VIDEO GAME: Q.U.B.E. – 10th Anniversary Edition (2022)

by benmweilertNo Comments
Q.U.B.E.: 10th Anniversary EditionYear: 2022Rating: ETime Played: 565 minutes / 9.42 hours It's wild to me that I decided to play Q.U.B.E., especially after I wasn't particularly satisfied with the sequel, Q.U.B.E. 2. Something in me had a hankering to play a first-person physics-based puzzle game, and I figured I had this game for free in my library, so why not? Even as a 10th Anniversary Edition—which mostly just extended the playtime with a few extra features—I felt other games in the genre were better than this. If anything, it made me appreciate the sequel a little more. The main game-play mechanic in this game is a glove that can create a variety of different cubes that can help the player move through a series of rooms on a mysterious space station. There are a lot of different cubes that you have to learn how to use as the game progresses. It felt like there were almost a dozen by the end...
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VIDEO GAME: Portal 2 (2011)

by benmweilertNo Comments
Portal 2 Year: 2011 Rating: E10+ Time Played: 8.5 hours While Portal felt like an innovative leap in gameplay, its bare-bones test chambers left a little to be desired for the variety of puzzles. Fortunately, four years after the release of Portal, Valve released the masterpiece that is Portal 2. Everything about the original game was taken into consideration and improved significantly. The environment was chock-full of lore, the gameplay added interesting mechanics with the addition of the gels, and the characters were funnier than ever. Even playing through this game over a decade after my first time still felt fresh and entertaining. Exploring the different areas of Aperture Laboratories (in various levels of decay) brought a much-needed ambiance to the series that was merely enhanced by the narrations of Cave Johnson (J.K. Simmons). That the game acts as a sort of prequel and sequel to the original merely emphasizes how well-considered its story is and how much lore can be crammed into a physics-based...
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VIDEO GAME: Portal (2007)

by benmweilertNo Comments
Portal Year: 2007 Rating: T Time Played: 3 hours When it comes to video game mechanics, it feels like most of the foundational concepts were born in the early years and merely perfected over time. The endless puzzle possibilities of Tetris. The platforming of Super Mario Bros. The first-person-shooter perspective of Doom. It still amazes me that a game made in 2007 could combine these foundational elements of video games into something truly original. Portal is more than its gameplay, though, which is part of what makes its story so iconic—enough to be part of some of the earliest memes. While the length of this game makes it feel more like a tech demo, the gradual reveal of the game's story adds some heft to its impact. As the player slowly uncovers the reality of their situation and the insanity of the expertly written GLaDOS, the portal mechanics become less about solving puzzles and more about trying to survive. That the one-sided banter of the...
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VIDEO GAME: Virtual Virtual Reality (2019)

by benmweilertNo Comments
Virtual Virtual RealityYear: 2019Rating: TTime Played: ~3 hours The one qualm I have with many VR games is how many of them fail to include any kind of story into their gameplay. It's mostly, "Here's this thing you can do in an immersive environment," and that's it. The ones that have a story (like Shadow Point or Moss) sometimes don't lean into the VR nearly as much—mostly being games that could be played in first- or third-person without VR. Virtual Virtual Reality, though, is the best of both worlds, combining VR interactions with a great story. Placed somewhere between the meta Accounting+ and interactivity of Job Simulator, Virtual Virtual Reality takes the Portal approach to gradual storytelling. There are a lot of parallels that are hard to miss here. At its core, this game's story revolves around a cheery yet malevolent AI who tries to get the player to perform odd jobs for a variety of requestors. However, when you peel back...
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VIDEO GAME: Q.U.B.E. 2 (2018)

by benmweilert1 Comment
Q.U.B.E. 2 Year: 2018 Rating: T Time Played: ~5 hours Q.U.B.E. 2 is one of those random games that I decided to play on a whim. Fortunately, it was free to me as a perk of having Amazon Prime. After completing this game, I don't think I would have paid for it otherwise. I knew nothing about this game going in, but it was at least interesting enough for me to see it all the way through to the end. That being said, it's a bit derivative of other first-person physics puzzle games that came before it. The more first-person physics puzzle games I play, the more I realize that Portal 2 is the definitive game in this genre. This is mostly because other games tend to rip off on Portal 2, and Q.U.B.E. 2 is one of these ripoffs. While Q.U.B.E. 2 takes itself seriously in the narrative it runs through the game (as compared to Portal 2's occasional humor), the stakes never seem to...
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