Looking for a good story-driven PC game?

I'm on college winter break, home visiting family. I need something to occupy my time not spent on the holidays or with my friends at home and while I wait for Mass Effect 2 to come out.



When it comes to gaming, I much prefer an engaging story over gameplay; good visuals are always welcome. For example, one of my favorite games of all time is Shenmue (besides Mass Effect) for the Dreamcast.



I can't tell you exactly what I want, but I can give you an idea of what I DON'T want.



No Bioshock. Bioshock is one of the rare cases where the gameplay was bad enough for me to not care about the excellent story. Sorry to the many the fans of the game.



No Epic Fantasy games. I just finished Dragon Age. I don't want to spend another 100+ hours in a game, ignoring my girlfriend and family. Plus I'm tired of dragons and elves and everything Tolkien; I want something original.



In fact, all epic RPGs might have to be ruled out as well. I don't have the attention span for final fantasy nor many JRPGs.



No Horror games, unless they have such an outstanding story. I'm looking for something that won't stress me out and make me feel like I'm having a heart attack. Scary movies 鈥?Love 'em; scary games 鈥?like 'em, but I'd like to relax over winter break.



I'm iffy about FPSs, but not totally opposed. I've shot and killed so many mutants, Nazis, military agents, mawmen and headcrabs, bandits, anything and everything that I'm tired of shooting things. I can't expect too many games 鈥?except for adventure games 鈥?to not have killing, but I'd like it to not be the main focus of the game.



And nothing too old. Try to keep it previous console generation or newer, with the possible exception of N64.



I'd like a PC game, but anything I can play on GameCube, Wii, PS2, or Dreamcast.



I have a decent rig (2.93 GHz Core 2 Duo, 4 GB DDR3 RAM, and a Radeon HD 4850), so graphic-intense games aren't much of a concern.



Here are some games that I have played in the past which I thought had good stories.



Half-Life

Half-Life 2

Half-Life 2: Ep 1

Half-Life 2: Ep 2

Baldur's Gate

Knights of the Old Republic

Mass Effect

Dragon Age: Origins

Shenmue (I have to wait on Shenmue 2 鈥?long story)

Beyond Good and Evil

Resident Evil 4

Resident Evil 5 (eh, maybe a good story)

GTA: San Andreas

GTA IV

Fallout 3

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

LoZ: Majora's Mask

LoZ: Wind Waker

LoZ: Twilight Princess



I know I sound picky. But I've come to realize that I probably play video games too much, and am running out of games with good stories.



Thanks in advance for reading my long question and for your advice.Looking for a good story-driven PC game?
Do you like platforming/adventure? I see you liked Beyond Good and Evil and though it's a different game I think Psychonauts was a really fun story driven platformer/adventure game that kinda has that feel to it. You can find it for your ps2 and pc.



Also how do you feel about old pc games? Have you played the original Deus Ex? It's still probably my favorite PC game of all time. But this has a lot of killing.



I would suggest Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, for an excellent story driven adventure with minimal fighting.Looking for a good story-driven PC game?
what i do when i get bored of current games i download emulators and roms and play old n64 gameboy nes and snes games if you want more info email me tjadams87@yahoo.comLooking for a good story-driven PC game?
I just got done playing Mirror's Edge over the weekend. It's not very long, which could be a problem if you finish it too quickly and find yourself with nothing to do all over again. It's only $20 on Steam right now. It's a 1st person game and there is some shooting, but it's more like an adventure game with puzzle elements. I think it pretty accurately matches the kind of game you're looking for, so check out some reviews for it and decide if you want it or not.