Story in games.

I don't agree with everything they said on the list of the greatest stories, but I do love a lot of those games.

Even though Legend of Zelda games use a dump truck load of cliches I still love them. Not Windwaker though, but that has more to do with style.

I think the list of best stories is pretty spot on, especially in regards to Final Fantasy. And I was not surprised to see Portal and Bioshock on there, either. I trumpet the both of them as examples that modern games can have flashy graphics and maintain a quality story as well.

Can't believe San Andreas is in there...

Don't get me wrong, I love San Andreas, tis my favourite of the GTA games but the storyline is just average and pretty forgettable.

I also disagree with God Of War been included, I found that to be a pretty bland storyline and an overated game if I'm perfectly honest.

FF7 should have been in there, Mass Effect should have been included and Red Dead Redemption should have been in there

I'm actually shocked Red Dead didn't get included. That game is one of the best ever imo.

Bioshock??? One of the most overrated game ever. It's story was a very poor ripoff and copy-paste of System Shock 2. System Shock 2 should be there and not that highly overrated, trendy piece of junk.

I'm also missing Mafia, Anachronox, Culpa Innata (Similar to TLJ), Sanitarium, Deus Ex, Homeworld, Mass Effect, Max Payne, Second Sight, Fahrenheit, StarCraft, Still Life, Day of the Tentacle... hell, even Freespace and "few" others from that list.

But I can agree with few, such as Silent Hill 2 - Restless Dreams, TLJ, BG&E, Metal Gear Solid and few others, but not all. The rest are just trendy junks.

That's a really bad list. Games Radar is a horrendous site.

I could list a million, but I'll stick to just one.

Deus Ex

Freelancer said:

Bioshock??? One of the most overrated game ever. It's story was a very poor ripoff and copy-paste of System Shock 2. System Shock 2 should be there and not that highly overrated, trendy piece of junk.

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You realize that Bioshock was developed by the same guy that did System Shock 2, right? It stands to reason that elements of the gameplay would be similar. It's almost like calling Half-Life 2 a rip-off of Half-Life.

And Bioshock's plot is a LOT better than SS2 when it comes to story.

Sorry, but SS2 was...well, fairly straight forward. It was well told, but Bioshock felt more creative, and had a lot of deeper philosophical themes that I enjoyed immensely - though I think the ending should have been more cerebral.

Freelancer said:

Bioshock??? One of the most overrated game ever. It's story was a very poor ripoff and copy-paste of System Shock 2. System Shock 2 should be there and not that highly overrated, trendy piece of junk.

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Agreed. Plus, the entire correlation between Bioshock and Ayn Rand bothered me.

All right that's it!

I challenge you both a duel.

Fulk said:

It's almost like calling Half-Life 2 a rip-off of Half-Life.

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...B-b-but it is.

What about the Witcher? The Witcher felt like one of these books you can't put down to me.

Well, it is a book adaption after all.
I don't particularly disagree with the (first) article, i only played about half the games on that list, but of the ones i played, Planescape Torment is the only one i wouldn't list. Although maybe it's a little unfair, the story, while not great, wasn't too bad, probably still above average. It being a craptastic piece of shoddy gameplay somewhat influences my memories of it.
I'd of course nominate Xenogears as the best storyline in games ever, Shadowhearts wasn't too bad either. (The sequential 1&2, 3 was bad)

The Baldurs Gate series should get an honorable mention at least, for a tried and true farmboy-with-destiny story done very well.

Zoombie said:

And Bioshock's plot is a LOT better than SS2 when it comes to story.

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Not true at all. Here are the examples...

1. Von Braun - Rapture (Isolated location, one in space, one in underwater.)
2. Shodan / Janice Polito - Atlas / Fontaine, the one who lead you and then betrays you when you reveal it's second identity (This happened on Level 4 in SS2, and somewhere around Level 6-8 in Bioshock).
3. Xerxes - Andrew Ryan, the presented main evil that against the real evil is using you.
4. Sgt. Bronson and the "civil war" against the Many - Sullivan and his "Civil war" in Bioshock between the humans and the Splicers.
5. Army of the Many - Splicers
6. PsiOps - Plasmids
7. Audio Logs - Tape Recorders
8. Dr. Miller and his experiments on the crew - Dr. Steinman or what was his name and his beauty shop of perfection (I believe they were also around the very same levels. Level 2-3 in both games.).
9. Rebecca Siddons - Brigid Tennenbaum (One of the very few survivors, who is struggling to survive. You can hear her all over via logs, and actually survives in the end. The only difference, Rebecca helps you without her own knowledge as she is one step ahead of you, but don't know about you, while Tennenbaum helps you directly. And Tennenbaum is also serves Polito's role in BS.).

And this list can go on and on and on...

Level setup.
1. Level 1, you must escape from being sucked out to space, then you see via a window as the Many kills someone and then Shodan / Polito starts to guide you (System Shock 2 opening). You must escape from a plane wreck, then you see via a window as someone is killed by a Splicer and then Tennenbaum (Polito's BS version) and Fontain (Shodan's BS version) starts to guide you (Bioshock opening).
2. Level 2 Medic Level in System Shock 2, Level 2 Medical Pavilon in Bioshock
3. Level 4 Hydroponics in System Shock 2, Level 4 Arcadia Garden or how they called the garden in Bioshock.
4. You can play this comparison with all the other levels. What you saw in SS2, you see it in Bioshock... sometimes with a little delay and maybe, just maybe with a very small modification.
5. Biochambers - Vitachambers

Oh, and my favorite, the last levels...
Use the elevator to go up to the Rickenbacker to reach Shodan (System Shock 2), Use the elevator to the Proving Grounds to reach Andrew Ryan (Bioshock).

Yeah... Bioshock's storyline is much more advanced and not a copy-paste. I can see that.

You may challenge me, but System Shock 2 is my favorite game and as I see I was capable to draw enough parallels between SS2 and that highly overrated piece of junk Bioshock to present why it is a copy paste game without any innovation. BS is the "dumb underwater edition" of SS2, nothing more.

There is a phrase "System Shock lovers are BioShock haters.". I'm no exception.

Sorry, but SS2 was...well, fairly straight forward. It was well told, but Bioshock felt more creative, and had a lot of deeper philosophical themes that I enjoyed immensely - though I think the ending should have been more cerebral.

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Ahem. Both were straight forward, but you've had much more freedom in SS2 as you always had the chance to return to the previous levels to gather everything what you've missed. The ending is the only real difference. The ending of BS, the "good ending" was good (Actually I really loved that ending, regardless my opinion about BS), but SS2's ending was creepier and better. But I wouldn't fall into a deeper conversation regarding the philisophy of a game, where the greatest selling point was... "You can kill little girls if you want. We give you the chance for it.". BS had a stupid and sick propaganda in it's philosophy part, nothing more. It's not philosophy, it's idiotism what BS is presented on the highest level.

You realize that Bioshock was developed by the same guy that did System Shock 2, right?

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And? It's not an excuse. Plus as I mentioned "the story is an SS2 rip off", while it should be two different universes, two different storylines yet you got an almost identical storyline and level setup (And this thread was about the best storylines in games, but I can present you even the copy-paste level design in BS too.). There was greater difference between the storyline of SS1 and SS2, than between SS2 and BS in every possible way, while BS is not the sequel or even the prequel of SS2. The writer simply reused everything from SS2 and renamed them (See the examples above.).

So these are the reasons why I said, SS2 should be on that list and not BS.

What about Eternal Sonata??? The storyline was amazing.

R.M. Watts said:

Agreed. Plus, the entire correlation between Bioshock and Ayn Rand bothered me.

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As much as I despise Ayn Rand and her philosophies, I still liked Bioshock. The band Rush was inspired heavily by Rand too, and a lot of their concept albums are influenced by or refer to Randian philosophy. I won't let that tarnish my love of Rush.

Uh...I'm pretty sure that Bioshock was a CRITIQUE of Randian philosophies.

I.E, they were all about how Objectavism falls apart.

Zoombie said:

Uh...I'm pretty sure that Bioshock was a CRITIQUE of Randian philosophies.

I.E, they were all about how Objectavism falls apart.

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Good point. All the more reason to like it.

See, the thing is that Andrew Ryan's (I.E Ayn Rand's philosophy) had this big huge blind spot: The parasite. According to AR, the parasite is someone who can only steal from inventive and creative people. Inventive and creative people are ALWAYS going to agree with AR, because anyone who disagrees is evil.

But then comes Frank Fontaine...a brilliant, creative PARASITE. The one thing that AR's philosophy claimed could not exist.

And thus, he brought an end to Rapture.

And so on.