Control has a deeply weird cameo from a famous game developer

Back in March, an image of Death Stranding creator Hideo Kojima doing some voice recording "for the other Sam" made the rounds on Twitter. Sam is the name of Norman Reedus' character in Death Stranding, but who was the other Sam?

Turns out it's Sam Lake, the creative director at Remedy, and his performance was for a weird little Easter egg in Control. As you can see in the video up above, it is very Kojima.

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The video begins with Control lead character Jesse Faden entering a "guided imagery experience" narrated by a Japanese scientist and a translator. The scientist, Dr. Yoshimi Tokui, is Kojima and the translator, according to video maker dragonddarkPSN (via MP1st), is Kojima Productions communications manager Aki Saito. 

The experience itself is incomprehensible, as it should be. There are trees, but they are lonely—they deserve love too. After helping guide them on their path, you sense a disturbance. Forklifts! Forklifts do not like the romance of the trees. Or seagulls. The potato chips were for his pregnant wife! Now they're messing up the beach. The forklifts must be stopped! The beach is no place for forklifts or lonely trees.

It might be a metaphor. It's definitely weird.

Control is out now on the Epic Games Store, and is excellent. Death Stranding still hasn't been announced for PC, but you can watch Norman Reedus peeing and then falling off a cliff onto a baby if you want.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.