Tuesday afternoon four well-known games industry writers and designers got together to discuss the best storytelling gaming has to offer in a panel entitled "Stories Best Played: Deconstructing the Best Interactive Storytelling." Each of the authors brought a pair of games that they viewed as some of the narratively strongest yet made. Prior to the panel all four men played the ten titles, and came prepared to talk about the strengths and merits of each. Panelists Richard Rouse (Paranoid Productions), Steve Meretzky (Blue Fang), Marc Laidlaw (Valve Software), and Ken Rolston (Big Huge Games) offered up, in essence, a 'top eight' list for gamers looking to get more from exposition than explosions.

Read on for views from a panel of expert opinions on the likes of Loom, BioShock, Phoenix Wright and the legendary Planescape: Torment.