I think story is a little overrated in video games. A game can be great with little story, and it can hardly be a game with a lot of it. What is more important is variety, which a story will often provide. A solid story will often take the player to different locations and provide the player with unique objectives. Of course this isn't always the case. Some games, like Super Mario Galaxy, have little story, but still have lots of variety. That being said, I love an engaging story in a videogame, provided it isn't a complete mess. Final Fantasy VII is a good example of a game with engaging story and good gameplay. Maybe the story isn't worthy of a great novel, but in the context of a game it works. Conversely, Metal Gear Solid 4's story is a mess that relies on unbelievable twists and overly drawn-out dialogue. The previous games in the series were much better as far as story goes. Nothing genius, as the MGS fanboys will claim, but certainly engaging and thought-provoking, and not insulting to your intelligence as the fourth entry in the series was. Then we have games like GTA IV, where the gameplay clashes with the story. It's hard to believe that Niko Bellic is a good man at heart who wants to change his ways, when he continually kills for money in nearly every mission. That, and the main story seemed to disappear during all but the most important missions. Furthermore, the story didn't create much variety in the game.
I'm really looking forward to an announcement for a new high-quality Nintendo game. I hope it's not a new Mario platformer though, because Super Mario Galaxy is way too good to need a current gen follow up. I'm also hoping that Hideo Kojima's upcoming game won't be another MGS, though it almost certainly will be. Speaking frankly about GoW 3, Bioshock 2 and FF13, they all seem very similar to previous installments, so I'm not really excited about them. Finally, I know there's nothing new about this, but I'm really looking forward to the Metroid Prime trilogy.
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