Thanks Myke Cole for the mention of Thief, one of my favorite gaming experiences ever. Those three games were just amazing. I generally find myself comparing all my gaming experiences to the time I spent with those games as they came out. Although it has just the barest outlines of ‘story’ I found myself loving Dishonored this year because it allowed me to sneak around the entire game, Thief-style, knocking out and stashing away my victims rather than being forced to kill them to complete mission objectives. Great fun!

While I don’t disagree that the open ended nature of games like Fallout 3 and Skyrim *can* lead to an unfocused experience simply because of how far off the main quests you can go, it is that aspect that to me makes them a nearly perfect gaming experience. There is a serviceable story in both games (and New Vegas) but at the same time I can use my own imagination and create my own immersive experience for my character by setting personal quests, building up whatever skills I am interested in my character having, etc. I love that.

But like Kameron Hurley and others I also like the level of storytelling that goes on in games like Dragon Age and Mass Effect where choices have consequences and even when the story is more linear there is a really strong emotional investment because of the quality of the story and the quality of voice actors, cut scenes, etc.

I think we are in a great age of gaming and I’m looking forward to what comes next.

:Raises hand: I do. You got to pick your gender by which bathroom your character went to at the beginning of the game…