I am not talking about the quality of the story!

My original complaint in his topic concerns how some cutscenes show you stuff that would be cooler if you just played it (MGS4 does this a lot).

Gears of War never just shows something awesome, you always play something awesome.

That is what I am saying.

Okay, but it certainly deserves more cut scenes, though I would have appreciated driving the buggy away from the brumak at the end of act 4

Yeah I wish we had driven the buggy too. One of the game's few weaknesses on that front, though I can understand why they made us just sit - if we were driving we wouldn't have seen the Brumak at all, probably.

You switch to a chase camera, like used in Crash bandicoot games on the PS1, I am sure they could have made it work

Maybe they could have made it so you didn't see the Brumak until you jump that barricade at the end - in co-op I guess you could have the other guy looking back at it, too.

Man that would have been pretty cool.

They did add in an extra section in the PC where you get to fight the brumak, which also explains the end, they should have patched it into the 360 game

10+ years ago when I could dedicate hours at a time to playing a game long cut scenes didn't bother me at all.  They could convey a game story and emotions in a way that in game graphics at the time could not. 

Now, between work and family, watching a half hour cut scene when I might only be able to sit down and play for an hour just sucks.   MGS4 is a prime example of a great game that was difficult to play in short sessions. 

Also, with how far graphic and sound technology have come, there is no reason for developers to not try and build the story while playing aka Bioshock or Dead Space.

The obvious answer would of course be, that the example I was replying to was talking about the taperecorders and not the plasmids

But if we are going to discuss that, then I have a disclaimer first

While BioShock was certainly a good game, I have no clue how the fuck it got as popular as it did. I certainly didn't play it for the story, and I did in fact never finish it. Towards what I think was the end, I was getting bored with it after having played it up to that point in one sitting. I got to a place where the game crashed, and I had been stuck for a while anyway. I only went back to the game once, but I got bored again, and I never bothered to come back and finish it.

Now! Bioshock, logic and boundaries

Bioshock is based on the idea that humans are capable of creating magnificent things, in fact, Rapture is such a creation, a eutopia for all people shunned for their dreams, ideas and talents by the 40's and 50's society.

Since the game was released in 2007, the theme of genetic manipulation and other "crazy" ideas the game toys with, are not foreign to players. It isn't unreasonable to think that we would be able to create a city underwater at some point, nor that we would be able to create gene altering drugs, that will give us special powers of some sort. After all, comicbooks have fed people this idea for years now, so it's not surprising that it comes off as reasonable to many players.

Personally, stuff like shooting bees out of your arms had me scrathing my heads for what the fuck 2K was thinking, when they put the ability in the game. But stuff like shooting electricity and fire was much more acceptable, because these are created by simple chemical reactions after all, and are hardly on par with the complexity of creating bees at will.

But who goes around recording as much as the people of Rapture do, while the tapes end up in convinient locations relative to the players own location and objective? It really is beyond comprehension for me, why the developers chose to do it this way. Don't get me wrong though, it's not like Bioshock is the only culprit in this field. Personally, Dead Space is the first thing that comes to my mind, when I think of this form of storytelling in games.

But I think Dead Space did a better job at it, mostly because of fundamental differences though. The logs in Dead Space are for example stored on devices that fit into peoples pockets, and are not the size of a briefcase. This makes it more believable that people could have dropped them randomly, while fleeing from monsters, turning into monsters or something like that.

In Bioshock, I would have cut out the completely ridiculous plasmids (bees, creating small tornados etc.), and have let players run into a few archives to learn some of these stories. And instead of just letting people listen to them, I would have created small playable flashbacks, where the players enter the view of the person who is talking about the "event" or whatever.

Of course, this wouldn't fit well with all the things found in the logs, as they, directly translated into gameplay, would have been quite boring, but overall, I think it would have been a much better solution.

Here's some games which I find have the best ways to tell their story:

Sonic & Knuckles (Genesis): Each level feels like the next step in the inevitable showdown with Dr. Robotnik. From Mushroom Hill Zone to Sky Sanctuary Zone and then finally to Doomsday Zone, you really feel like you're digging deeper and continuing on in this story, and each zone is the next chapter. Not a word is spoken nor a line is on screen, but it really feels like you're a part of something.

Super Mario 64 (N64): Right when you enter the castle, you hear Bowser utter his evil laugh and you know that everything isn't as it should be. So you do something about it. Awesome.

Metroid Prime (GameCube): You enter a world you know nothing about, but everywhere you look there's a story to tell. Whether it's the Space Pirates testing data or ancient Chozo lore, Tallon IV is alive through its written history and development.

Bioshock (360, PS3, PC): Much like Tallon IV, Rapture has a lot to say. Instead of readable lore scanned by visors, the history and downfall of the city is told through audible audio diaries. Each person is unique and has something to say. And every diary, from the trivial to the eye opening, made Rapture that much more alive.

That's all I can think of for now.

I really don't mind. You're able to skip them, if need be, in most games