The Jimquisition: Half-Life 2 is on rails DERP

Jim Sterling from Destructoid writes "On this week's Jimquisition, we discuss the importance of linearity in videogames, and the foolishness of those who believe every single videogame needs to be an open-world sandbox where immersion of the world doesn't always mean immersion in the story."

[BullCrap]

Talk about derp, does this dude even know what being on rails even means? A game that moves foward and turns on its own wile you shoot a gun or swing a sword only is being on rails. Looks like anyone even postying up a youtube vid can get posted on N4G lmao.

[CBaoth]

He does NOT say HL2 is an on-rails experience.

Some douche implied KZ2 was an on-rails experience since the story and the gameplay was linear. He used HL2, Silent Hill, and Bioshock among others to illustrate how pacing correlates to the story arc, giving rise to climax, ambiance, etc...

He also addressed open-world sandbox games and why sometimes when pacing a narrative, they oftentimes serve to emotionally disconnect the gamer. His argument is valid and his examples are sound. I agree wholeheartedly with Jim this time.

Now excuse me while I go shower.