I cried during MGS4 to, but at how bad the story was and that reviewers bought into it again.

 Hell, MGS4 is better directed and edited than many, and i mean many five stars movies out there. The way they used film camera tehniques like shallow depth of field, shaky camera, cheesy shots (missed zooms) and generally the direction of each scene, not to mention the exquisite Mo Capped animations and coregraphy, is absolutely mind blowing. MGS3 was equally mind blowing back then, and it still is, but 4 is pretty much as professionally made as a "movie" can be.

I'm a videographer myself, i have a pretty decent background in filming and editing  and i'm always watching MGS4's cutscenes with a big smile of satisfaction on my face, it's that good.

Good article and I agree with his examples. Valve have always been good at using actual game mechanices and total immersion to tell a story without suddenly making you watch a movie.

On consoles the best story games I've played are ICO and SOTC - which have minimal, well done cutscenes then use very similar techniques to Valve to let you experience the story as you play, and gain a sense of mood and purpose as you do so.

Silent Hill games are also pretty good at this, especially 2 & 4 (yes 4 was a bit of a let down as a silent hill game, but its story and method where as good as 2 IMO).

I also agree with others that this defines a difference between many games/successes on each console at the moment.

I know there's Zelda on Wii (but I won't annoy the masses with why I don't see Zelda as any pinacle of story telling) but for the most part the big Wii games = fun, pure videogames with no real story baggage (see Zero Punctuation for best description of the non-story in SMG for reference).

Ps3/360 on the other hand have been gravitating to story centric shooters, action titles (most of which fall foul of the flaws indicated in the article).

Still, I play my PS3 more than my Wii because right now, flawed or not, I actually prefer a game trying to tell a story to a pure videogame (unless I'm playing Wii with my kids) and am curious to see how videogames evolve in this regard. I wonder whether we'll get games that are more story/experience than game in the process... perhaps we'll need a new identifier than videogame for those in the end.

That's why I want to know what the hell Team ICO is working on! And why I have low hopes for the new Silent Hill as I'm sure that having an American developer is going to ruin it (as with the US movie remakes of Asian horror films I think they will only be able to replicate the feel of silent hill but not be able to add anything nor make it feel anything other than a copy).

Depends what you mean by story.  I think it has plenty but of a certain type.  For example when you arrive the setting, visuals, mood and surroudning dialogue tell you all you need to know very effectivbely about where you are... from spycams snaping your picture to casual sadism from the combien guards to the waste paper blowing across the platform... then you step out, your ears full of a public annoucement justifying why humanity has essentially been neutered... see the combine tower before you, and know where you must eventually go right from the start of the game (no cutscenes, just simple, solid narrative exposition told through careful design and dialogue).

It's a stupid article, really. It suggests every game should use the same story-telling techniques. The style he mentions from half-life and portal, etc. are fine, but not every game should be that way. We still need our Final Fantasies and Metal Gear Solids. Many gamers really, really, enjoy that kind of story telling. Other gamers don't care for the stories of Half-life. This is just another example of an arrogant journalist thinking his opinion is right and everyone else is wrong.

Yes, it's an exaggeration when I say it had no story. And I don't actually feel that it impaired the game in any way, since I'm not one of those who feel that a game needs a story to drive it. And you're right, the game did project an excellent atmosphere.

But I also felt like a lot of those cutscenes were a waste of time. Characters talking at me or around me, but never to me because I don't actually have a personality or the power of speech. Just shut up and point me to the next hazard I need to navigate already.

I wish I could put my finger on why the Silent Hero schtick seems to work fine for me when I play Metroid Prime 3 or Twilight Princess but bugs me in Half-life. Maybe it's because Link and Samus at least get a little non-verbal expression which Freeman was never allowed.

I remember a conversation I had that somewhat relate to this, it went something like this.

A guy in another site: "Hey they are making an anime of Tales of the Abyss, I can't wait to see it".

Me: "Really, great, people say it has an interesting story"

Guy: "you didn't play it before?"

Me: "Nope, I watched the anime version of most of this series"

Guy: "you should play it, the game is awesome"

Me: "I really don't want to"

Guy: "Why? I can't belive some one who valiue the games first and formost won't play the original, You would attack me if i told you to watch the Kirby anime first"

Me: "these two are completely different"

Guy: "why are they different? because you like Kirby more than the Tales series? >:/"

Me: "it has nothing to do with what i like and what not, it is just that Tales has a battle system that i hate, I can get the same experince by just watching the anime, so why bother and play through the game?"

Guy: "you can't be serious"

Me: "JRPGs are just anime in disguise, really"

For me it was that everyone knew Freeman from Black Mesa, and I didn't. At first I thought maybe I just forgot about them since it was so long since I played the first Half-Life. When I go to check out, turns out Eli was just the unnamed black scientist at the beginning of Half-Life, Kleiner didn't have anything to do with Gordon in Half-Life 1, and Breen wasn't even in Half-Life or the expansions at all. (Even though he supposedly the admin of Black Mesa)

The author of this articles talk about the player reacting differently then the character. My mine was wondering who the hell were all these people and why should I care? Gordon didn't seem to have one, which just felt weird. Does not really know these people, is he literally mute, what the hell? Link doesn't speak, but he sure as hell reacts to people through his expressions and body language. Gordon just seemed like a shell, and with so many unfamiliar people talking to you as they know, it feels like I'm suppose to fill in pieces of the plot at times. Towards the end in the citadel in Half-Life 2 Breen asks Gordon a question about why he's doing what's he doing, and all I could think of it apparently to progress the storyline.

I pity you thinking everyone should be like you.  I played GTA, I hated the people I "worked for" and wanted to shoot them in the face with my gun.  I guess the silent protagonist didn't work out to well there.  I wanted to tell them FU but my guy that I'm supposed to fill in the lines for didn't feel the same way, oops.  Oh, btw, I have played since "the NES days" and I feel this way.  I guess your generalization of modern gamers vs old school gamers doesn't quite hold up.  I would rather a game be like a book, set the story, let me work my way through it in an enjoyable way, and let the characters interact with each other in the best way to present the story as possible.  That isn't to say I have to have a story in a game, the game I have been playing the most lately is Burnout and the "story" there is to race around the city to your hearts content.

Just because a JRPG has an anime art style doesn't make it an 'anime in disguise'.

Back on topic, I think this guy just has an arrogant opinion he likes to say is a fact.  He says it like games have to use the same storytelling as Half Life or Portal in order for their stories to be true.  However, contray to his opinion, I thought MGS and FF have great storytelling and there are many gamers and game reviewers that agree with me.  I will not change my opinion just because of some stupid article.