Why does game storytelling have such low standards? [MGS4, HL2, etc.]

[MaxwellGT2000]

Reading the full article I liked a few other points he brought up as well.

From my point of view, this gen alone I bought MGS Twin Snakes on a whim since it was a rare game, the game was simply amazing, good story telling, awesome graphics, and aside from clunky controls at times good game play. I practically became a fanatic over night, and then went on a MGS buying spree and bought basically each game in the series, I played MGS2 till it pissed me off, read the rest of the story, went on to MGS PO, enjoyed that one a lot more like the first game. And just really disliked MGS4, the story was a lot of anti war babble, and things go WAY too over the top while still wanting you to take it seriously when it got to those dramatic moments...

He mentioned Kingdom Hearts II, I enjoyed the game, I love the series, but he has some good points, a bit of it is too reused, and relies too much on you knowing what happened in Chain of Memories and its basically a necessity unless you want to read the journal (which no one does or ever will)

He also tore into Heavy Rain a bit at the end, this I also agree with, a lot of the time the game tries to give you the "your characters can die at any moment" feel when it's really not that open ended, its fairly scripted and if you fail a scene it'll brush it off like its nothing "oh yeah you shot me but it just grazed me I'm fine". Not to mention to me the whole plot is a lot like a boring cop/mystery drama, it's okay for fans of that sort of thing, but its no Silence of the Lambs, it would be a B or C string plot for a movie, lower budget, etc.

One game I really must bring up when discussing stories is Mother 3, if you haven't played it, do so now. It really is up there with emotional writing that tugs at your heart and brings out emotion better than any other game I've played. Earthbound did this as well but with different emotions, both made me cry, and both brought me a lot of joy in the humor, but if you're wanting mature writing Mother 3 trumps the best of them.