Games with story [Recommendations]

Visti

So, hey guys. I'm looking for some recommendations. Specifically for 360 games with a strong narrative. The reason is, my girlfriend loves to see me play games, but treats it more as her watching a movie, while we discuss it along the way. I's great fun, but I've seem to run out of games that either I've already played or we've played together.

We have played and loved:
Alan Wake,
Nier,
Assassin's Creed 2,
Arkham Asylum,
Mass Effect 2,
Darksiders


So basically: Lots of breaks in the action in favor of narrative, fantasy preferred (She didn't care too much about GTA 4 nor enjoying watching me stumble around for 90% of the time) and a nice tight storyline. Ridiculous and so-bad-it's-good also totally on the table.

Satanic Jesus

Do you have a PS2, because if you do, I'd recommend Persona 3 FES and Persona 4.

CaptainNemo

Max Payne is backwards compatible, and looks pretty good cutscene wise thanks to it's noir graphic novel style. Gameplay is fun too, and the story is insanely awesome. And the comic cutscenes are so bad it's fucking great incarnate.

Corehealer

Grim Fandango if your into old fashioned adventure puzzle games with excellent story.

Hahnsoo1

Satanic Jesus wrote: »

Do you have a PS2, because if you do, I'd recommend Persona 3 FES and Persona 4.

While those are great games with great stories, it mostly is dungeon crawling/grinding on random monsters for hours on end. I don't think it would be too fun to watch. I think he's looking for more cinematic-type games. Action games with plenty of talky-talk between the main characters.

Have you tried Castlevania: Lords of Shadow? There's a ton of story in that game, with a lot of cinematics, and the action is broken down into bite-sized chapters, with nearly one cinematic per chapter. It's also narrated by Patrick Stewart.

EDIT: I can definitely second Max Payne. That's definitely fun to watch, and easy to play, and the action sequences are pretty cinematic by themselves, if you are into John Woo and/or Film Noir.

Ramen Noodle

AC: Brotherhood and Red Dead Redemption are both solid.

Captain Carrot

Dragon Age and Mass Effect?

CygnusZ

Lost Odyessy

CaptainNemo

Psychonauts. Brutal Legend is fun, but short.

Like Jack Black.

amnesiasoft

Go get Dreamfall now and never look back. It will ruin stories in video games for you forever.

Kaseius

Gonna say Lost Odyssey as well, if you like RPGs. Fantastic story, and great little short stories that you can enjoy inside of the game that really add to it. It's so, so wonderful.

CaptainNemo

I was kind of turned off by the character designs of Lost Odyssey, does the story make up for it? How's the voice acting and presentation?

Jars

GoG has a couple excellent adventure games on it

the longest journey
beyond good and evil
syberia


pc games(hook it up to your tv?), but all well regarded. I think beyond good and evil is on XBN

Dartboy

Alpha Protocol?

Also, it's probably too dungeon-crawly, but Resonance of Fate is highly entertaining as well.

skeldare

Resident Evil 5 has a pretty good story, especially if you've played any of the other games. If you had a PS3 I'd recommend Heavy Rain, but yeah...

Zombiemambo

Metal Gear Solid! ...But it's more like both of you watching a movie.

Visti

There are some great suggestions here, some I have played before, but I ended up ordering Lord Of Shadows and Resonance of Fate.

I wouldn't mind playing through Psychonauts again, but does it work on my 360?

WotanAnubis

I'd say Rise of the Argonauts, but with some disclaimers.

It's not exactly a perfect game. It has... quite a few faults. But it's fairly short and has long stretches of walking around talking to people, if that's your thing. Also, if you know anything about Greek mythology you can have a lot of fun pointing out the things the game did right and the things they got hilariously wrong.

amnesiasoft

Visti wrote: »

I wouldn't mind playing through Psychonauts again, but does it work on my 360?

Wikipedia says it is after a valiant e-mail campaign led by Tim Schafer.

Jintor

Your caveats are preventing me from recommending Ghost Trick, the Ace Attorney series, and 999. I guess I'll just say their names in bold in a desperate attempt to get people to notice them.

Mr_Grinch

Fahrenheit, I'm pretty sure it's backwards compatible (xbox).

Brilliant start to the game and the story seems to hold together, then it goes down the "so bad it's good" road as,iirc:

You're attacked by the internet

.

My wife does the same with games and she's really enjoyed:

Lost (The game was awful but the episodic format works well to watch)
Most point and clicks (Monkey Island remakes, Sam and Max, Monkey Island episodes, Back to the Future. Not sure what's out on the 360)

And then, probably no good to you, the best:

Heavy Rain (She even played this. Her first and only console game)
Uncharted 1 & 2. So damn cinematic.

::edit:: I found Castlevania exceedingly dull. It's pretty short on story for the first 3 or 4 hours of play in my opinion. By that point I couldn't be bothered going any further so traded it in.

Dhalphir

Seconding mass effect fifty billion times.

its exactly what you're looking for.

l337CrappyJack

Deadly Premonition, while being a flawed game, is also surprisingly gripping and engaging storywise.

BritishDavid

The first Condemned is surpringsly cool narrative wise.

Oghulk

Dragon Age:Origins (and 2 when it comes out in 3 weeks), Red Dead Redemption, Mass Effect, Final Fantasy (For some reason I disliked anytime I had to do combat and loved all the cinematic storytelling and such).

Should really check out Dragon Age though. Lots of cinematic storytelling through dialogue (I mean lots like if you're not in a dungeon, there's talking roughly every 30seconds a minute).

vamen

I also support Lost Odyssey. I hear the complaints about some of the character design though my only real beef was with the villain, who was about the lamest main foe ever. Well, and the two kids were a little creep.
But the overall plot is great, with some really excellent revelations throughout the game.

And though it may not be fun to 'watch', if you guys don't mind reading, some of the memories (which show up as just text on screen with some background music) you unlock for Kaim are amazing. Absolutely don't skip reading those.

Lindsay Lohan

I'm playing through Red Dead Redemption right now and my wife is enjoying watching the story. It's an amazingly detailed, atmospheric world.

Visti

Jintor wrote: »

Your caveats are preventing me from recommending Ghost Trick, the Ace Attorney series, and 999. I guess I'll just say their names in bold in a desperate attempt to get people to notice them.

Played all of them and they would be exactly what I wanted.. If they weren't all on tiny screens.


I thought about Deadly Premonition too, but I already watched the GB run of it, so I know all the story beats, sadly.

And... I think one of my friends might actually own Lost Odyssey. If so, that's going on there. And for the Condemned suggestion: I have two, but have never played it.. Would it be alright to go straight into that?

How is Dragon Age on the 360? Servicable? I own it on PC, but only ever got as far as the fade.


I'm looking at maybe picking up one more to really have my back covered. Considering Alpha Protocol. Is it really as broken as some people claim or is that internet hyperbole?

Jintor

It's not broken, the actual gunplay just isn't really... y'know... enjoyable.

Magic Pink

Pac-Man DX has a great story. Something about the plight of the working man or something, I don't know. Just buy it.

jefe414

You have to play Alpha Protocol like a RPG not like a shooter (in my experience). I'm going to third (fourth?) Mass Effect. The combat in the 1st one is a little "Whack A Mole" but still good. I love the story and everything only gets better in the second one. Mass Effect is my favorite series on the 360.

Jintor

You're thinking of Tetris.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWTFG3J1CP8

Big Classy

The Darkness. If you're playing it with your girlfriend watching, it is really good.

Skull2185

Dead Space 1&2

Hedgethorn

Visti wrote:

I'm looking at maybe picking up one more to really have my back covered. Considering Alpha Protocol. Is it really as broken as some people claim or is that internet hyperbole?

Alpha Protocol is far from polished, but there aren't any game-breaking bugs, at least not on the 360. You just have to suffer a bit through the broken AI, unbalanced boss battles, and unsatisfying gunplay.

Did you ever play Deus Ex, way back in 1999? AP's gunplay is about as bad as Deus Ex's was.

But the dialogue and story are very well done for a video game, and unlike a lot of games, the choices you make in AP actually make a substantial difference to the plot of the game and the identity of your enemies and allies.

If you're going to play it, just sink a ton of points into pistols and stealth, which will allow you to cheese your way past the most difficult parts of the game (*cough* Moscow boss *cough*).

Dhalphir

Oh, and if you're going to play Mass Effect, for the purposes of watching it with your girlfriend, don't skip the first one like a few people would tell you to. Its not as good gameplay wise as the second one, but the story is just as good and told just as well.

RoyceSraphim

Freespace: Open Blue Planet

You fly the ship and she changes power settings....I kid I kid

Listen to the man who recommened Beyond Good and Evil earlier, absolute number 1 choice for this question and she will commend you for getting a strong female character and more importantly, you will help us all get a sequel.

amnesiasoft

RoyceSraphim wrote: »

Listen to the man who recommened Beyond Good and Evil earlier, absolute number 1 choice for this question and she will commend you for getting a strong female character and more importantly, you will help us all get a sequel.

Or go with the Dreamfall suggestion of mine, or The Longest Journey as someone else suggested. Those also have strong female leads, as well as being the two best written games ever.

That's not to say BG&E is bad, or doesn't need a sequel. Dreamfall just needs its sequel even more :P

Capt Howdy

Castlevania Lord of Shadows is heavy on story. And has Patrcik Stewart reading to you!

PATRICK STEWART!

Elin

Beyond Good & Evil is getting a release on the Live Arcade soon, so that's a good one.

What about Bioshock? It's got an interesting story.

Cojones

I cannot overemphasise how good Alpha Protocol is when it comes to roleplaying/storytelling. Seriously.