in full, HERE.
- The second article of the evening came from Sam, who wrote about the official Remedy Connected Universe in which each game would bridge to others by the developers. In his letter, Sam writes, "slowly, patiently, behind the scenes, we’ve been planning and plotting to make this a reality. I’m absolutely thrilled to tell you that now, the time has come to take the first concrete step on this road, establishing Remedy Connected Universe. You have no idea how happy it makes me to be able to finally make this statement."
Long-time Remedy fans may remember parts of this plan being mentioned in the past. On the Alan Wake Forums, the concept was described in-depth by fans and partly fuelled by old American Nightmare interviews with Ozz Häkkinen (Head of Franchise Development) in which he talked about the games being interlaced with other Remedy titles. While it's been commented on by numerous developers over the years, the article by Sam marks the official announcement of the overarching story the studio is telling. You can read Sam's post, HERE.
