Pretty much what I thought the main quest wasn't great to me. 

So it was a change/mistake? I knew it, no way such a high-profile developer would say such a thing.

Assuming they meant that, well, I am not particulary happy with the "bar" you're trying to set (cinematic), especially when games like "To the Moon" have such amazing storytelling with sprite based graphics, a emotional music background and plain text. That is bar that should be set.

I am not saying the story is a masterpiece, I agree that it isn't that great.  I'm saying that the story and its pacing matched the gameplay and made a masterpiece of a game.  Think about how the story is told.  It's told over headsets.   You can't tell a great story that way.  It's told in short bursts and its only purpose is to move the game to the next set piece.  Adding depth to the characters and to the story makes you stop and think and that isn't what Vanquish wanted to accomplish.  They wanted nonstop action.

A game like Uncharted's story is told in a different way and a game with that type of pacing greatly improves with a story that sucks you in but not all types of games need that type of depth.  A game like Bayonetta would have suffered in my opinion if the story was coherrent.  The gameplay is over the top and ridiculous and the story matches.  I get suckered into the main characters progression because you don't know what's coming next and it's the same with the gameplay, you don't know what ridiculous moves she will pull off next.

I do enjoy a good story if the game calls for one but I don't want all my games to be cinematic.  Sometimes I just want to blow crap up and destroy robots or giant ants.  EDF EDF EDF EDF!!!  Props if you get the EDF part.

Sounds like the people at Naughty Dog are starting to believe their own hype. In my opinion their stories have never been great, even the Uncharted games. Well written and well acted does not a great story make. I will agree with Naughty Dog that most games don't have great stories. I read a lot of books and watch a lot of movies and games generally don't have stories that can compare to the best of those mediums. The best story in a game I've played in a long time was Enslaved. The ending was a little weird but as stories go it was pretty damn good. In my opinion Portal 2 had the best story of last year and it was extremely well implemented and presented. If the Uncharted gamers where movies they'd be considered big budget B-Movie rip offs of Indiana Jones. As games they feel fresh, fun, funny, and exciting. It's Uncharted's characters, not their stories, that shine.

Beneath the surface of this is the fact of how much they truly care about their work. I fully understand where they're coming from.

Dont like it, but almost every dev has ego and likes to show it at some point or points in time. Anyone remember Cliff on Gears 3 reviews? Move along.

Bias mod on the loose XD

His problem, aside from actually caring about story, is putting so much stock into what reviewers say. He thinks that people want to care about overly cinematic stories where the player feels for the character or about the human condition, and not everyone cares about that shit. Reviewers will give other stories good reviews because other games understand game stories are not the focus.they probably play the story up because the game itself I'd fun

I like Zelda stories so much... I disagree when I read you cannot write good stories for VG, but we discuss about VG, please, don't try to make something different, or you'll get something simply not fitting with a videogame.

Nsanity should put the entire passage up to avoid confusion. Unless he wants to cause confusion?