Depends what games or movies. In general they are about the same but you have to compare the best of the best. Not all of these are the best but just a example tomb raider vs uncharted, mass effect vs star trek next generation movies(IMO those are the best), resistance vs district 9, lord of the rings vs oblivion, fallout 3 vs I am legend, the dark night vs infamous, armored core vs transformers, etc...

Games often rely on cutscenes (movies) to get their most emotional bits across. While yes, I enjoy the story in games more than most movies made nowadays, I don't think it's correct to say that games do a better job of expressing them than movies.

Is this even a debate? Who tells stories better? Books! Nuff said, now get on and do.

Any medium can tell a good story as along as the storyteller is competent and knows what he/she is doing. Time/ page length shouldn't be an obstacle for effective storytelling.

The answer to the question is found in the goals of each medium. Films are made to tell stories that engage their audience. Games are made to play. Movies are a much better medium for storytelling at this point.

Video games, because of their nature, are more 'episodic' in that most people play for a while, take a break, and return to the game at a later time. With movies, the storytelling emphasizes creating an experience that is meant to be enjoyed without interruption. It's a totally different experience.

In terms of quality of writing, there's no debate. Video game writing has yet to reach the level of an award-winning screenplay. There are some exceptional games out there, but games emphasizes the active engagement of the play experience (as they should) over the storytelling aspects.

In other words, a game could have a story on the scale of 'Lawrence of Arabia,' but if the gameplay is weak, the game has failed in its primary objective.

books

o-t: I believe they're quite on par.

Well considering that the movie medium was created to show/tell a story then I would say movies.

Video games have a "disadvantage" which is the fun interaction they must have (their main purpose), so they don't have the liberty or commodity to concentrate on how to tell the story alone.

Movies are about that and they can pretty much do anything they want so the story can be as good as they wish or can. Storytelling in video games, while great in some of them, is not the priority.

A more suitable comparison would be books and movies which main purpose is to tell a story.

So far, I would say movies. I think the biggest problem with "games" lay with the fact that they use mini-cgi movies, aka cutscenes. to tell their stories. It is almost a little disingenuous since cutscenes aren't even really a part of the game and most are shipped out to other comapnies to do. Also note the complete difference in graphic's quality breaks the momentum and immersion. I think Spielberg has the best view of the situation;

"He has also criticized the use of cut scenes in games, calling them intrusive, and feels making story flow naturally into the gameplay is a challenge for future game developers.[77]"

Honestly, I think to get to that "level" of invoking movie like emotions, the graphics and acting has to be a little better. I am excited about what they are doing with L.A. Noire in that aspect. As for cutscenes, I am all up for more dynamic camera angles, look at Uncharted 2 for example. Keep in mind, cutscenes original purpose was to make up for what the game couldn't do on its own, I think the tech is certainly getting there.

its video games for sure think about it in a video game you can do alot of things add these and that can make a great video game and makes sequels to them make them better and much more and with movie they dont make sequels its rare at time when they make a sequel to a movie they just so to the next movie and forget about making a sequel and when they do its not as great as there first movie

Calm down...movies tell the better story. Games last longer and you get all those pretty targets to shoot at and all those pretty colors that move really, really fast and you have to be really, really smart and good to beat your opponent......right?