Brian Fargo comments on DLC

[Radman]

A game with a linear experience isn't always bad. Often times it can be good to keep a tight grip on the story or world you've designed.

Agreed but it makes it nothing more then an interactive film, cause and effect means nothing - decisions a player takes means nothing or little.

People here have complained about the FMV games of old but do you HONESTLY believe modern games are so different to some of these games?

Not at all - the illusion of interactivity is there but the games are still as linear as the FMV games of the 90's - hell atleast some FMV games had alternative endings or paths, look at MW - its literally one big interactive story! Thats it...

You might not like what im saying but you can hardly say im wrong, can you?

Mario was a linear experience and is a fantastic game. Half Life 2 is very linear and actually helps keep the game focused. Super Meat Boy is one of the most linear and simple games from a design perspective in years, however it is also one of the best platformer games of all time.

Half Life 1 & 2 are excellent games and yes they are linear BUT the story, production values, setting and actual player interactivity is there and does make for a fairly interesting game.

The trick is to know what the game needs and try not to over do it. Too much freedom leads to things like Oblivion where you can do anything, but nothing matters. Too much linearity leads to things like Modern Warfare where you are basically on a roller-coaster moving from set piece to set piece.

Agreed.

I personally really enjoyed Mirror's Edge. Mostly for the game play (some of the best feeling platforming in a first person perspective, something that FPS games often do very poorly.) but the world was also somewhat interesting, if slightly contrived.

The problem I found with mirrors edge was that the story was nothing really interesting, the government or atleast the world seemed no more corrupt then modern day (infact I firmly believe we're heading for darker times then the one portrayed in the game) and the story was so boringly linear and I got the impression my hand was being held the whole way through.

Which brings me onto my other problem with modern games - hand holding is terrible, players dont like challenge anymore it seems.

 

[God is Dog backwards]

Mirror's Edge was really cool, when you weren't fighting people. It had a jet set radio vibe, which I love. And having a strong female protagonist whose defining feature isn't how shapely she is will always net points for me.