" For example, FFXIII is a story intended to unfold over a 40 hour playthrough type adventure, presented in cut scenes, writing and gameplay. There's no way you can judge the whole story by reading a Wikipedia summary - even if you understand it - simply because the presentation of a story wasn't meant for that way. "
The thing those who have played it have stated it's not unfolding the story that's the problem, and I'm a heavy RPG player-look at my games list, it's that it takes almost as long just to know what's going on. Unless you read loads of text. That is not good storytelling when you mix up exposition into the supplemental materials. This isn't Silent Hill where we're supposed to find out what's going on later. This is a mythologial world, where you should know about it so you can care about it.
And the reason it's fair to judge the story, but not the gameplay (usually) is that the gameplay adjusts on the fly to your actions. The story will not. It can't. Even in the context of playing the game, if a character is set to do one action, that action will be done no matter what I do in the game.
A flashy-first game is awesome when it comes out. A great-first game is awesome forever.
Plus, just for the hell of it: Kelly Brook at the 2008 BAFTAs
