We are now into the middle of April & I wondered what everyone has been playing since the beginning of the year ( they don't have to be 2009 games), what you thought of them & which ones stood out for you?

I'll start by saying I played: So Blonde - a humorous story with lovely cartoony graphics which concluded nicely,
Undercover Operation wintersun I liked it but can't remember anything about it now! Next Life I was warned that it was boring - it is slow to start with but actually I really liked it except for a few 'misplaced' puzzles that I thought spoilt the flow!, Art of Murder 2 which I thought, like the first, was immensely enjoyable to the gamer despite many shortcomings pointed out by critics/reviewers, Chronicles of Mystery made by the makers of Art of Murder but far more puzzle focused - it was quite short but I think I like City Interactive & look forward to future games from them!, Outcry very interesting & thought provoking & just recently Yoomurjak's Ring which I bought on impulse! I've enjoyed all of the games but Yoomurjaks Ring for me is the one that stands out for it's engrossing story, great acting & flawless gameplay!

Below is my list of games played so far this year. Leaving out the obvious good games that I replayed there are only 3 games that stood out for me this year that I had not played before. They are:

Drowned God
Obsidian
Safecracker (original version)

Honorable mention goes out to:
X-Files: The Game


Games Played in 2009

Art of Murder 2: Hunt for the Puppeteer
Blackstone Chronicles (a replay)
Colour of Murder, The
Congo: Descent Into Zinj
Drowned God
Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within (a replay)
Hope Springs Eternal
Isis: Waiting for a Thousand Years
Journeyman Project: Pegasus Prime
Journeyman Project 2: Buried in Time
Journey to the Center of the Earth (a replay)
Mummy: Tomb of the Pharaoh (a replay)
Obsidian
Philip Marlowe: Private Eye
Point of View
Rent-A-Hero
Safecracker (Original Version)
Schizm: Mysterious Journey DVD
Sentinel: Descendants In Time
Sydney Mystery, The
Tender Loving Care
Uru: Ages Beyond Myst
X Files: The Game
Y2K The Game

Wow! That's a lot of games GreyFuss! When you say X-Files: The Game is that the first one that was released? I have X-Files for the PS1 which included FMV footage & features David Duchovny & Gillian Andersen, minimally!, which I really enjoyed although it was panned at the time!

Chrissie

I think this was the first X-Files game HERE in FMV & covering 7 Cd disks. The story was very good just like an episode on the TV show. I was not interested in the game when it was first released but I thought I would give it a try and enjoyed the experience.

Well it really isn't a lot of games to me. I don't watch any television so for every minute that most people are watching their favorite TV show, GreyFuss is playing a game. This is soon to change since the adventure well has dried up for me. There is absolutely no more games out their that I haven't tried that I have had the smallest interest in. So the gaming will have to be from new release to new release and even a lot of them GreyFuss is passing on due to half the games being released have no challenge left in them. Ho - Hum, have to find a new hobby....no, I will not take up knitting & no, I will not play Casual Games.

This year I haven't really played many games, since I replayed a lot last year

But my list looks like this:

Ankh 3 - Battle of the Gods
Art of Murder - The Hunt for the Puppeteer
Ceville
Emerald City Confidential
Teenagent
Beneath a Steel Sky
Culpa Innata Uncut
Jack Orlando - Directors Cut
Wallace & Gromit - Fright of the Bumblebees
Safecracker - (the one from Bigfish - don't know if the original)

And of course tons of Casual games

Edit:
Oh and Greyfuss, I actually have Obsidian, Drowned God and X-Files - the Game too. Just haven't played them, since I got them too many years back

GreyFuss; Thank you, Thank You, Thank You

DROWNED GOD has been a favorite of mine for at least ten years. It's nice to see it mentioned and appreciated again.

Two games I liked were; Sherlock Holmes; The Awakened and Dracula: The Path of the Dragon. The absolute best new game I've played in a long time was OUTCRY.

I've been spending my waiting-for-a-good-game time playing some casual games rather than watching TV.

My faves so far are:
1. Chronicles of Mystery: The Scorpio Ritual
2. Emerald City Confidential
3. The Legend of Crystal Valley

The Haze

Drowned God was exactly my type of game and although I am not that big on replaying games that I have played in recent years, I much prefer to wait until I forget much about them, I will be replaying Drowned God to get more into the conspiracy theories angle of the game.

Misslilo

I enjoyed playing those 3 games much more than many of the new releases that have come out in the last year. You must have a big pile to be played.

Been playing WOW exclusively.

However, I did play sinking Island and am currently also playing the new&improved DarkFall 1 & 2.

I wasn't all that thrilled with sinking Island (I posted about it elsewhere) &, well, what can one say about the DarkFalls? They are simply fantastic, both the original & the new&improved!!!

Of course, having a 24-inch viewable monitor helps too.

:-)

So far, I've been playing:
- Broken Sword - Director's Cut
- Broken Sword - The Smoking Mirror (Replay)
- Secret Files: Tunguska
- Undercover: Operation Wintersun
- Post Mortem (Replay)
- Still Life
- Detective Conan: The Mirapolis Investigation

Currently playing:
- Shivers
- Secret Files: Puritas Cordis

I haven't played many new games yet this year, as most of the games I am especially looking forward to are still on the horizon. Mostly I have been replaying the old ones.

As for this year's games, so far I have played:

The Legend of Crystal Valley - pretty enjoyable, though I kept comparing it (probably unfairly) to The Longest Journey, which is one of my favorites. I still had fun with it, however, and would play a sequel should one be released.

Ceville - an absolute blast! Loved it!

Culpa Innata Uncut - My favorite game! I was happy to finally see the scenes I missed, particularly the second nightmare scene, which I felt made the game more complete.

As for upcoming games, I am especially looking forward to Culpa Innata 2, Gray Matter and Rinascimento. There are several others, of course, but these are the top three for me.

Chrissie, I also really enjoyed Next Life. My fiance did as well. We just keep saved games after those annoying action sequences so we can enjoy the rest of the game in peace. I didn't find it boring at all! I found it very surreal, which I liked. I also really enjoyed So Blonde - my favorite game of '08.

Here is my 2009 adventure games list.

The ones that stood out (also compared to most of games I played in 2008):

Mental Repairs Inc.
Tale of a Hero
Murder in a Wheel
Indiana Jones and The Temple of Spheres
A Second Face: The Eye of Geltz
Limey Lizard: Waste Wizard
Life of D. Duck II
Nanobots
Ben There, Dan That
Beauties and Beasts
Automation

And the less interesting ones:

Edna & Harvey
Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People (SBCG4AP) - Episode 4: Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective
Ben Jordan 7
The Vacuum

Besides adventures I played also quite a bit of World of Goo (a really great game), but I didn't have time to finish it yet.

Heavens, Ascovel! - I've never heard of half your games! Are they old, new or just not well-known?

Anyway, my list so far for 2009:
Art of Murder 1 and Art of Murder 2. They were both ok-ish but a bit too similar. I found no 2 to be better, especially the voice acting, although at least 2 of the puzzles were pretty unfair! All the puzzles in AOM1 were easy.

Vampyre Story was fun, but I was cross about the blunt "unfinished" ending.

I got stuck in The Last Express, and might get back to that sometime.

Amerzone was nice and different, and, of course, Gabriel Knight 2 was amazing. It had amazingly difficult puzzles too! Grumble grumble...

I thoroughly enjoyed Overclocked- I found the story riveting while I was playing it.

I still need to finish: Al Emmo and The Lost Dutchman's Mine; Ceville (hilarious!), and Dark Fall 1, all of which I had played some of, but which I had all set aside to quickly play Syberia 2, which I had never gotten around to, but realised now is the time; as everyone is talking of the Syberia's now with that April Fool/Syberia 3 business.

Otherwise, I've been playing RPG's and Strategy games - but that is Dark Side business!

Ascovel, I am so jealous that you have played Tale of a Hero.

Moondancer, I also loved the story in Overclocked!

I've had a look at the link & it's the same game as the version I have for PS1. That's on 4 discs so I'm not surprised it comes on 7 for the PC!

I can't think of anything worse, Greyfuss, than having to wait for new releases because I've exhausted everything else I have to play!

Thanks for all the interesting replies, a nice mix of old & new, & encouraging to see that a few newer games have been included amongst the one's that stand out!

Moondancer, these are mostly new games, or from a few years ago, but many among them are freeware, independent productions. The stand-outs were all (except Tale of a Hero and Mental Repairs) made with Adventure Game Studio.

Ah, that then explains my ignorance, thanks Ascovel.
As I am relatively new to Adventure gaming, I am still trying hard to catch up with all the mainstream games I have missed, so I don't really have the time to keep up to date with Freeware and a lot of Indie games; - although I have played a few Indie games, of course.

Some of them are truly great as I found out fairly recently. You should consider trying some and see what the genre's avid fans can create on their own.

Hi guys,

I only played 3 so far this year. I did a lot of reviews in november and december and I needed a break.

A Vampyre Story (Best one so far this year)
So Blonde
Ceville

CU

danyboy

This year 2009 so far I played:
Murder in the Abbey
Sinking Island
Rhiannon Curse of the four Branches
Nancy Drew The Haunting of Castle Malloy
Chronicles Mystery The Scorpio Ritual
Art of Murder 2 Hunt for the Puppeteer
Still Life

I liked them all but none really stood out to me. If I had to choose it would be Still Life which I loved the mystery in the story( but I had to get a save for the laser puzzle or I wouldn't been able to finish the game, I didn't like that) and next would be Art of Murder 2.

I played a lot of games last year 2008 that I really liked , but I can say right away there is 2 games that really stood out to me. They are Dracula Origin and Sherlock Holmes The Awakened . I loved the mystery in both stories and the puzzles were really good .

Now I have the Pins and Needles edition of Dark Fall 1 and 2 on my shelf ready for me to play and also Barrow Hill . I have Sherlock Holmes Jack the Ripper on preorder with Interact. There is others on the horizon that I am looking forward to for this year. So for now I think I will start one of my new games Dark fall 1 and 2 or Barrow Hill. Which I heard are really good games .

A little earlier this year i finally got to play the Dave Gilbert games Blackwell Legacy/Blackwell Unbound/The Shivah.

And i was especially blown away by the Blackwell games. Dave Gilbert has got an incredible sense for a great atmosphere, his characters are very charming and his writing abilitys are fantastic, so i can only recommend the Blackwellgames to anyone, who hasn´t played them yet.

I played a lot of games in 2008, this year i didn´t have so much time, so i played less games but another game i really liked was the 2.nd episode of Casebook as i was very impressed by the enormous improvements over the first episode. Since then i really became a fan of the series and i think it´s aweseome to see what the small Areo team is able to deliver.

Oh and the next thing i´ll play will surely be Three Cards to Midnight, and i´ve got this feeling in my stommach, that i´ll absolutely love this game.

I got around to catching up with Dave Gilbert's games last year. I'd had The Shivah sitting on my PC for I don't know how long but after playing that I just went on buying & playing the Blackwell games. They prove that less than great graphics wielded imaginatively can be used to good effect & combined skilfully with a well written humorous story & good voice acting can make a great game. Although I didn't play them this year they are defintely games that stand out for me!

I've been playing catch up. I will throw in 3 categories. Games loved recently, played recently, games I miss and want to replay. Many of the games I loved recently have been around for awhile but were new for me. Many of which you all turned me on to.

I loved:
Indigo Prophecy
Lost Crown (played twice)
Dark Fall 1 & 2 (pins & needles edition, and loving the ghost stories)
Broken Arrow 1
Deep Reefs (excellent)
Penumbra Black Plague
Tunguska

Also played:
BarrowHill
Return to Mysterious Island (I might have enjoyed this more if I'd been able to fix the flickering interface and invisible cursor)
Broken Arrow 2
Penumbra Requiem
Syberia 2
nibiru
Keepsake

Games I dream of replaying from the "lost in the garage collection." (I do sometimes stand with the garage door open, look in and sadly sigh.):
Syberia 1
Sanitarium
grim fandango (I did find the manual in a box with no games)
Dreamfall
Longest Journey
the last express
Monkey Island to the third power
Day of the Tentacle
Full Throttle

Hmm, as far as I remember Broken Arrow is a movie, digitopolis.

Are you sure you don't perhaps mean Broken Sword 1, and Dead Reefs ( i.o. Deep Reefs)?

There is a casual game involving moving around fish, called Deep Reefs.

So far this year:

Yoomurjak's Ring
Art of Murder 2, Hunt for the Puppeteer
Chronicles of Mystery: The Scorpio Ritual
Nostradamus
Sherlock Holmes vs Arsene Lupin (Nemesis) - replay
Shady Brook - replay
CSI Dark Motives

I loved all of those, particularly Yoomurjak and Nostradamus of the games I hadn't previously played.

I started but I didn't finish:
A Vampyre Story
Ceville
Ankh 3
I have a mental block with cartoon style games right now.

I also tried Mystery of the Druids, but the clunky dialogue system drove me bananas and I gave up quite early on. I may go back to it at a later date.