5th January 2026 The PhotoMode Magazine Celebrates Control In Issue #35 [ft. Interview with Juha Vainio & Control Memories]

Ahead of the holidays, the wonderful team behind The PhotoMode Magazine celebrated the publication of their latest issue! Issue #35 put the spotlight on Control and featured an exclusive interview with Juha Vainio, Executive Producer and Head of the Control Franchise. 

Juha's interview is accompanied by snippets from Stuart MacDonald (Designer Director) and Anne-Marie Grönroos (Level Designer), who share some of their insight into their speciality. The feature is wonderfully paired with some memories posted by fellow photographers who explored the FBC through the lens, including m_nt_13, Raider_Warrior, FrameCaptured/BP, and oceanview.vp.

That's not all, though! The magazine also celebrates the winners of the VP Awards with thefourthfocus, shares a conversation with 2025's Creator of the Year (michi.media), and celebrates members in their community with a series of incredible photographer interviews. It's perfect for those who are experienced in Photo Mode, looking for inspiration, or just want to check out some beautiful in-game shots. 

As well as being a clear passion project, the magazine allows photographers to nerd out about the adventure, letting you see the game world from their perspective. A snippet of FrameCaptured's shares why they continue to return to The Oldest House, writing,  "Control is so much of a playground for VP that I feel like I can treat the photo mode like I'm playing a game–running around, finding the best spots for ingame lighting, finding interesting backgrounds, utilizing visual effects, and using the in-game atmosphere. With the game's PM filters, I can get creative and experiment with new, interesting approaches to capturing. The game was released six years ago, yet I see new and interesting captures coming from the VP community each day."

Check out The PhotoMode Magazine, HERE! 

If you're new to virtual photography and interested in checking out, the magazine and community have a wonderful list of resources available. Plus, there's also the #JesseJanuary daily challenge to take part in to show off your skills or gain inspiration.

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2nd January 2026 #JesseJanuary Daily Challenge Returns For Fifth Year

Calling all virtual photographers, #JesseJanuary is back for its fifth year! For 2025, the wonderful Tammy Quarry has created a daily prompt list challenging players to re-enter the haunted Oldest House and search for the perfect shot or inspiration that matches that day's task. It's been a lovely tradition in the community and a great way to kick off each year! 

Founded in January 2022, Lily Ashby created the month-long challenge, which tasks Control fans with stepping into the game for a daily creative endeavour. While Lily's original project took the form of virtual photography using the in-game Photo Mode, in recent years, the venture has exploded into a wider creative celebration. As Lily has stepped away from social media, fellow photographers have picked up the mantle to keep the tradition going. 

Over the years, the community has packed the hashtag with beautiful photographs, artwork, cosplays and more, plenty of fuel for inspiration. Whether you're taking part or love seeing your favourite games in a new light, make sure to check out the hashtag on Twitter or Bluesky.

(#JesseJanuary on Twitter / #JesseJanuary on Bluesky.)

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1st January 2026 Year In Review [2025] FBC: Firebreak Launches & CONTROL Resonant Revealed

Happy New Year, everyone! We have successfully survived 2025! Good job us. If you've been with us in previous Januarys, you may know that our Year In Review is a bit of a tradition. At the start of each year, we take stock of what adventures the studio and community has been on throughout the past tweleve months. And 2025 was quite the year...

In the Summer, we had a brand new Remedy game in the form of FBC: Firebreak, the developer's first co-operative and self-published title. But that's not all! In recent weeks, we were treated to the surprise reveal of CONTROL Resonant, the sequel to their award-winning 2019 title, CONTROL. Naturally both games dominated our feeds, but we also had Remedy's 30th anniversary and Alan Wake's 15th. Both milestones brought a series of surprises from the developer from a new merchandise range with iam8bit, to a new retrospective book by Lost In Cult. 

If you want to check out previous Years in Review; in, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 we had wrap-up themed articles, before moving to our current timeline set up in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. 

Thank you for spending 2025 with us, friends!

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31st December 2025 Mac Version of Control Ultimate Edition Added to Steam

Back in March, Remedy celebrated the launch of Control Ultimate Edition for Mac. Initially available on the Apple Store, the developers had already put plans in place to bring the adventure to Mac owners on Steam and handheld Apple products in 2026. 

In time for the holidays, Remedy published the Mac version of Control Ultimate Edition on Steam! If you already have the game on Steam, you will already have access to the Mac edition. If you don't, the adventure is currently -85% off as part of The Winter Sale.

The new version has been "optimized for Apple silicon Macs with support for hardware-accelerated ray tracing on Macs with the latest M4 family of chips."

Along with the base game, Control Ultimate Edition also includes The Foundation and AWE expansion packs. It will also be the most up-to-date version of the title, featuring updates such as Expeditions, photo mode, Assist Mode, and the ability to replay boss fights through the SHÜM arcade machines. The Mac version of the game weighs in at 27.8 GB and launches with version 1.31, featuring all the newly added pre-order content. 

Official Synopsis: A corruptive presence has invaded the Federal Bureau of Control…Only you have the power to stop it. The world is now your weapon in an epic fight to annihilate an ominous enemy through deep and unpredictable environments. Containment has failed, humanity is at stake. Will you regain control?

Winner of over 80 awards, Control is a visually stunning third-person action-adventure that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Blending open-ended environments with the signature world-building and storytelling of renowned developer, Remedy Entertainment, Control presents an expansive and intensely gratifying gameplay experience.

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