The out-of-cutscene chatter in Final Fantasy XIII was one of the first things that struck me about the game, actually! As you say, it really added to the sense of characterisation. Characters spoke as you were running around; they weren't just moving in grim silence to the next cutscene!

Being able to introduce yourself to significant characters before the plot requires it sounds like a really interesting optional detail.

That is definitely more information on B-movies than I was expecting from a videogame! Wow. I feel York is the sort of guy who's well-meaning, but who you'd intensely regret getting into a conversation with.

In return, I was looking up some articles on videogame dialogue earlier today, and one of them introduced me to this great conversation between a couple of enemies in No One Lives Forever.