And we're off!
For all those new boomers, and for the rest of us a year older, its that time where we answer the question for a newbie player "If I want to play an adventure game, what would you recommend".
Playability is the key. Your oldie but completely impossible to get going on a modern machine favourite game might therefore not make the list, and variety might dictate that not every Myst clone should be included.
But in the end its up to you - if you think a game you have played is worth recommending to someone else to play, you can put it on your list. But only if its an adventure game. We know what they are (Quake no, Monkey Island yes) and there is some latitude for those fuzzy round the edges games that are hard to define.
There are some rules though, but first an announcement.
For the last few years, The Lost Crown has topped the list and its always done well since its release. We have therefore decided that it is worthy of a spot in the Hall of Fame
This has consequence, which brings us back to the rules:
1. Games in our Hall of Fame are ineligible, on the basis that we know they are worth playing else why would they be in there. Votes for those games won't be counted. Those games are:
Amerzone
Black Mirror
Dark Fall: The Journal
Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within
Grim Fandango
Longest Journey
Lost Crown
Myst
Riven
Sanitarium
Syberia
Syberia 2
Timelapse
Zork Nemesis
Zork Grand Inqusitor
(being ineligible means you can spread your choices more widely, and we will list the Hall of Fame games alongside this years results when finished).
2. You can recommend a maximum of 20 games. You can choose to recommend less.
3. You cannot recommend a series. If you want to recommend all the Tex Murphy games, that will take 5 seperate recommendations, one for each game.
4. Episodic adventures will be counted as one game, and regardless of where they are up to in the series. These include Sam & Max Season 1, Sam & Max Season 2, Sam and Max - The Devils Playground, Wallace & Grommit, Strong Bad, Casebook, AGON, Tales of Monkey Island, Enter the Story, Back to the Future, City of Secrets, Adams Venture and Dream Machine.
5. Uru and its add ons will be counted as one game.
6. BadMojo and the Redux version are one game.
7. Directors cuts and Special Releases will be counted as the same game.
8. Adventure games only (Dark Side games and Casual games get their own lists).
9. PC games please (although if you sneak a console game in I won't tell)
If at all possible, please list in alphabetical order - it makes counting so much easier. In doing so, ignore "the" (so The Dark Eye would be under "D" for Dark)
The thread stays open for about 3 weeks, and I will post updates as we go. Also, avoid editiing your lists after posting because Chief and I count as we go, and may miss a change.
Batter up!