PixlBit

No need to wait on Portal 3 to get your first-person puzzle-solving fix.

When Portal hit the market, it took gamers by storm. Never before had the world experienced such a game – the unique portal mechanic was tied to a first person perspective, complex puzzles, and a compelling story and antagonist. Quantum Conundrum, the latest work of Valve alum, Kim Swift, captures at least part of Portal’s essence, but comes up short in the character and story department. First person puzzle solving takes the center stage and the Inter-dimensional Shift Device (IDS) proves to be an interesting tool/concept to drive the complex dimension-shifting puzzles; however, the lack of an overarching concept and vision disallows Quantum Conundrum from reaching the cult stature of its influencing material. Despite this, the interesting mechanics and the well constructed “test chambers” make for a fantastic game that shouldn’t be missed.

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It's basically a port of a more than decade old game, with worse controls. Sounds enticing, no?

I’ll be the first to tell you how awesome Quake III Arena was back in the day, and still is even today. Fast-paced, twitch shooting, simple-but-effective weaponry, and small close encounter maps made for some of the best multiplayer shooting ever. However, Quake Arena Arcade, which is extremely similar to said game and a port of the ad-driven browser game Quake Live, is a waste. This is not because it's a bad game, but because the essence of the Quake III Arena experience isn't perfectly captured without the use of a mouse and keyboard.

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