[potatolicious]

I think it's not really about dismissing the idea of the cutscene narrative - cutscenes can certainly be very well done, but a challenge for game developers to develop the medium's own mechanisms for storytelling instead of continually borrowing from film.

The best storytelling we've managed so far is temporarily suspending the "game" part of video games and putting on a Hollywood production. We're not really blazing our own trails, we're just getting better and better at emulating filmmakers.

There are few games that seem to be able to tell a story without completely stopping gameplay or removing agency - the very thing that makes video games video games. Developers realize this limitation, but our only response to it so far is to let the player move the camera a bit and throw in quick-time events (mash X to escape! oh too late, let's try that again!). That's not really agency.

One game that's interesting is an indie game called Kentucky Route Zero - it's a point and click adventure but with level design borrowing heavily from stage theater. It's a nice breath of fresh air, even if it isn't a complete reinvention of in-game storytelling.

I think Bioshock Infinite needs a quick nod for some advances in storytelling. While it's not free from player-control-robbing cutscenes, a huge portion of the game's story is communicated in its environment - something that film is less capable of doing, and games are uniquely positioned to exploit. It's a good example of something playing to the medium's strengths (if only the gameplay was as good as the storyline...)