The original opening sequence had Gordon completing several hundred grant applications, but it didn’t playtest well.

Rule 34 in particular is an excellent read, and expands on some of the concepts in the post.

Fun fact: in the entire run of Pinky and The Brain, there were only two occasions where they were pondering the same thing: once when Pinky had been made temporarily super-intelligent, and once when they were both pondering how unlikely it was that they were both pondering the same thing.

I’ve just finished Control; picked up the enhanced edition (includes the DLCs), and thoroughly enjoyed it. The combat feels satisfying once you get the mechanics down, and I loved the plot/environment. Like playing a mash-up of the SCP Wiki and The Lost Room.