True games with a compelling story are lacking these days , halo's storyline is poor both in story telling and the fact that it seems to be ripped off badly from a book i read along time ago... , Half Life is a totally different game viewed entirely in first person.. Though the story and presentation are top notch , you cannot appreciate the full scale of the story unless you fill in gaps of it yourself... (hopefully by halfl life 3 / Aftermath valve will give us more story)... Doom III had an unoriginal story but i liked how it was presented , if you just wanted to frag you found yourself at home , but also Id included a fairly comprehensive storyline on the PDA's of dead scientists... Some nice sci fi sections explaining theoretical physics (that though probably will never work ) , and the characters had an acceptable degree of depth...
With the popularity of multiplayer only games eg. Battlefield 2 , unreal 2004 i'd say we'll see good single player in shorter and shorter supply , hopefully advente rising and its sequals will keep us happy.