Execution / Game

[Bridge]

Never played it, it's been in my list forever but I don't really want to bother trying to get it to run on a contemporary system.

Planescape? It's on GOG for like 5 bucks, works on Windows 7 and probably 8. Play it, it is probably the best game ever made.

I sort of enjoy MGS but it's an incredibly overwritten and cutscene laden experience. Cutscenes aren't inherently detrimental but a lot of games, MGS included, use them as a crutch. "Here's all this info we couldn't give you in any other way so pay attention''.

Personally I disagree, in fact the cutscenes are the main reason I love the MGS games. The writing is to me amazing; fascinating story, intricately detailed characters. The cutscenes use some fantastic cinematography and somehow manage to look enthralling despite the extremely low poly models. I don't agree with it being overwritten. MGS1 and MGS3 at least are perfectly understandable and easy to grasp if you are paying attention, MGS2 is a total mess that I still don't understand, regrettably I haven't played MGS4 (and I kick myself every day). I guess if you didn't care about the story the cutscenes would be annoying to watch but I love it. I don't have a problem with extreme contrasts, like MGS's mostly self-contained gameplay contrasting its amazing cutscenes and boss battles because they both complement each other. I have moments where I hate the gameplay and yet I find it impossible to call it bad or even inappropriate. I dunno, I just don't consider it a crutch. I really like reading in video games for example. That information could be transmitted through other media but why complicate things?

I don't consider the Penumbra or Amnesia games great (REAAAAALLY good games though, just not ''great''). The ''seams'' in them have always been really obvious, which made my experience feel clunky in some level.

Me neither. I'd say "really good" is a good way to describe them. On one hand you have some utterly amazing and unforgettable moments, great visual and sound design and on the other you have FG's seemingly complete inability to develop and especially conclude a narrative (in my opinion). There are also a lot of design decisions I oppose quite strongly that I won't get it into.

EDIT: About Morrowind, yeah, it is clunky. The narrative is not smooth as you said (although I liked the plot in the way I don't think it is particularly strong either), but I would still readily call it great. Its flaws somehow manage to be some of its most endearing qualities (in my opinion). As I said, nothing is perfect - I find it utterly useless to classify games on objective terms like that.

@Cuyir
TLOU gameplay is said to be quite "meh", though, isn't it?

I haven't played the game, I only watched a Let's Play, but this was my perception as well. The gameplay is in places contrived and gamey and while the story and themes are often interwoven with the gameplay it doesn't strike me as particularly compelling. But the story and character development is great so it doesn't matter - right?