When I think about some of the most important games to me, a common thread emerges. Nearly all of them contain stories that can only be told with a video game.

Take The Stanley Parable. If you haven't played it (and you really should), it's a brilliant experiment into what happens if the player has a seemingly-unlimited number of choices and possibilities presented to them. Playing the game over and over again tells many small stories, which play into an overarching 'world' or 'universe'. This kind of narrative just wouldn't work very well in any other medium... it would be too hard to follow the rules, or too tiresome.

In a game, it builds a certain type of experience, based on the player's ability to interact and listen to the narrator. Staying in a cupboard too long for example, allows for a few extra laughs as the narrator berates you for it. You then learn a little more about his opinion of you in this moment. But if you never even went in the cupboard, you wouldn't know the extent of what he really thinks. Small interactions like this might seem trivial, but I think they really matter in the big picture.

What I'm talking about might seem obvious, but what I'm really trying to say is that games have been around for a long time, and they are only just starting to show their storytelling potential. We have an exciting, winding road ahead.

We're really only licking the tip of the iceberg of what kinds of stories they can tell and how they can involve us more. I find myself getting more emotional and cheering more and more in games, and less in film and TV. I think that's because developers are getting better at making characters mean more to you.

And what better way to do that, then to dress them, maybe even design their face, make choices for them and spend 30 hours by their side. It brings us even closer to our digital characters to the point where they are much more than just a virtual representation of ourselves - but a unique sub-character in their own right, with their own play styles, goals and motivations.

Hard line, static narratives like The Last of Us or Bioshock are fantastic and thrilling. They're basically letting you play out all the action parts of a drama. But it's when you get to be involved in the drama, such as in Beyond that things get 'next level' for me.

Dragon Age: Origins is a game I think of a lot when comparing storytelling devices (I tend to 'fan out' about it a bit whenever I can). I think it's one of the greatest RPG's of all time. The variety of choices you could make allowed for real consequences which helped mould your hero. I certainly played my rogue much differently to my warrior- but not in the classic 'rogue bad, warrior noble' way. My rogue was careful and honest. My warrior was a hilarious jerk. The point is, I made those decisions and I remember how that affected my journey and it felt uniquely like my game. When other NPCs (Non Player-controlled Characters) momentarily reflected on my earlier choices later in the game, I felt like I'd forged every moment of that story myself. A small comment here, a frown or two there... all my own doing... that's subtle genius at work and I wish that mechanic could be in every game.

I think developers are really only just beginning to understand the importance of choice and consequence. Just look at the Mass Effect series which spanned a whole console generation: three games and downloadable extra content. When it finally ended - gamers went MAD. To invested gamers with their own characters, the ending did not truly reflect the time and thought that players had put into the previous games. The power of that investment is testament to unique storytelling that could only be done in a game.

Such varied storylines certainly look like a lot of work. That kind of care is worth it though. How fond my memories are of games like Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas because there was such narrative freedom.

I hope developers really push personal stories with this new generation of consoles. We have our graphics, we have our guns, we have our motion capture - now I just want to be involved, consumed, and full of manly tears.