The title wasn't a question.  It explained... Why I now find story-driven games to be awesome.   

At the Sony press event at E3, when Beyond was being discussed, the hype points had me wondering, "WHAT THE HECK DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH A GAME?"  The buzz was about anything BUT gameplay.  It was about how they got Ellen Page to play the lead character.  Yes, it is an interesting concept in storytelling, and the graphics look REAL good, but they weren't discussing anything related to a game being played.  Exactly what is going to be there that won't make it so that my catching it on YouTube for free wouldn't be enough?

I do the same thing right now for Assasins Creed, basically all the endings of the games are just one giant dick to the face of the player.
"hahaha...you thought you will know what is happening... well FUCK YOU buy the next game"

The stories are now good enough to simply watch and enjoy them. That is the level of writing we are now encountering in some games.

You do still miss out on playing them. But you don't know this because you have not played them.

Whoops, I read "Why am I now finding...".

Really, richard? You're going for the "games with stories are just films" argument?

Yes, you COULD watch ME3's ending (the worst part of the game) on YouTube, but you're missing out on the fantastic action which is actually the draw of the game.

I did this with Heavy Rain. Great cutscenes, but the gameplay is not worth getting a PS3 for.

I can relate to the OP somewhat. I watched all of the Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen cut scenes on youtube and really enjoyed them. But the ony reason I did this was because I couldn;t find blood omen for love nor money and I've played all the other LoK games (apart from Blood Omen II), so I wanted to see what happened in the first game. Would love for the entire LoK series to be re-released with the PS2 entires gettting the digital remastering. Heck Sony even have Amy Hennig in-house at Naughty Dog these days.

However there's not many games I'd watch cutscenes on youtube without ever having played them. Stories in video games are generally too weak to be interesting in and of themselves without getting the fun of the gameplay. So if the gameplay isn't fun then the story isn't worth bothering with either. I'd even say that of a game like Heavy Rain, which is about as story-centric as a game can get and still be called a game. And it's a good game with a good (for video games) story.

I didn't say that.  I have argued, however, that what is getting called games these days are often not games, but would be something like "interactive fiction".  I have also argued a case that anything with a story isn't a game.  That doesn't make it a movie though, just like the fact a movie has a story doesn't make it a book.  I would even argue scenarios on the Holodeck in Star Trek: Next Generation aren't games either.  Does that not make them entertainment?  No, they are entertainment, and would even be suitable for the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).  It is just badly named.

Well I did see the ending to Mass Effect 3 on Youtube (all 3 of the good ones), and I really don't get the complaining actually.  They seemed fine to me and ended the series well.  For me, Mass Effect 3 is probably the worst thing to do this with though, because I finded the first two game, and have a crew invested in it, and really like the series.  But, I am not a place where I can get the game now.  So, I am to a place if I never get to it, then I have to accept this.  Life is hard.

In regards to getting to this place, it ended up being that I slowly have gotten to this point.  It started with getting stuck or bored with some games and deciding to see how they end, to then watching game endings I have not seen.  Now, with tight budgets, it gets down to watching everything on YouTube that has my interest due to money being so tight.  So now, if a game is story-driven, I miss some gameplay, but then get the point by watching it on YouTube.  

Also, as I noted, I end up going to TheMovieSpoiler.com to catch how movies are and end also, so I don't get to see any movies.  I did see The Avengers though, matinee.