It seems that our friends at OXM are becoming rather hypocritical in their old age! In the same magazine (June 2002) they can't seem to stop mentioning the fact that games need to have new content and shouldn't be short. Then, when you think you understand their point, along comes the Project Ego article.

At the end of the article, they have this little blurb called "Game Potential" where they give you a rundown on all these different points. Project Ego has 2 points in the "Needs Work" category:

Too ambitious?
Dauntingly open-ended gameplay

First off, how can a game be too ambitious? The more the merrier, I say! Ambition spawns creativity, the one thing that this issue says Xbox games need. Yet they say the game may be too ambitious... for whatever that means.

And second, it seems the article's author doesn't know much about RPGs... who likes a short, linear RPG? Those of us easily distracted citizens NEED open-endedness to break the monotony of playing out a long storyline. It seems people would rather see the end of the game than savor it's intricacies. I, for one, like to mess around and see how clever the programmers were... something that's not possible with a linear game.