[Fien]

You know what they say: Video games ruined my life, good thing I have two extra lives.
Here’s what I played in 2010.

Three new games

Black Mirror 2 - Okay game, just like the first one. Had its moments.
A New Beginning - German release. Enjoyable, although I expected more than I got. Too many technical problems, including extremely long loading times. Couldn’t finish it thanks to a final gamestopping bug.
Gray Matter - Not finished yet. I know that many people love it, so I’m still hoping it will at some point rise above the average game.

Four old games

Eve - By Peter Gabriel. One of those interactive multimedia experiences. Apples, lonely hearts, music, art. Exploration and understanding patterns is the key. Quite liked it, although the theme and presentation are dated. Glad a much needed hint file was included on the CD.
Kyrandia Collection - For a brief moment I thought I might enjoy Kyrandia. Alas. Everything turned out mediocre, music, humor, voices, puzzles... and far too much walking. Tried all three games. Unfinished.
Freddy Pharkas - Great! Loved the humor, the two narrators, good voiceacting, nice music, even the credits were fun. I struggled with some of the weird puzzles, too much pixelhunting, but all in all very enjoyable.
Conquests of the Longbow: The Legend of Robin Hood - Another wonderful Sierra game. I’m a sucker for adventures with multiple branches.Thanks to an ancient AG community playthrough I discovered that the game is freely available at the designer’s site. Beautiful, atmospheric music and dialogues in Old English.

Six replays

Gabriel Knight 1 and 2 - the GKs get better every time I play one of them.
Whispered World, in English this time - German voices are better, especially Sadwick.
Sanitarium - I’d forgotten most of it and I was surprised how good it was.
Bad Mojo - I loved crawling around in Eddie’s bar again. Still fully deserves its place in my top ten.
A Mind Forever Voyaging - The only text adventure this year. Inspired by seeing and hearing Meretzky in the documentary Get Lamp. As good as it was in the 80's.

Plus a couple of indie/amateur puzzle games, like Windosills , Puzzlebots , Hamlet , Rooms: The Main Building .

Looking back, I’m shocked that I played so few new adventures. It’s the old ones that made 2010 a good year for me. Hmm...
And how was your 2010?

[Ascovel]

Originally Posted by Fien

You know what they say: Video games ruined my life, good thing I have two extra lives.

That's a really nice quote. I never heard it.

In 2010 I've mostly played freeware and indie adventure games. The best of the ones I already finished were:

The Journey Down: Over The Edge
Technobabylon – Part I
Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent
Puzzle Bots
I was a Vegas Showgirl
Ben Jordan Deluxe 1 & 2
Galatea
Mata Hari (despite the fact it's overly casual-friendly, I find it really underrated)

2 games I haven't finished yet, but really good so far:
Full Pipe
Culpa Innata

Outcry (aka Sublustrum) has left me with mixed feelings. I love the atmosphere, but I don't like the puzzles and pixel-hunts.

The Curfew FMV browser game is very interesting (if a bit too casual), though it breaks at one point in the middle of the game, so I couldn't complete it.

Finally, while it doesn't qualify as an adventure, The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom was an incredibly fun (logic) puzzle game. So is Gesundheit! which full version of is being beta-tested right now.

I also had a thorough sneak peak at an early version of an yet to be released lengthy sci-fi adventure game. It's really something great, but I'm not sure if I'm allowed to reveal the title.

Originally Posted by Fien

Whispered World, in English this time - German voices are better, especially Sadwick.

That's why I'm waiting for some good opportunity to get a German copy and don't want to play the game in English.

[Stuart]

I'm playing Jolly Rover off Steam at the moment and would highly recommend it. It's quite easy but a super-fun adventure game.

[colpet]

Last Half of Darkness Tomb of Zojir - Dec 7 -Jan 17
Big Brain Wolf
Fall Trilogy 1 - Separation
Echos of the Past Royal House of Stone
Cate West Vanishing Files
James patterson Women's Club Twice in a Blue Moon
Steve the Sherrif
Slip-Space: The Burma Shave Analogy - May 19 - June 11
Drawn the Painted Tower
Amertis - June 11 - Aug 2
Redemption Cemetery Curse of the Raven
Haunted Maonor Lord of Mirrors
Puzzle Bots
Dream Chronicles Book of Air
Mystic Diary Haunted Island
Dead Time Stories
Drawn Dark Flight
Hidden Secrets the Nightmare
Haunted Hotel 2 - Believe the Lies
James Patterson Womens Murder Club - Little Black Lies
Eden's Quest Hunt for Akua
Love and Death Bitten
Dark Tales Edgar Allen Poe Black Cat
Fall Trilogy 2 - Reconstruction

I only played 5 adventures this past year, 3 if you consider Drawn a casual game. I had a lot of fun with Slip Space and Amertis. I started Perry Rhodan Immortals of Terra, but lost interest.

[skeeter_93]

Hmmm, this is a list of what I can remember finishing... I have a lot started but unfinished!

Mata Hari
CSI Fatal Conspiracy and Deadly Intent
Runaway 3
Nancy Drew Ransom of The Seven Ships, Trail of the Twister and Shadow at Water's Edge
Gabriel Knight 1 and 2
Drawn 1 and 2
So Blonde
Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island
Miles Edgeworth Ace Attorney
Last Window
Sam and Max Season 3
Wallace and Gromit
Mystery Case Files Dire Grove and 13th Skull
Hardy Boys Hidden Theft
Ben Jordan 7
Jolly Rover
Puzzle Agent

And quite a few casual hidden object games...

[Fien]

Last year I started the same thread.... 40 responses. Now only 4. A sign on the wall?

PS: Puzzle Agent! Played it too, forgot to include it in my list.

[Trunkyo]

My list of games finished this year:

Memento Mori (I actually started this in December 2009 but finished on New Year's Day! Got a good-but-not-best ending the first time, replayed twice to get best possible ending and a worse ending)
Hardy Boys: The Hidden Theft
Next Life (a.k.a. Reprobates)
Nancy Drew 16: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek
Nancy Drew 17: Legend of the Crystal Skull
Sherlock Holmes: Secret of the Silver Earring
Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened
Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None
Dark Fall: Lost Souls
Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis
Undercover: Operation Wintersun
Belief + Betrayal
The Crystal Key 2
Nancy Drew 19: The Haunting of Castle Malloy
Nancy Drew 21: Warnings at Waverly Academy
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures
Overclocked: A History of Violence
Legacy: Dark Shadows
Tales of Monkey Island
Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse
Perry Rhodan: The Immortals of Terra
Nancy Drew 20: Ransom of the Seven Ships
Ankh 2: Heart of Osiris
Mental Repairs, Inc.
Machinarium
Jolly Rover
Ghost in the Sheet
Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper (Just finished today! )

Still to finish: Puzzle Agent, Zelenhgorm and a few others

I grouped all of the Telltale episodes into their respective seasons, counting each season as one game. Also finished Dream Chronicles 1 & 2 and a few other casual games in between adventures, but won't count them. That makes 29 games so far in 2010, with two weeks left! (30 games is my single-year record, back in 2008.) My current streak of 12 games finished (and counting) without resorting to a walkthrough or UHS is a personal "best".

Replays: Obsidian, Sanitarium, Gabriel Knight 2, Grim Fandango
Best of my 2010, in no particular order: Sam & Max, Tales of Monkey Island, Machinarium
Very Good: Overclocked, SH: Nemesis, SH vs. Jack the Ripper, Wallace and Gromit, Perry Rhodan
Blecch: Belief + Betrayal, Hardy Boys, Legacy: Dark Shadows (and I still haven't gotten that stupid ending song out of my skull )

[Kurufinwe]

(Long post. Some highlights first. The list is at the bottom.)

Gaming-wise, 2010 has been a weird year for me. My PC died about this time last year, and since I was very busy and knew I'd soon be moving halfway across the world I didn't replace it until two months ago -- and since then I've almost only used it to finally play Dragon Age. So my gaming this year has been mostly limited to what I could run on my MacBook or DS. My main occupations have been TellTale episodes (The Devil's Playhouse), a few casual games and DS games.

I only played 3 "traditional" adventures, and the only one which I really liked (Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper) actually didn't really play like a traditional adventure game, relying instead on a fantastic deduction system. The best SH game Frogwares have made.

Return to Mysterious Island 2 was OK, but not half as good as the first one, precisely because it gave up on what made its predecessor so great: this feeling that you were not solving artificial puzzles, but actually trying to make do with real situations, with different possible ways to reach your objective. RTMI2 felt like a very classical adventure game, with a long stream of very contrived puzzles. Still OK, with a very strong ending; just a bit disappointing.

And finally, The Whispered World... Pretty, but dull, dull, dull, just a long, totally artificial succession of unremarkable puzzles with no plot progression whatsoever in between. And all that talking... So many hotspots to look at, such huge conversation trees, all of them completely bland (and that whiny gnome's voice!). If you can't make a line interesting or entertaining, ditch it. Replaying Conquests of the Longbow (not this year, I think) made me realise how brief and effective the conversations were in that game, and how much stronger that made the narrative. I feel that many adventure game writers need to learn that just because they don't have the kind of time limits you have on TV or film doesn't mean they should feel free to drone on forever. (More generally, I feel many of them could learn a lot from how writing is done for TV shows.)

Anyway (or rather, speaking of which), Game of the year: The Devil's Playhouse. Best thing that's happened to adventure gaming in years. Just like Roberta Williams understood that graphics could be used to make a new type of games that would be much more than just illustrated text adventures, just like the Miller brothers understood that multimedia could be used to make a new type of games that would be much more than just better looking / sounding point & click adventures, the folks at TellTale have understood that the fact that we're now constantly connected to the Internet can be used to make games that are much more than a traditional game chopped into smaller pieces. It's been years since I'd been so excited about an adventure game, so anxious for the next part to be released. When was the last time an adventure game had so much plot, constantly progressing, instead of just being about going from A to B in 20 hours? When was the last time an adventure game had actual character arcs for so many characters, instead of static cardboard cutouts? And then there are the pretty clever puzzles, the ambitious cinematography, the fantastic score... What a ride!

Earlier tonight, I finished the last Dragon Age DLC, so I can now go back to playing PC adventures. The thing is, I can't really think of any I'm eager to play. I started Ceville before my previous PC died, but I'm not sure I'll bother finishing it. I might get Lost Horizon, after having heard so much about it, but I'm afraid that, like Ceville, like The Whispered World, it'll be just a long string of pointless, uninspired puzzles, with little incentive for me to keep playing. I'm equally apathetic concerning Gray Matter, even though I'll certainly get it when it finally gets released in the US.

P.S.: Finally, I need to mention Last Window. What a great, great game, with a fantastic story. I <3 my DS.


My 2010 in brief
Being mostly away from "traditional" adventures has made me realise how much I didn't miss them. Maybe I'll regain interest at some point, but currently it's gone. However, I'm excited about the developments heralded by The Devil's Playhouse, and I hope that it might be the shape of things to come for the new decade that's about to start.


Ok, the list:

PC/Mac adventures
Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper [4/5]
Return to Mysterious Island 2 [3.5/5]
The Whispered World [2.5/5]
Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse [5/5]
Monkey Island 2 SE [4/5]
The Silver Lining ep. 1 (ep. 2 crashed on my Mac; I might give it a shot on my PC at some point in the future)

DS adventures
Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth [3/5] (Big disappointment, even though I love Edgey)
Again [3.5/5]
Last Window [4.5/5]
Professor Layton and the Unwound Future [4/5]
Turnabout Substitution (a long Ace Attorney fan case, actually playable on PC/Mac rather than DS; I'm usually very picky about fan games, but I highly recommend this one to anyone who liked the Ace Attorney games)

Casual HOG/Puzzle adventures
3 Cards to Dead Time [2.5/5]
Puzzle Agent [3.5/5]
The Fall Trilogy, ep. 1 [3/5]
Rooms, the main building [4.5/5] (Not an adventure, but since it was featured on this site... Brilliant puzzle game.)
Mystery Trackers: The Void [3.5/5]
Midnight Mysteries: Salem Witch Trials [3.5/5]
Mystery Case Files: The 13th Skull [3.5/5]
Rhianna Ford and the Letter from Da Vinci [3.5/5]
Braid [1/5] (What a completely uninteresting game! Gave up halfway though.)

Replays
King's Quest V (for the ScummVM testing season; the game is still as awful as ever, but still beautiful and magical)
The Island of Dr. Brain (same reason)
Dreamfall (got fed up at some point, when the gameplay started disappearing in the last third; probably won't finish it)
Sam & Max 104-105
Frasse and the Peas of Keijick (the maze puzzle is still brilliant)
DragonSphere [3.5/5]
Gabriel Knight 2 (stopped at the end of chapter 5 for some reason and never returned to it; probably won't now -- I know it by heart, anyway)

[dekaneas297]

I don't remember how many games I mentioned in last year's thread, but I think there were more in the list. As always, I include only new games and no replays.

Alter Ego - Nice game, not something remarkable but overall good

Art of Murder Cards of destiny - A typical Art of Murder game. I think this was the least interesting of the series

Black Mirror II - Wonderful game. I couldn't stop playing it. Best game of 2010 for me.

Book of Unwritten tales - As Kurufinwe posted, pretty but dull

15 days - Trash. End of story.

Gray Matter - Nice overall, but with many flaws. No excuse for this over-hyped game. If this is 10 years' work, how do you expect good games that are finished in one years time?

Lost Horizon - Very good. Nice story, good characters, quite funny. Lost best game award for me in the photo finish.

[terhardp]

I've mainly played the new titles through the year:

Art of Murder: Cards of Destiny

In my opinion, the best of the series, when it comes to the graphics and locations, though it suffers from the same flaws as its predecessors. This mainly relates to the weak story, which is deliberately convoluted in the final chapter beyond reason. I remember that I didn't knew what the killer's motive really was only a day after completing the game. The puzzles also weren't very challenging.

Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island

This title drew me because its recognizable visual style, but the story, dialogs, humor, voice acting and puzzles didn't appealed to me, especially in obvious comparison with MI series. I still haven't finished the game.

Black Mirror II

Technically superior to the original game, but not as nearly atmospheric as the latter was. I liked the story very much in terms of filling the gaps, however the ending itself left me disappointed, not so much because of the answers, but because the presentation. It was in the campy and inflated style, that would be more suitable for the titles like Secret Files.

15 Days

The worst adventure I've played this year, and probably among the worst I've ever played. Weak gameplay, story, non-existing puzzles, characters, and unstable game engine. Also, the game looks much better on screenshots that it looks in reality (this is what hooked me to check it out). The only thing worth mentioning about it is rather decent voice acting.

Monkey Island: Le Chuck's Revenge SE

I'm a big fan of the MI series, but I didn't played the first two games until the SE versions came out, because I couldn't force myself looking at the C64-style graphics these days. Now I've played both SE versions and can conclude that the first two MI games are almost superior to my beloved and probably still favorite COMI.

Alter Ego

Another title that got my attention thanks to the moody-looking screenshots. However, it turned out to be a mediocre title in almost every aspect. Also, its ending can be compared to the ending of the first Black Mirror game, which is more likely the bad thing rather than compliment.

Lost Horizon

One of best two adventures I've played this year, though I must say I've expected a bit more from it. Still, it has gorgeous graphics, soundtrack, voice acting, diverse locations and some interesting puzzles. Humor IMO isn't top-of-the-line. Overall, a top-quality production title.

Grey Matter

Also one of the games that I was eagerly awaiting to play, mainly because of the J. Jensen's cult status among the adventure gamers. Personally, this is my first touch with her work, so I was pleasantly surprised, mainly with the story and the main character. Overall, although I've put the game next to my all-time favorites, maybe its indeed a tad overrated, considering all the hype of waiting for the game to finally come out (I imagine that the real fans of J. Jensen would be disappointed far more).

The only new title outside the genre I've played this year was Mafia II. I'm generally pleased with the game in every aspect, and I will likely replay it.

[maladroid]

Not that many adventure game playthroughs for me this year, I focused mainly on other genres. Also, most of the adventures I played during 2010 were in fact older releases that I had missed for various reasons.

Downfall: I liked this game. Sure, it was grim and tried too much to shock the player at times but I also found it unique and thought-provoking. Had plenty of fun with it.

6 Days a Sacrifice: Finally got around to concluding the Trilby saga and I wasn't disappointed. Another worthy addition, although Trilby's Notes remains my favorite.

Black Mirror II: Hadn't played the first one (!) but I found this one to be well-crafted from a technical standpoint but pretty dull in terms of dialogue, puzzles and overall interaction. Story was decent enough.

Tales of Monkey Island: Just finished that one and I am still pretty emotional about it. The gameplay is huge fun and some characters were well written (Morgan Le Flay and the illusive Galeb, in particular) but the story was incoherent for the most part, as were the motives of many characters (Elaine, I am looking at you). Dialogue had its ups and downs and I wish the person who wrote Episode 3 was in charge of the whole project. Stemmle's parts were, once again, totally off the Monkey vibe for me. Overall a nice game but way below the first three Monkey Islands.

Monkey Island 1& 2 SE: Not much to say, I always held them in a special place and they are still pretty darn amazing to play. The added features and the sexed-up art were very well done but the first one's controls never grew on me. Luckily, the second SE rectified that.

Dracula: Origin: Flat, forgettable, totally uninteresting. Quite the opposite of Path of The Dragon which I played late last year.

Drawn: The Painted Tower: Very nice artistic direction and solid gameplay. Didn't blow me away but I had a good time with it.

The Clockwork Man 2: The Hidden World Pretty much the same as Drawn: very well crafted and with nice HOG-ish gameplay but a bit on the short side for me.

Wallace and Gromit's Grand Adventures: I love W&G! I think Talltale nailed this one and it really felt like an episode of the show. There were some not-so-spectacular moments throughtout the series but overall I had a great time.

Machinarium: A true piece of art. I had absolute faith in Amanita and they delivered with an interest. Not much else to say, I loved every little bit of it, from the seemingly random story to the sketched dialogues and the surreal music. Incredible.

[Roper Klacks]

I didn't play as much as i wanted to, but between new and old releases my 2010 was something like this:

Amnesia: The Dark Descent - A brilliant piece of art and the new pinnacle in the horror genre

Gray Matter - It's an automatic win for a game with such a lenghty production time and problems, delays and an incompetent publisher to actually be released. And better still, its a good game and an excelent narrative!

Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: Le Chuck’s Revenge: Excelent "remake" much better than the first one (as a remake, as a game i still prefere TSOMI). I really enjoyed it.

Tales of Monkey Island - Played all the episodes this summer. Some of them were awesome, others not really. But overall it was much better than EFMI.

Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars Director’s Cut - A mighty disapointment. Great game, bad director's cut.

Penumbra Overture and Black Plague: Replayed them both in the weeks prior to Amnesia launch. Both are still very good, Amnesia is better though.

Gabriel Knight 3 - Replayed it for the third time before the Gray Matter lauch. I LOVE it, always did.

[Idrisguitar]

only a few games for me (just beginning sticking with the more "friendly titles)

from best to worst (the bottom two i stopped playing fairly early)

Machinarium, (REPLAY) one of the best games i have ever played. theres nothign major about it that sticks out, its just a beautiful game, with beautiful music, beautiful art, beautiful design....etc.

Loom, fun, great easy adventure to get me into the gist of it, its mechanic is fun and original and the story wasn't too terrible either .

Beneath a steel sky, this one was a bit difficult near the end, and the story wasn't very well crafted in my honest opinion. it all became a bit rediculous by the end so i struggled to finish it. but the earlier bits of the game and mid point were very fun.

Emerald city confidential. okay i really didn't like this, very unegaging and....well its hard to explain why i didn't like it. something was just not right, the puzzles weren;t fun, the game didn;t flow and the dialogue was totally bland.

Runaway, oh my god.....seriously.....worst writing, voice acting, i have heard in a game. the art was great but was DEFINTIELY the ONLY good thing about it. the puzzle design was pretty stupid, and i was closer to screaming than laughing while playing it, so the humour was non-existent. add in some horrible character animation and the game was a total dissapointment.

[Fien]

Originally Posted by Idrisguitar

Machinarium, one of the best games i have ever played.

You played that one in 2009. If you replayed it, you should say so.

[DustyShinigami]

2010 Adventures Played:

Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse - Episode One: The Penal Zone
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge - Special Edition (PC and XBLA)
Amnesia: The Dark Decent
Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - The Director's Cut

Others Played:

Machinarium
Under a Killing Moon
The Pandora Directive

Replays:

Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
The Beast Within - A Gabriel Knight Mystery

[Idrisguitar]

Originally Posted by Fien

You played that one in 2009. If you replayed it, you should say so.

haha....sorry........

[cwapitm]

Well lately I've been finding myself playing less and less adventure games. There just isn't as much choices in the store anymore, so I've started turning to Hidden Object Games more and really enjoying them. This is what I got accomplished this year

Machinarium-Cute game with amazing animation/graphics, but not really my type. I don't like these kinds of puzzles.

Sam and Max: The Devil's Playhouse-Great continuation of Sam and Max. I loved using Max's psychic powers. It made the puzzles more fun and innovative. The ending really tugged on my heartstrings too. First time I've felt pretty emotional over a Telltale game.

Nancy Drew: Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon-I had played a couple Nancy Drew games before. This game came from a pack of four. Haven't played the others yet. Not bad. It was pretty fun.

Sherlock Holmes and the Secret of the Silver Earring-Just an ok game to me. Did not like the stealth and timed sequences. They nearly drove me crazy.

The Whispered World-Really beautiful game. I loved the soundtrack. Had a Miyazaki feel to it. I thought the ending was a cop out though, but not necessarily bad.

The Silver Lining Episode 1-This is really impressive and professionally made for a freeware game. Unfortunately I still haven't played episode 2 because they don't give you an option to download it separately from episode 1, and it would just take me all day long to download it that way.

The Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island-I really liked this one. The references to Monkey Island and POTC were not so subtle. I really liked the characters. One of the best adventure games I played in a while. Compared to A Vampyre Story, I think it was a bit better technically wise.

That was it I think. I guess I didn't replay any old adventure games this year. At least not that I recall. Still waiting for the first episode of BTTF. I'm really excited about that. Oh and I also asked for Runaway: A Twist of Fate for Xmas so I might be getting that, but that might be something I'd finish next month.

[Dan_Dan_91_07]

Wow, I have completed so many this year.

Games that I’ve completed for the 1st time:

Tales of Monkey Island 1-5
The Longest Journey
Dreamfall
So Blonde
Runaway 1-3
Broken Sword 4
Day of the Tentacle
Gabriel Knight 3
Grim Fandango
Beneath a Steel Sky
Heavy Rain (If you class it as an adventure game)
Secret Files 1 and 2

Also, I’m just about to finish Full Throttle I reckon. Plus, I started the original Sam and Max but I didn't really like the humour so I ended up playing something else. I didn't play it for very long however, so I think I may do if I was to play it for longer or even if I don’t end up liking the humour that much, I may still end up enjoying the game. I am planning on playing it more at some point in the future.

Previously completed games that I’ve recompleted:

Broken Sword 1-3


I can’t pick a favourite from the ones I played for the first time right now; I really enjoyed many of them.

I can however tell you my worst, this being So Blonde. I thought this game would be funny, have mostly decent puzzles and a half decent story. This was due to everything I was reading about it, however I was very wrong. The game was very girly which is something that completely doesn’t appeal to me, from what I read I was under the impression it wouldn’t be this way. Also, I can’t remember that much about the puzzles and story but I hate what I do remember and I remember my opinion of these points at the time which was that they were pretty dire. Plus it wasn't funny and the music was terrible. I can still remember the music today and every time I remember what it it’s like, I feel all my muscles tense up in repulsion and immediately reject it from my consciousness. There was a great deal of back tracking as well which caused me much frustration.

Update - Full Throttle is now completed. I have created a thread with my opinion of it, in case you're interested.

[Shany]

I did not play many adventure games this year. The main reason being that I chose to focus on my studies. The secondary reason is that I discovered the joy of open world games and have been playing Assassin's Creed and Saint's Row 2 when I was at my gaming computer.

Anyway, the (commercial) adventures that I remember playing this year:

Machinarium - I think I only got to it in early 2010, but maybe I'm wrong. Very pretty, some great puzzles (though I did not have patience for all of them), great music and a cute protagonist. My main complaints are that sometimes hints weren't clear, and the arcade sequences, which were just tedious. Other than that, a very good game.

Sam and Max: The Devil's Playhouse - This is the first time I haven't waited for a season to be over to play the games. I'm so glad I did this. This was not just a game, but an experience; waiting for the download link, speculating about it in the forums, trying to guess what the concept art was depicting.
The games were thankfully worth the wait. Each episode had both funny and emotional moments, lovable characters (Sal! Skun-k'ape!) and some incredible setpieces.
I love how, like in Tales of Monkey Island, there were moments when you weren't sure the characters will be safe, where they did not have their usual confidence and had to react differently.
While I was a little disappointed with the ending it did bring me close to tears, and that's saying something.

I finally found time to play all the free TTG episodes I got over the years:
Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People Eps 1&5 -
Rather fun, but not so memorable. They did remind me how much I used to love the website and videos.
The games are funny, and being able to play as Strong Bad is great, but I can't think of anything else to say about them.

Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures Eps 1,3&4 -
To tell the truth I was never a fan of Wallace & Gromit. When the setting is a boring little town, no matter what interesting things happen, I tend to remain bored.
Anyway, the games are pretty good. Some very inventive puzzles, especially in ep4 with its twist on the slider puzzle, and very good music.
Main complaints are that Gromit's hints, due to being mute, were not always clear, and the fact that episode 4 ended rather anticlimactically.

The Whispered World -
I haven't finished yet, but I'm nearly done and heard how it ends.
I'm really liking it so far. Graphics are beautiful, the world is interesting (and there's an excuse to why it's rather empty and nonfunctional) and the characters are memorable. It's also surprisingly funny, and there are many responses to item combinations, which I always appreciate.
What I didn't like was Sadwick's voice - the actor just tries to hard and it sounds very fake, had they used his usual voice it would've worked much better. I also did not like the inclusion of mechanical puzzles - like pushing the arrows to move the doors around which I didn't even want to try and solve.
All in all I'm loving it, and wouldn't mind if they ever chose to make it into a full length animated feature.

Puzzlebots -
Cute, but too short. My main complaint is that we are introduced to many interesting characters but we don't get enough time to know them. The main reason for this is that unlike in Nanobots you can't make the bots talk to each other. This is a shame because part of the attraction is that these robots have unique personalities.
Still, it's a very funny game, and complaining about wanting more means that I liked what there was.
The puzzles themselves are fun to solve, and get quite complex near the end.

Oh, and special mention goes to Discworld Noir. I only played about half of it at the time (game stopping bug killed my game, but reawakened my love for adventure games) so now watched an awesome annotated playthrough on Youtube. Discworld Noir is an incredible game, and watching it with annotations makes one realize just how much was put into it, especially in regards to how many noir films it references.
A shame there weren't any more Discworld adventures made after it, because there is so much more to do in that world, and I would love to see the character of Lewton again.

[Mikekelly]

25 New Adventures Games For 2010:


DS:

Curse of the Ancient Temple

Mystery of the Mummy

Broken Sword DC

Treasure on the Tracks

The Lost Treasure

Insecticide

The Model Mysteries

Miami Law

Flower, Sun, Rain

Lux Pain

Resident Evil

Csi Dark Motives

Lethal Alliance

Again *****

Secret Files 1

Imagine: Detective

Crime Scene

Vampire Secrets

ABC Murders

My Favorite was "Again" - loved this game. Currently playing "999" But don't expect to have it finished in 2010.

PC:

Cards of Destiny

Mati Hari ****

Nikoli ****

The Tree of Life

Hotel

Legend of Crystal valley

***** $2.99 at Half Price Books



25 New adventure games makes this a banner year. I already have 14 games for play in 2011 that will make 2011 a banner year also.