Now depending on how sick you are of the whole "What is a game?" debate, you might elect to skip over A Bird Story altogether. From Ken Gao, creator of the immeasurably amazing To The Moon - a 2011 narrative-driven tale about a dying man's last wish, Inception'd into his mind by a team of scientists - Bird Story isn't as much of a heartstring-puller, instead it's a beautiful tale of a young boy's interactions with a small wounded bird. It's probably likely that your Pretentious Detector is working overdrive at this point, but honestly the amount of effort Gao puts into his games is truly amazing, and if you're sick of all the headshots and chest stab-ery of more action-oriented titles, getting lost in this minimalist gameplay/maximum narrative is a perfect counterbalance.
