Among more mainstream devs, I'd have to say Treyarch or Silicon Knights.

I've been interested to find that their appears to be a great disparity in what the dedicated game player considers a good story.

Mainstream reviewers and websites often highly acclaim the stories of games like GTA IV, Bioshock, Fallout 3, Half Life 2, Metal Gear Solid 4, The Elder Scrolls IV and even considerably lighter fare such as Halo, Final Fantasy, and God of War.

In the forums and comment sections, it seems a different story. I could think of any number of scathing criticisms and derisions (founded or not) for the stories of the above mentioned games and many others.

And these games are often the first out of the peoples' mouths when asked for a game with a good story. So there's a wide spectrum: reviewers and gamers praising these games and others absolutely hating their stories.

Of course, it all comes down to opinion, but when I try to think of games that would be almost universally acknowleged as having a good story, I'm left with only vintage titles.

So what games would you consider to have an amazing, mindblowing story that are fairly modern (I'm thinking 1998 onwards)?