Control update addresses performance issues, rolling out now

While critics and players alike have praised Control for its excellent gameplay and daring story, many owners are having serious technical issues with the game across every platform. The first big update for the game is out now for PlayStation 4, and will be arriving soon for players on Windows PC and Xbox One.

The biggest notes from the official Remedy blog post are also the most non-specific. The post indicates that the team has implemented “bug and crash fixes to missions, combat and overall game play” as well as “improved [...] stability on all platforms” and “improved general frame-rate.” That last improvement appears to have come at the cost of some in-game effects. Overall, these changes are expected to smooth out the experience for many players, especially those working with older hardware.

The most substantive change appears to be in how Control’s map behaves. Remedy says it has improved the loading times, so that it will no longer tease the player with additional information. There are also new toggles for motion blur and film grain, which was driving some console players batty. We’ve included the full patch notes below.

General

• Bug and crash fixes to missions, combat and overall game play
• Fixed multiple issues with the PC launcher related to DX11/DX12 crashes

Performance

• Improved title stability on all platforms
• Improved general frame-rate performance through optimisations made to multiple systems and content

UI

• Improved map loading times (map will no longer tease information)
• Motion Blur On/Off toggle added to Options menu – Film Grain On/Off toggle added to Options menu
• Fixed incorrect UI behaviour on ultra-wide monitors (PC) – Fixed multiple issues when incorrect subtitles are shown for multiple languages
• Fixed issue when the game centers the aim on Jesse’s head – Fixed multiple UI related issues

Progression

• Fixed an issue when player could not acquire ‘Pierce Charging Efficiency’ and ‘Spin Grouping Efficiency’ upgrade
• Fixed issue when Crafting Charge and personal Mods would not give the Weapon/Mod but take the materials (Sorry. The Board was greedy) – Fixed issue that prevented players activating the Pierce weapon form upgrade
• Fixed issue when Jesse is unable to cleanse the ‘Transit Corridor South’ Control point upon returning from Prime Candidate Program area in the mission The Face of the Enemy – Fixed an issue when Heptonstall would not spawn during certain story missions in the “Old Friends” side-mission (still looking for his buddy Remus)
• Fixed issue when Hiss Barrier remains in the Directorial Override mission’s Control Room if the player dies during the binding cut scene

Sound

• Fixed issue when certain licensed music tracks play after enabling the ‘Mute Copyrighted Tracks’ option
• Fixed and issue when audio is out of sync in the Dr Darling videos (PS4)

Misc

• Fixed issue with the Charge weapon forms erroneous blast radius causing (way) too much visual damage to the environments
• Fixed an issue where game would stall when completing a story mission and unlocking a trophy (PS4)