Figured somebody here would get a kick out of this

[A Black Falcon]

Unless it's the kind of game that doesn't need story. Though there are games that are great and the lack of story doesn't matter and there are games that are great despite not having better stories... it is true that as time has passed game stories have gotten better, but they still on the whole have a long way to go and are often pretty formulaic. Evil people are trying to do bad things and stop them! *has just told the story of 95% of games* ... okay, since games are generally about violence that makes sense, but still... the sad thing isn't that, it's how many games don't get much farther than that...

Sure, lots of games are quite good without great stories. But most such games would be better with better ones... not always, of course (Mario platformers really don't need fantastic stories), but often.

As for games with great stories, I just can't let any discussion of the subject go without mentioning Torment... because it was so awesome...