Games have always been an important part of every society. Whether it's been sports, board games, or video games it's a great way to relieve stress and boredom. Some video games are simply there to take your mind off of things, however some invite you to be more involved in the lore, story and characters. And that's what I'll be discussing today. These games that sport a brilliant and interesting story (in no particular order).

Bioshock (PS3)

Bioshock is a first person shooter game and is considered the spiritual successor of an earlier game, System Shock 2. Bioshock, or the first two games anyways, takes place in 1960 in a fictional underwater city called Rapture. It was built by a business tycoon named Andrew Ryan. The city was meant to be a utopia for like minded people (more laissez faire in ethics). The idea was that they'd work, live and prosper without the oppressive rules on the government above.

It starts off with the player controlling a man named Jack. His plane has crashed right near Rapture and he ends up stumbling upon it. A man named Atlas guides him on the rest of his journey via radio. The game from there on is him discovering how Rapture fell and trying to escape.

On the whole the whole series is about how on the surface a 'utopia' can look grand, but there's always secrets oozing from underneath. It isn't as always perfect and pristine as it seems. And most of the time it's hiding awful secrets.

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The Last of Us (PS3)

The Last of Us is a third-person survival/horror action adventure video game. Set in the post-apocalyptic United States in the year 2033 and twenty years after a fungal based pandemic has taken over 60 percent of the world's population.

The world has officially gone into a state of panic and the United States have ceded control to homeland security and the military. Those who survived the pandemic were put into a quarantine zone and in theory, away from the infected.

It tells the story of survivors Joel and Ellie as they work together to survive their journey and try find a possible cure for the fungal plague that has decimated society.

Though it takes on the stereotypical ideal of a zombie apocalypse, it also tackles the idea of how far would someone go to find a cure and save the world even if that meant putting the ones they loved at risk.

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The World Ends With You (DS)

The World Ends With You is an action-RPG for the Nintendo DS. The art was inspired by the Shibuya youth culture and the game itself was inspired by elements of "Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories".

In the game, Neku Sakuraba and his 'friends' are forced to participate in a game of fate. It follows Neku over the course of three weeks as they play the game, paired with three partners for each respective week. It begins with Neku waking up in the Shibuya scramble crossing. He doesn't remember how he got there and has lost a big chunk of his memories.

Throughout the week he learns that the game he was entered in is for those who have died and that it's purpose was for the players to prove that they deserve to go back to the living.

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