Games With the Best Stories Ever

These evergreen features are made for weekends: GamesRadar has a list of the 15 best video game stories of all time. It’s good for a mid-afternoon bull session between the hours of whatever you’re playing (still hammering on Bully, myself.)

I haven’t played many on the list to be quite honest, as lots are PC games and I am one of those lifelong Mac users (sue me). In fact, the only Portal I played was the interactive novel on a Macintosh Plus back in 1987. Not sure if interactive novels qualify, they might be more novel than game, but that one was outstanding.

I’m also a little surprised that neither Sam & Max nor, for that matter, Full Throttle (an extremely underrated game) didn’t make the list. Throttle especially, as it had one of the great finales of all time, when Ripburger goes into the chasm clutching a “Can’t beat a Corley” licence plate. Indeed.

I’ve put the full list after the jump, if you want to see what made it without going through the whole article, which has some nice YouTube and flash videos of game highlights.

In no order, the 15 best are:

Metal Gear Solid (1998, PlayStation, PC)
Grim Fandango (1998, PC)
The Longest Journey (2000, PC)
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2, Xbox, PC, 2004)
Beyond Good & Evil (PS2, Xbox, GameCube, PC, 2003)
Astro Boy: Omega Factor (Game Boy Advance, 2004)
Portal (Xbox 360, PC, PS3, 2007)
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (PC, 1993)
Bioshock (Xbox 360, 2007)
Planescape: Torment (PC, 1999)
Fallout 2 (PC, 1998)
God of War (PS2, 2005)
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Xbox, PC, 2003)
Final Fantasy VI (Super Nintendo, 1994)
Silent Hill 2 (Xbox, PS2, PC, 2001)

The Best Video Game Stories Ever [GamesRadar]