to thefictional tropical island of Panau to overthrow an evil dictator. Critics havepraised the sequels expansive world, its thrilling Hollywoodlike action andits freeflowing gameplay. Yet, many of them also seem to have the samecomplaint. The story just isnt that good.Balancing a compelling storylinewith nonlinear gameplay has always been the biggest challenge developers facewhen creating an open world game. Sometimes a compromise is made, such as sidemissions that dont interfere with the main plot Assassins Creed, AssassinsCreed 2. But, more often than not the story is simplified, sacrificed on thealtar of player freedom. Sometimes, it can even be overshadowed by a gameswellwritten side quests. In the weeks following the release of Fallout 3 considered by many to be Buy Final Fantasy XIV Gil one of the best RPGs ever made it wasnt the mainquestline that had everyone talking unless it was to complain about how youcouldnt continue the game after finishing it. It was the town of Megaton, andwhether or not you chose to turn it into a nuclear mushroom cloud in one of thegames earliest side quests. One of the most memorable moments in Fallout3 doesnt occur during the main storyline. The reason why so many sandbox gameshave such paperthin storylines is because they lack narrative momentum. Simplyput, narrative momentum is the desire to find out what happens next. Its theforward motion that moves the plot along. Its the dangling carrot that keeps abook lover flipping pages into the wee hours of the night saying, Just one morechapter! Or, as a gamer might say, Just onemore cutscene! Open world video games, by theirvery nature, lack narrative momentum. Players are encouraged to stray from themain storyline, to explore the game world and to fulfill objectives creativelyin the order of their choosing. But such freedom comes at the cost of momentum,and players who spend too much time away from the main plot run the risk oflosing interest in it altogether. Final Fantasy XIII is probably themost recent example of how developers are starting to move away from the GTA