History Quotes / NoSidepathsNoExplorationNoFreedom

->''You're given a few metres of leeway either side to explore, but otherwise you trot down the corridor and don't you ''f***ing dare'' [[BorderPatrol turn around]] In ''Fable: The Journey'' there is no pretence. A team of designers has meticulously laid a rollercoaster track for you. Sit back, rest in their pacing, savour their controlled camera angles, gasp at their pyrotechnical timings. Relax, they say, like comely tour guides: enjoy the Journey.''

>"A big old flat nothing going on with a gimmick, just kinda layered over it. It's pretty great, if you're into not-that-great things, I suppose."

->''You're given a few metres of leeway either side to explore, but otherwise you trot down the corridor and don't you ''f***ing dare'' [[BorderPatrol turn around]] In ''Fable: The Journey'' there is no pretence. A team of designers has meticulously laid a rollercoaster track for you. Sit back, rest in their pacing, savour their controlled camera angles, gasp at their pyrotechnical timings. Relax, they say, like comely tour guides: enjoy the Journey."

->''"So, this is basically, 'This Game: The Level', a big old flat nothing going on with a gimmick, just kinda layered over it. [[CatchPhrase It's pretty great]], [[{{Dissimile}} if you're into not-that-great things]], I suppose."''
-->-- '''LetsPlay/{{Raocow}}''', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxOM_1sVuSk#t=78s on]] Ghost Rock, a level from 8 powers, a ROMHack of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld''

->''"The first level is kind of fun--in a crap kind of way--but it gives way to entire levels that are nothing but [[PressXToNotDie QTEs]], like a humorless and less-interesting ''VideoGame/DragonsLair''."''
-->--'''Creator/JimSterling''' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_O4K5HQtgo on]] ''{{Film/Rambo}}: The Video Game''

->''"It's more like an amusement park ride. Specifically, the ''Ride/{{Back to the Future|TheRide}}'' ride at Universal Studios. Christopher Lloyd tells you that [[ItsUpToYou only YOU can save the world]], but then you just get tossed about for a while and then everything gets resolved regardless of who paid attention... The difference being that the ''Back to the Future'' ride didn't charge you '''EIGHTY BUCKS''' to get on!"''
-->-- '''''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation''''' on ''{{VideoGame/Titanfall}}''

->''"''[=CoD=]'' assumes a lot about the significance behind a button press. When it asks you to [[AC:'[[{{Narm}} press E to pay respects]]']], it assumes a lot about what that ''bare minimum'' of interaction is supposed to represent."''
-->--'''George Weidman''' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV-hn0j8i7I on]] ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyAdvancedWarfare CoD With a Double Jump]]''

->''"Wow, this door isn't locked. I didn't think that was possible. I was starting to suspect these were all welded pieces of steel."''

->''"It's linear in the way that a railway track is linear, and anybody who tries to tell you otherwise is not to be trusted. [...] You're given a few metres of leeway either side to explore, but otherwise you trot down the corridor and don't you ''f***ing dare'' turn around. In Fable: The Journey there is no pretence. A team of designers has meticulously laid a rollercoaster track for you. Sit back, rest in their pacing, savour their controlled camera angles, gasp at their pyrotechnical timings. Relax, they say, like comely tour guides: enjoy the Journey."''

->''"And so begins the hallway. The endless, 40-hour hallway. You have not seen pain until you've seen the hallway, for there is no escape. No free will. The only way is the way forward. The dread of inevitability, the shackles of fate, our choices preordained by programmers. Our existence meaningless, without choices of our own. The only way is forward, the path laid out for us, the choices already made. The monsters you encounter are invariant. They are planned to the last detail. There is no randomness or chance, you fight them because you are meant to. You fight them so you are at the level the game requires you to fight the bosses. No more, no less. Oh, you may find that the hallway branches off at times and [[HopeSpot you think you escaped]]! But these paths lead about only fifty yards to a dead-end and some minor treasure. With no way to continue, you must turn back and return to the hallway. Sometimes you may enter into a larger room, some wider area, but there is still only one way in, one way out and the hallway continues."''
-->-- '''[[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony]]''', on ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII''.

->''"The best part of [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII The Tube]] is its wallpaper, which is [[SceneryPorn very pretty]]. Creator/SquareEnix spent ''millions'' of dollars designing The Tube's wallpaper. It is very detailed and shiny, but it is only wallpaper."''
-->--'''Pat R.''' [[http://socksmakepeoplesexy.net/index.php?a=ff13 "The World Is Tube"]] (review/criticism of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'')

->'''Jon:''' ...Hey, Michael.\\

''(Lightning walks down a linear path)''\\
'''Michael:''' ...I can't...I can't go right.\\

''(Lightning walks down the same linear path)''\\
'''Michael:''' ...I...can't go left.\\

'''Jon:''' ...Try to play the game.\\
''(Lightning walks down the linear path once more)''\\
'''Michael:''' ...I thought I was playing the game, Jon. ''(holds up a [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem SNES]] controller)'' But I've been using the wrong controller the whole time.
-->-- '''WebVideo/JonTron's''' ''Final Hallway XIII'' (Criticism of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII''... [[RuleOfThree see a pattern yet?]])

->''"It's more like an amusement park ride. Specifically, the ''Ride/{{Back to the Future|TheRide}}'' ride at Universal Studios. Christopher Lloyd tells you that [[ItsUpToYou only YOU can save the world]], but then you just get tossed about for awhile and then everything gets resolved regardless of who paid attention... The difference being that the ''Back to the Future'' ride didn't charge you '''EIGHTY BUCKS''' to get on!"''

->''"It's more like an amusement park ride. Specifically, the ''Ride/{{Back to the Future|TheRide}}'' ride at Universal Studios. Christopher Lloyd tells you that [[ItsUpToYou only YOU can save the world]], but then you just get tossed about for awhile and then everything gets resolved regardless of who paid attention... The difference being that the ''Back to the Future'' ride didn't charge you '''[[CrackIsCheaper EIGHTY BUCKS]]''' to get on!"''

-->--'''JimSterling''' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_O4K5HQtgo on]] ''{{Film/Rambo}}: The Video Game''

'''Michael:''' ...I thought I was playing the game, Jon. ''(holds up a SNES controller)'' But I've been using the wrong controller the whole time.

->''"The first level is kind of fun--in a crap kind of way--but it gives way to entire levels that are nothing but [[QuickTimeEvent QTEs]], like a humorless and less-interesting ''VideoGame/DragonsLair''."''

->''"It's more like an amusement park ride. Specifically, the ''[[Ride/BackToTheFutureTheRide Back to the Future]]'' ride at Universal Studios. Christopher Lloyd tells you that [[ItsUpToYou only YOU can save the world]], but then you just get tossed about for awhile and then everything gets resolved regardless of who paid attention... The difference being that the ''Back to the Future'' ride didn't charge you '''[[CrackIsCheaper EIGHTY BUCKS]]''' to get on!"''

-->-- '''Simon Parkin''', [[http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-10-11-fable-the-journey-review on]] ''VideoGame/FableTheJourney''

->''"And so begins the hallway. The endless, 40-hour hallway. You have not seen pain until you've seen the hallway, for there is no escape. No free will. The only way is the way forward. The dread of inevitability, the shackles of fate, our choices preordained by programmers. Our existence meaningless, without choices of our own. The only way is forward, the path laid out for us, the choices already made. The monsters you encounter are invariant. They are planned to the last detail. There is no randomness or chance, you fight them because you are meant to. You fight them so you are at the level the game requires you to fight the bosses. No more, no less. Oh, you may find that the hallway branches off at times and [[HopeSpot you think you escaped!]] But these paths lead about only fifty yards to a dead-end and some minor treasure. With no way to continue, you must turn back and return to the hallway. Sometimes you may enter into a larger room, some wider area, but there is still only one way in, one way out and the hallway continues."''

->''"''[=CoD=]'' assumes a lot about the significance behind a button press. Why it asks you to [[AC:'[[{{Narm}} press E to pay respects]]']], it assumes a lot about what that ''bare minimum'' of interaction is supposed to represent."''

->''"So, this is basically, 'This Game: The Level', a big old flat nothing going on with a gimmick, just kinda layered over it. [[CatchPhrase It's pretty great]], [[{{Dissimile}} if you're into not-that-great things]], I suppose."''
-->-- '''LetsPlay/{{Raocow}}''', [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxOM_1sVuSk#t=78s on]] Ghost Rock, a level from 8 powers, a ROMHack of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld''

->''"The first level is kind of fun--in a crap kind of way--but it gives way to entire levels that are nothing but [[QuickTimeEvent QTEs]], like a humorless and less-interesting ''VideoGame/DragonsLair''."''
-->--'''JimSterling''' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_O4K5HQtgo on]] ''{{Film/Rambo}}: The Video Game''

->''"It's more like an amusement park ride. Specifically, the ''[[Ride/BackToTheFutureTheRide Back to the Future]]'' ride at Universal Studios. Christopher Lloyd tells you that [[ItsUpToYou only YOU can save the world]], but then you just get tossed about for awhile and then everything gets resolved regardless of who paid attention... The difference being that the ''Back to the Future'' ride didn't charge you '''[[CrackIsCheaper EIGHTY BUCKS]]''' to get on!"''
-->-- '''''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation''''' on ''{{VideoGame/Titanfall}}''

->''"''[=CoD=]'' assumes a lot about the significance behind a button press. Why it asks you to [[AC:'[[{{Narm}} press E to pay respects]]']], it assumes a lot about what that ''bare minimum'' of interaction is supposed to represent."''
-->--'''George Weidman''' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV-hn0j8i7I on]] ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyAdvancedWarfare CoD With a Double Jump]]''

->''"Wow, this door isn't locked. I didn't think that was possible. I was starting to suspect these were all welded pieces of steel."''
-->-- '''Gordon Freeman''', ''Machinima/FreemansMind''.

->''"It's linear in the way that a railway track is linear, and anybody who tries to tell you otherwise is not to be trusted. [...] You're given a few metres of leeway either side to explore, but otherwise you trot down the corridor and don't you ''f***ing dare'' turn around. In Fable: The Journey there is no pretence. A team of designers has meticulously laid a rollercoaster track for you. Sit back, rest in their pacing, savour their controlled camera angles, gasp at their pyrotechnical timings. Relax, they say, like comely tour guides: enjoy the Journey."''
-->-- '''Simon Parkin''', [[http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-10-11-fable-the-journey-review on]] ''VideoGame/FableTheJourney''

->''"And so begins the hallway. The endless, 40-hour hallway. You have not seen pain until you've seen the hallway, for there is no escape. No free will. The only way is the way forward. The dread of inevitability, the shackles of fate, our choices preordained by programmers. Our existence meaningless, without choices of our own. The only way is forward, the path laid out for us, the choices already made. The monsters you encounter are invariant. They are planned to the last detail. There is no randomness or chance, you fight them because you are meant to. You fight them so you are at the level the game requires you to fight the bosses. No more, no less. Oh, you may find that the hallway branches off at times and [[HopeSpot you think you escaped!]] But these paths lead about only fifty yards to a dead-end and some minor treasure. With no way to continue, you must turn back and return to the hallway. Sometimes you may enter into a larger room, some wider area, but there is still only one way in, one way out and the hallway continues."''
-->-- '''[[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony]]''', on ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII''.

->''"The best part of [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII The Tube]] is its wallpaper, which is [[SceneryPorn very pretty]]. Creator/SquareEnix spent ''millions'' of dollars designing The Tube's wallpaper. It is very detailed and shiny, but it is only wallpaper."''
-->--'''Pat R.''' [[http://socksmakepeoplesexy.net/index.php?a=ff13 "The World Is Tube"]] (review/criticism of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'')

->'''Jon:''' ...Hey, Michael.\\
'''Michael:''' Yeah?\\
'''Jon:''' Try going right.\\
''(Lightning walks down a linear path)''\\
'''Michael:''' ...I can't...I can't go right.\\
'''Jon:''' Hey, Michael.\\
'''Michael:''' Yeah?\\
'''Jon:''' Try going left.\\
''(Lightning walks down the same linear path)''\\
'''Michael:''' ...I...can't go left.\\
'''Jon:''' Hey, Michael.\\
'''Michael:''' Yeah?\\
'''Jon:''' ...Try to play the game.\\
''(Lightning walks down the linear path once more)''\\
'''Michael:''' ...I thought I was playing the game, Jon. ''(holds up a SNES controller)'' But I've been using the wrong controller the whole time.
-->-- '''WebVideo/JonTron's''' ''Final Hallway XIII'' (Criticism of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII''... [[RuleOfThree see a pattern yet?]])

-->-- '''JonTron's''' ''Final Hallway XIII'' (Criticism of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII''... [[RuleOfThree see a pattern yet?]])

->''"Admittedly, 'Campaign' might be to strong a word for ten 5-minute deathmatches, continuing as prepared regardless of which side wins each battle. It's more like an amusement park ride. Specifically, the ''[[Ride/BackToTheFutureTheRide Back to the Future]]'' ride at Universal Studios. Christopher Lloyd tells you that [[ItsUpToYou only YOU can save the world]], but then you just get tossed about for awhile and then everything gets resolved regardless of who paid attention... The difference being that the ''Back to the Future'' ride didn't charge you '''[[CrackIsCheaper eighty bucks]]''' to get on!"''

->''"''[=CoD=]'' assumes a lot about the significance behind a button press. Why it asks you to [[AC:'[[{{Narm}} press E to pay respects]]']], it assumes a lot about what that ''bare minimum'' of interaction is supposed to represent...You might get excited thinking about how you can cruise a hover-bike around the rainy streets of a post-cyberpocolpyse Neo-Detroit! --But then, whatever NPC is your ''[[ExpositionFairy coach]]'' at the moment will say something like this: ''[='=]Synch to me. Keep it on autopilot.[='=]'' And it's not like the functionality isn't there; you actually can control the bike later on, but only during a loud, bombastic, heavily-scripted escape scene that can't adapt to ''any bit'' of the player meddling into its ''sacred, precious script''."''

->''"The best part of The Tube is its wallpaper, which is very pretty. SquareEnix spent ''millions'' of dollars designing The Tube's wallpaper. It is very detailed and shiny, but it is only wallpaper."''
-->--'''Pat R.''' [[http://socksmakepeoplesexy.net/index.php?a=ff13 "The World Is Tube"]] [[note]]also on ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII''[[/note]]

-->--'''Pat R.''' [[http://socksmakepeoplesexy.net/index.php?a=ff13 "The World Is Tube"]]

->''"Admittedly, 'Campaign' might be to strong a word for ten 5-minute deathmatches, continuing as prepared regardless of which side wins each battle. It's more like an amusement park ride. Specifically, the ''[[Ride/BackToTheFutureTheRide Back to the Future]]'' ride at Universal Studios. Christopher Lloyd tells you that [[ItsUpToYou only YOU can save the world]], but then you just get tossed about for awhile and then everything gets resolved regardless of who paid attention... The difference being that the ''Back to the Future'' ride didn't charge you '''[[CrackIsCheap eighty bucks]]''' to get on!"''

->''"Admittedly, 'Campaign' might be to strong a word for ten 5-minute deathmatches, continuing as prepared regardless of which side wins each battle. It's more like an amusement park ride. Specifically, the ''[[Ride/BackToTheFutureTheRide Back to the Future]]'' ride at Ride/UniversalStudios. ChristopherLloyd tells you that [[ItsUpToYou only YOU can save the world]], but then you just get tossed about for awhile and then everything gets resolved regardless of who paid attention... The difference being that the ''Back to the Future'' ride didn't charge you ''eighty bucks'' to get on!"''

->''"The best part of The Tube is its wallpaper, which is very pretty. SquareEnix spent millions of dollars designing The Tube's wallpaper. It is very detailed and shiny, but it is only wallpaper... But this is precisely what ''(Yoshinori)'' Kitase and ''(Motomu)'' Toriyama intended. After all, ''XIII'' was an effort to revitalize ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' by shaving away all the excess the series had accumulated over the years and focusing only on what was crucial. The problem is that all the stuff that was slashed for being extraneous was also what made ''Final Fantasy'' interesting. ''Final Fantasy XIII'' has no towns. There is no backtracking. There are no subplots or optional story quests. There are no minigames. There is no "who will ask Lightning on a date?" scenario governed by secret Love Points. There are no NPC you can revisit and follow throughout the game. There are no optional characters, hidden classes or secret abilities. There are no hidden maps. There are no alternate endings. There is only The Tube."''

->''"And so begins the hallway. The endless, 40-hour hallway. You have not seen pain until you've seen the hallway, for there is no escape. No free will. The only way is the way forward. The dread of inevitability, the shackles of fate, our choices preordained by programmers. Our existence meaningless, without choices of our own. The only way is forward, the path laid out for us, the choices already made. The monsters you encounter are invariant. They are planned to the last detail. There is no randomness or chance, you fight them because you are meant to. You fight them so you are at the level the game requires you to fight the bosses. No more, no less. Oh, you may find that the hallway branches off at times and you think you escaped! But these paths lead about only fifty yards to a dead-end and some minor treasure. With no way to continue, you must turn back and return to the hallway. Sometimes you may enter into a larger room, some wider area, but there is still only one way in, one way out and the hallway continues."''

--> '''[[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony]]''', on ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII''.

->''"And so begins the hallway. The endless, 40-hour hallway. You have not seen pain until you've seen the hallway, for there is no escape. No freewill. The only way is the way forward. The dread of inevitability, the shackles of fate, our choices preordained by programmers. Our existence meaningless, without choices of our own. The only way is forward, the path laid out for us, the choices already made. The monsters you encounter are invariant. They are planned to the last detail. There is no randomness or chance, you fight them because you are meant to. You fight them so you are at the level the game requires you to fight the bosses. No more, no less. Oh, you may find that the hallway branches off at times and you think you escaped! But these paths lead about only fifty yards to a dead-end and some minor treasure. With no way to continue, you must turn back and return to the hallway. Sometimes you may enter into a larger room, some wider area, but there is still only one way in, one way out and the hallway continues."''

->''"And so begins the hallway. The endless, 40-hour hallway. You have not seen pain until you've seen the hallway, for there is no escape. No freewill. The only way is the way forward. The dread of inevitability, the shackles of fate, our choices preordained by programmers. Our existence meaningless, without choices of our own. The only way is forward, the path laid out for us, the choices already made. The monsters you encounter are invariant. They are planned to the last detail. There is no randomness or chance, you fight them because you are meant to. You fight them so you are at the level the game requires you to fight the bosses. No more, no less. Oh, you may the hallway branches off at times and you think you escaped! But these paths lead about only fifty yards to a dead-end and some minor treasure. With no way to continue, you must turn back and return to the hallway. Sometimes you may enter into a larger room, some wider area, but there is still only one way in, one way out and the hallway continues."''

->So, this is basically, 'This Game: The Level', a big old flat nothing going on with a gimmick, just kinda layered over it. [[CatchPhrase It's pretty great]], [[{{Dissimile}} if you're into not-that-great things]], I suppose.
-->--{{Raocow}}, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxOM_1sVuSk#t=78s on]] Ghost Rock, a level from 8 powers, a ROMHack of SuperMarioWorld