Which tells the better story for a game?

[Reasonable]

twesterm said:

KungKras said:
LOL WUT

 

It's a simple question-- which of those two above things tell a more compelling story?  I'm just curious what people think, of course I guess in this case it's also more fitting to have played Half-Life and Half-Life 2.

So if you haven't played those, just pretend I showed this picture:

(it's not a game image but it still works, and this one is a little better not knowing the context)

 

Isn't that from the Tate Modern?  If not they had the exact same concept there which I went to see.

OT - Let me answer this way:

 

1) the cut-scene or cinematic can currently convey more information and narrative detail, however it does so simply by relying on existing cinema conventions for the most part - i.e. we stop playing a game for a bit and watch a movie instead to convey some dialogue, narrative, etc.

2) the immersive approach often doesn't convey as much story for most people (probably) however I think it is more honest to gameplay and the better approach to take in a game.  It also (as to be fair it does in cinema/art) allows for more subtle presentation and asks the viewer to derive the needed info from the information

 

So I prefer mainly unbroken immersion or minimal cut-scenes where they suit the game.

Really though I still think one of the biggest challenges facing game narrative as it evolves is handling dialgue well.

Take Half Life 2 - you can wander around ignorning important dialogue, character beats, etc.  Hardly ideal.  On the other hand too much cut-scene and you wonder why they didn't just make a movie instead.  Also hardly ideal.

Although some of the mechanics where obvious, I did this EP2 of Half Life managed to juggle both quite well, even if it did so by blocking you in and using various visual/level cues to get you to look/pay attention where you should be.

I should add I overall favour FPS view for deep immersion as any other view puts you in the role of watching more than directly experiencing (IMHO of course).  TPS can be a nice mix I guess based on Uncharted and Gears but I'd still rather look out at the world through my character's eyes.

EDIT : Meant to also cite Portal as an amazing example of a story/narrative told wonderfully without any breaks in immersion, cut-scenes, etc.  Fantastic title.