X was very linear, but I still like it a lot.

But for me, its less about X and more about XII. XII was soooooooo open and wide that there was at least two different ways to get to one place and sometimes there was about five ways to get somewhere. The maps were pretty big with extra missions aplenty. I personally love the game, even though most people hate it, going from that to a game that was extremely linear and gave you very little in extra content is why I don't like it.