Happy Monday, folks, and welcome to the Weekly Video Games Thread!

I’ve been playing Control a bit lately. Slowly. This is my third time, so I’m not rushing things, and honestly, after the insanity of how I was playing games this winter, it’s really nice not binging something. This was also initially written for last week but I pushed it down to the 12th. I already added this gigantic header image before deciding that something more timely should be used).

Anyway, there’s a lot to like about this game, hence the third playthrough, but it’s hard to not be enamored especially by the game’s psychic powers. Jesse Faden can levitate, toss objects or people around, possess enemies, do an honestly kinda basic shield attack, and resonate with a shapeshifting building. While the game could easily have mostly been just a third-person shooter with a few fun ESP moves, the psychic abilities are the cornerstone of the game. They’re far more useful than your still-cool gun, and you gain them slowly to access other areas or fight other enemies.

This is making me think about how video games can depict—and allow us to use—psychic powers. They’re a staple in certain kinds of JRPG; EarthBound has PSI attacks, and Pokémon has an entire Psychic type capable of mind control, telekinesis, and even more esoteric things. You could look at Mass Effect‘s Bionics are effectively glowing psychic energy. And there are the customary psychic powers in fighting games, like Phoenix in Marvel vs. Capcom or Ed / ED / his name’s supposed to literally be short for “ending theme” in Street Fighter. Anyway, my question from this is what’s your favorite depiction of psychic powers in video games, and what would you like to see in future games?

And, as always, what did you play this weekend?