Sure it's entirely possible. Red Dead Redemption comes to mind.
The story itself was solid. It wasn't entirely original in the world of literature/movies/etc., but it was still a good redition of a classic "closing of the old west" tale. The writing however was excellent. The way the story was told, you're really able to identify with John Marston as a guy who just wants to move on with his life, but whose past keeps him chained to it. You understand how the guy's life from his childhood, to his gunslinger days, to when he was betrayed by his own gang, and transition to family man shaped exactly who he is and why he does what he does. His past is never just told as a backstory that's just randomly inserted somewhere in the story. His past is gradually revealed in context of the story.
The plot moves in a logical direction. There are no random swerves or surprises that just serve to extend the plot for another couple hours. The one real surprise at the game's end made perfect sense and was a very fitting end to the story.
Plus the dialogue is very good. Very clever at times too. John's dry sense of humor delivers a steady number of one liners, particuarly when he's paired with a more over-the-top character like Nigel West Dickens or Reyes.
Portal and Portal 2 have excellent writing in terms of dialogue, its hilarious. Games like The Longest Journey tell a great story with characters you quickly learn to love. I know that you are probably looking for games with a deep story but I enjoy the big summer movie a ton and there are plenty of games that can come up with stories and characters that matches the best summer movies. Uncharted comes to mind, its no Indiana Jones but it comes close, I say closer than something like National Treasure. I game like Mass Effect tells a great sci-fi epic with characters you end up caring about and manages to allow you to influence the story.
The difference between story and storytelling, the story is what the plot is. Like MGS is a story about a secret agent that is cloned by a dude that should be dead but is not and he has a clone brother that wants to start wars so that soldiers can have a place in the world, meanwhile there is a supersecret organization that wants to control all information, etc. The story makes no sense. Storytelling is how you present the story and MGS does so in the most exciting, mindblowing way possible at times, other times it talks for an hour on end. MGS3 had great storytelling as the plot, gameplay and action all feed perfectly together to move you through the story. MGS2 and MGS4 suffered from bad storytelling as having characters blabber on for an hour is never a good way to tell a story.
Dvader said:I know that you are probably looking for games with a deep story.
Not at all. One of the game stories I enjoyed the most was Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. It remained down-to-earth, and delivered a very enjoyable western tale in the vein of old spaghetti westerns. It was simple, and done before a million times, but very effectively told.
I've watched many TV shows, movies and read books over the years that contain stories and characters that have moved me in an emotional way. Video game stories never have, though. I think the main reason for that is the lack of believeable characters in games. I find it difficult to care about flat, often stereotypical video game characters. You can have a great story, but without believeable characters, it all falls apart, IMO.
Ravenprose said:I've watched many TV shows, movies and read books over the years that contain stories and characters that have moved me in an emotional way. Video game stories never have, though. I think the main reason for that is the lack of believeable characters in games. I find it difficult to care about flat, often stereotypical video game characters. You can have a great story, but without believeable characters, it all falls apart, IMO.
Up until recently I would have agreed with you, but I have to admit that Red Dead Redemption and LA Noire have really impressed me as games that have created believable relatable characters. I think part of it is because the technology has only now just recently gotten to a point where games that can make realistic settings and still feel dynamic and fun to play. It's tough to have those kinds of believable characters when they're out saving the world/galaxy/princess from a mysterious force/dragon/long haired nihlist. However, when the story focuses on a guy just trying to get by and do what's right for himself and his family... well that's a situation that's a little easier to buy into.
Really up until recently the only game where I've really cared about the characters would have been the Phoenix Wright games, and really it took 3 games (and probably near 100 hours of gameplay) to get me to that point.
Writing or storytelling? Thread is utter failure so far without any mention of adventure games. 
(The Longest Journey is a pretentious answer! I expected better from you, Vader!) 
Of course they're boring answers in a way so I won't mention any either. 
Now for a more pretentious (but 100% true) answer:
Writing in a storytelling and strucure sense the best game I've played is Metroid Prime. No other game even comes close; in fact it makes storytelling in other games look like terrible, archaic examples of the medium that have no idea how to use it and completely ignore its narrative strengths. You might say that Metroid Prime doesn't really have much of a story, and you would be absolutely right, but that is also why you need to define writing.
Hell, the majority of in game dialogue is presented through logs and scans, which is also one of the reasons it works. And unlike in bioshock it's not overdone.
As for a story itself, I don't know. There's too many stories (and characters) floating around here and there to pick a single great example. Adventure games have an advantage over things like RPGs, though, becuase of the more sedate nature so long dialoge trees and cutscenes aren't going to interrupt the flow as much as they would elsewhere.
"MGS2 and MGS4 suffered from bad storytelling as having characters blabber on for an hour is never a good way to tell a story."
I'd also go with Portal. Portal 2, in particular, is astoundingly well written. It's not laugh out loud hilarious, but it's just very cleverly written.
We need this as a thread:
Good writing in games journalism. Is it possible?
As for games writing I would say Phoenix Wright and Hotel Dusk are pretty good.
In terms of good dialog, the game I am playing right now, Brutal Legend, is quite good. Call of Cthulu had good dialog too. Nothing really comes to mind in terms of story though. I like the whole Dead Space mythos (over the breadth of the games and comics).
I liked Eternal Darkness and its writing at the time.
The script was a shocker, though the story itself was good.
In this thread, you can make your case for games in which you have found good, quality writing. Also, we could try to establish the difference between story and storytelling, and maybe adress which one is more important.
I'm in a bit of a rush, but I'll try to edit my post with any example I can find, although I am admittedly a pretty poor judge when it comes to these things.
Please do mark spoilers.