The Secret of Monkey Island (TM). As you guys pick a lot atmosphere with sticks for story where's this in the lists?
A lot of bubble-gum stories, my opinion. Diversified through challenges, but inane. Like in WarCraft 3: ~"Father, I release you of your burden". Why can't good ever reconcile with evil, but always fight it like black against white? Aha, so the prince was stupid as night when he was good, because he didn't know that everything he stands for is bullshit. Now he serves a higher power, but everything he stands for now is bullshit in the next episode.
... man...
Legacy of Kain, Soul Reaver. Psychonauts. HL 1. Deux Ex. Undying. Portal. Riddick Butcher Bay. Serious Sam HD (to be in, because this qualifies as story and I played Serious Sam in HD exclusively for the story; it had egyptians and blood rituals and group sex and death, within walls of torment that you must destroy, jumping from civilization through civilization... how could this not be story-full? I am on my toes in the midst of lavish story telling. Have you ever seen a card-board character without head, bombs in arms and screaming for you? Excepting that one, this story is real and good.). Mortal Kombat. Twisted Metal 2; I grant you one wish if you know why. Man, I haven't played Grim Fandango and System Shock 2 yet! Call of Duty 1&2 had story; the story of Stalingrad for example, is one of the best stories ever told; and it's done by a game! How many times you pressed load is how many times you are worse than you should be in order for stuff like that to never happen. Half-Life: The Pizza Guy Shift. Curse of the Monkey Island.
All these games I have chosen have one fact to them: they have a story that rubs the big questions in life. It's not multiplication, and multiplication is not a story, no matter how little you know and how much you desire to be cool and powerful and have it all one day.
I'm afraid of Shao Kahn because in his perverted power he considers me a weak pathetic fool and I fear he might be right. And he'll take over the earth.
I wonder at Soul Reaver because shifting the innards of time breaks my imagination; and I might be just one of the souls devoured expenselessly by this living thing that redefines reality.
I love Psychonauts's story because it visually de-twists realities that compose my daily insanity.
Half-Life 1 is not that ***** walking through zombies in the dark "Hell yeah, you showed `em, Freeman, let's have a cookie and milk before we go by", it's scientists sharply stinging you for being 30 min late, you idiot with a diploma.
Deus Ex puts you a moment over the top of those who brainwash you and keep you in the dark feeding you shit. It's conspiracies are believable and, sadly, real.
Undying twists the laws of physics in a way PhysX and Havok will never catch up. I felt the dark mad power of the Scythe and feared it, and felt in full dimension and first person how the mad Soul Reaver from Kain must have felt. This game is hypnotic. It's story has mystical powers coming from knowledge, and it bleeds into reality with parallels to real art, through real paintings in the house and stuff, and real occultism like Crowley. It has bits and pieces of the dimensions and distorsions that can hit your mind and when you enlighten up and hit walls. Not only bricks of those walls will be in Undying, but entire perspectives, morphing and being present, all the same, everytime different, as you change in real life; it comes with you, stays there and you can see it's smarter than you. Maybe Clive is, maybe he has read books and sewn up a REAL STORY.
Portal is equivalent to visual, material 1984, Orwell. Feels like THX a bit, all white and insane. It crosses life strongly, it has a real story to tell, not bullshit about schizophrenicly imagined heroes.
Riddick Butcher Bay has a stupid story and a stupid universe. If you hit the streets with the guns and go in jail, it won't be exactly like this, but longer and worse, and every time you will lose or be used like a ***** or abused like one. There's the bitches of the strong, and there's the bitches of everybody, only the latter implies sex.
Serious Sam HD has no story. But you can project in it a story, and that's cool; except is has no story. Neither does WarCraft III. What can't be real by any set of rules is only in the imagination of the stupid, so even if it's smart and made by Blizzard, is still stupid as hell and impossible. Not a story for children, but for brainwashing the children. I like it, but with cheat codes; the children will be held prisoners in the tower of doom for their next 15-20 years. The first love is the greatest.
Twisted Metal 2 has an evil God in it. He's so evil and wicked you can't deny it. And because it's so real, it's a real story.
Call of Duty 1&2 does the damn job. It's a shut up, go to war, experience it your self thing; tell the story yourself afterwards. Everybody knows stories of war. And by the factors of "real" and "whole life-impact", it's a real story.
With so many stories in the world you must be a damn fool to look for something that doesn't give/promise it all at once somehow. I'm only interested in becoming a god and in simple pleasures. All other stories are worthless to everybody. Almost everybody's been brainwashed to perceive useless shit as deification, that's why they like it. We all have that single purpose.
God=The entire universe.
Bad story & plot: a device holding the power of the entire universe must be taken into possesion. Hot chicks, money and stuff is promised.
Good story & plot: while dismantling a huge military plot of milking the earth dry, little by little you find the mesmerizing powers you never knew you possessed and by becoming more and more powerful you search the path to the place from where infinity will become a piece at your hand and, multiplied with the infinity of your accumulated power will make you a living God. In full color, smooth animation and complete depth. Then the other increasingly great 70% of the game.
