I think a narrative-heavy focus suits some games whereas it doesn't suit others. I've played a lot of visual novels/narrative-heavy adventure games on the PC and DS and I enjoy them. Modern console jrpgs though? A strong narrative can't carry games like those. There is a lot of boring, time-consuming tedious gameplay jam-packed in between the narrative and the narrative in those games isn't that good to begin with. Ace Attorney for me is a fun wacky ride. Hotel Dusk drew me in because I liked the characters, the film noir atmosphere and I wanted to see what would happen next.

Modern console jrpgs have failed to draw me in the same way narrative-wise as of late. And a lot of that has to do with the structure. Boring gameplay can really kill these games so narrative, even if it's good, can't be used as a crutch. Cutscene, boring encounters, cutscene, boring encounters, cutscene, boss battle that might be interesting if you are lucky, cutscene, go to town, go around town talking to people until the game allows you to progress the storyline (I HATE it when jrpgs implement this), cutscenes, rinse and repeat. FF7 and FF8 at the time was like a novel experience for me so they drew me in. But looking at FF7 and FF8 now? I would say those stories suck and those games are terribly overrated narrative-wise. Kaim's Thousand Years of Dreams in Lost Odyssey (which was written by an actual award-winning author so that may be it) were well done but narrative-wise, it seems like most of what's out there is mediocre or stale or just plain bad.

While I wouldn’t say I "Hate" them, I do find what you call interactive movies to often be remarkably pretentious; and that the plot, dialog, characters and (voice) acting to be laughably bad on a level worse than almost all movies (the primary exception is Uwe Boll movies).

I voted for "I do." But to clarify, I don't hate all movie-games. Just most of them. Some games can add a story to the gameplay that doesn't get in the way.

Out of This World has great cutscenes, but they don't waste your time telling a bullshit story. The game has absolutely no dialogue. It's just enough to build a mood, give your character a little motivation to escape or something, and get you from place to place. I think this was also done well in the first Oddworld game, Abe's Oddyssey, and the original Prince of Persia game, and Super Mario World. They all had really brief cutscenes that didn't waste your time. Usually you got a punchline or a plot twist in under a minute, and got right back to playing.

And I think Super Metroid has a perfect balance too. While playing the game, I didn't care about the story at all. It was just perfect gameplay every second of the way through... but then... the story... the ending... whoa. I think it works like Out of This World does, amazing storytelling without dialogue. Like an interactive silent film.

But if they expect me to put down the controller for a minute or two while some asshat talks me through a plot twist like I'm a baby... I usually lose interest immediately. Or in the case of Resident Evil, the second they say "Hey you, here's a lockpick, I shall give it to you because you are the master of picking locks..." I turned that game off before I got to the first zombie.

And I guess liking Hotel Dusk makes me a hypocrite... but that was more of an interactive novel than an interactive movie or a game. But at least it knew what it was and didn't pretend it was a game. I can respect that.

I like any kind of video game as long as it does a great job at what the game is focused on. (e.g. visual novels more on story, platform more on creative levels, etc.)

I tend to like a game less if that focuses on something that it isn't. Just like a platform with too many dialogues/story, or a fighting game with barely any action, etc. Although it's possible that it can turn out great, most of the time it isn't.

I just want to point out that all games have a story or cut-scenes. It's just that the presentation is different.
When you're watching a boss die in Super Metroid or reading text boxes in Mario Galaxy, it is the same as us watching laughing octopus die in mgs4, or having dialogue spoken to us in a scene rather than reading it.
The movie games may take a little bit longer, but you can always skip a cutscene anyway. I really don't understand all the bitching that occurs over games with video production.

Resident Evil 2 isn't an interactive movie... welll i think so.

i think monty said it best.

Final Fantasy 7 an interactive movie?! Just because it has some cut scenes and a good story doesn't make it an interactive movie. It is a massive RPG world with tons of stuff to do, hours and hours and hours of gameplay.

That just seems way out there.

It's not a crime to like both.

I get what you're saying but you could have said it more nicely. I'm not really a fan of movie-style games, but they can work. The Uncharteds were a lot of fun despite the cinematic qualities, but they had gameplay to back it up. I must admit that on subsequent playthroughs I skip all the cutscenes.

And what's so story focused about NMH2? I've barely started it but I don't play it to get more story details. I play it to fight the next boss or play the next mini game. The story is just something extra. The real problem is games that are nothing but stories, with nothing to back it up.

Wii Sports was described as a nongame, but it's the very essence of a game. If anything deserves to be called a nongame it's something like Heavy Rain. It looks so inccredibly boring to me.