Did this game ruin videogames for anyone else? It's glacially slow "cinematic" pacing, combined with the linear rail-shooter missions that punish you for veering off path or doing what makes sense (e.g. Mission Failed: you tried to stealthily climb through the window in our stealth mission), made me constantly aware that I was playing a videogame and sapped any sense of immersion and verisimilitude. Eventually I couldn't help but unsee "how the sausage is made" and couldn't shake the feeling of playing an interactive movie with boring mechanics and a lacklustre plot. GTA was designed in much the same way, but the diversity of weapons, vehicles, locales, music, and missions did a much better job of camouflaging the fact that you are playing a videogame.

I can still enjoy games that have fun mechanics (e.g. fighting or racist games) or games that have the structures in place to allow for more player freedom (e.g. good strategy games or RPGs), but all failed movie directors turned game designers should be shot on sight.