That’s, uh, not what PIA means in this thread.

Excellent question! Commenting to follow.

The “open world craze”? I get disagreeing with design decisions but that seems a bit of an odd angle, given how long open world games had been popular at the time of release.

I’ve not played an open world game that was anything like Exodus. It was an interesting blend of sandbox and tight narrative.

I couldn’t really get into the early games, despite liking the concept, but loved Exodus. I could see how it wouldn’t suite someone who preferred the style of the previous games, but I think I would argue that “a third helping of the same” rarely takes a game series anywhere interesting.

I literally learned it from a Bloodhound Gang song. Never heard anything like it in the UK.

A great many of the games I grew up with were descended from coin-op design principles and so were designed to delay progress as much as possible.