[GepardenK]

1. Most recent games steer away from those trigger sequences (as far as i know), that doesn't mean they are good games though.

2. Sam&max season 1 and 2 no doubt; both the script and the Voice acting there is pitch perfect.
I loved the voice acting in Scratches as well, although there wasn't much dialogue in that game.
Still life doesn't have the best voice acting ever heard, but the story is very good.
Come to think of it, the Penumbra games has some very good, if wierd, voice acting aswel.

3. Sam&max is pretty pixel hunt free, as is the Penumbra games (Sam&Max however has one trigger related item in one of the later episodes, but its a very easy one to overcome)

4. Both Penumbra games, and Return to mysterious island has very macguyverish puzzles, and the puzzles there are very fun as well.
Return to mysterious island also has a very interesting inventory system, but sadly a bad plot and just decent atmosphere.
Penumbra however has a interesting plot and atmosphere, although the puzzles is not as macgyverish as those in Return to mysterious island (the Penumbra games does have some very interesting physics puzzles though, and you will feel like macgyver in those games as well, just not as much).