[Jabod]

Unfortunately another FMV suggestion but try Black Dahlia. It is rather difficult though. And also (also FMV) the X Files.

[Stuart]

The Sherlock Holmes series is very good for detective work. If you want a real challenge, the one called Nemesis aka Holmes vs. Lupin is probably the toughest adventure game I've ever played. There are so many logic puzzles (including a chain of them at one point in a clue to clue sequence) and some are incredibly difficult and had me using walkthroughs.

[marcd2011]

i'd like to play a decent detective game however these are more difficult to achieve as a game, because the puzzling is done in your head not within the game.

Take Sherlock Holmes vs Jack The Ripper which i played a while ago. There were some great detective moments in the game but in the end they all amounted to a trial and error puzzle. The murder reconstruction just amounted to clicking a few pictures in the right order until you got the correct ones, and the evidence board even changed the colour of the items when you got them right so you couldn't really fail or get stuck.

Another obstacle is in how open these games are. For instance, if it were a proper detective game you should be able to go wherever you like at any time, and talk to whoever you like, and pick up every item in every location, but again using Sherlock Holmes vs Jack The Ripper as an example, this was not the case and people would be inexplicably missing from a location until the story wanted you to talk to them, a location would be out of bounds, and only items relevant to the case could be picked up.

From what i've seen of LA Noire so far, it looks like it could possibly be the game to change all this, but i suppose there's equal chance it'll be another reskinned gta game going by Rockstar's history..

[Origami]

^
Read my post and if you want to limit yourself to the media of only gaming(which is a pity because if you love deducing you're doing yourself injustice not reading golden-age detectives)
then try Phoenix Wright.
You have to find contradictions between testimonies and the established facts. These CAN be done through trial and error but it becomes a long winding process. The difficulty is just right as that you want to solve it yourself.

Also, like others recommended, Sherlock Holmes and the Serrated Scalpel also fits most with what you're describing.

[mrLOL]

Originally Posted by marcd2011

these are more difficult to achieve as a game, because the puzzling is done in your head not within the game.

Yes! good observation.

Originally Posted by marcd2011

Another obstacle is in how open these games are. For instance, if it were a proper detective game you should be able to go wherever you like at any time, and talk to whoever you like, and pick up every item in every location, but again using Sherlock Holmes vs Jack The Ripper as an example, this was not the case and people would be inexplicably missing from a location until the story wanted you to talk to them, a location would be out of bounds, and only items relevant to the case could be picked up.

From what i've seen of LA Noire so far, it looks like it could possibly be the game to change all this, but i suppose there's equal chance it'll be another reskinned gta game going by Rockstar's history..

I agree, that's why I'm so interested in the "manual input location" puzzles that diego is talking about because all of my future adventure-games are isometric free-roaming city so I think a puzzle like that would work even better if you're allowed to not just input it but rather go to a certain location.
Altho in my case I draw the line at "you should be able to go wherever you like" as I don't see much reason for the hero to enter a certain building if it's too early in the plot, but atleast be able to walk around at all the exterior shots even from the very beginning of the game.

LA Noire has insane potential, but I just don't see how they can possibly manage to pull it off, I have many friends who works at R* North (not the same company that makes LA Noire, I know) and from what I can tell their secret to success is to have a somewhat competent team and then just shove 5x as many developers than needed at every task and usually they find that if only half of them is dicking around on youtube then atleast it meant the other half got something done, and I can see how that results in GTA4 having some of the best city environments of any game, but I just don't see that strategy translating well to coming up with clever puzzles and clever plot and twists (that a detective-game needs).

@Origami: thanks, I'm getting Dr Fell the hollow man and house in gallows now

[Origami]

The Hollow Man aka The Threef Coffins is considered one of the best locked room murder mysteries. Good choice!

I also really recommend The Judas Window. It all takes place in a court room(the murder is solved there). A real battle of wits.

[mrLOL]

Originally Posted by diego

In Case of the Silver Earring, the aforementioned puzzle demands you to manualy input the name of a location where you need to go next in order to move the story. So, first you would need to look around for clues, maps etc. and deduct by yourself what's the location or part of the city which is important for your case, based on informations you have. I found this quite retro-refreshing in style of old text adventures. This way, player is forced to think creatively.

Hello diego, I recently realized it will take me too long to download all the let's play of that game so I just read the walkthrough instead ( http://www.gameboomers.com/wtcheats/...verEarring.htm ) , but strangely enough I don't see any puzzles like that.

I do however see a quite interesting gameplay-element in that game that there's a quiz for each chapter where it's put to the test if you really are listening carefully to all the dialogue and clues.
so it might say for example: "1. Do we have an idea of the weapon used for the crime?" and then you have to go through the dialogue-notes to find evidence of that, and also at the end the quiz litterally asks you "who killed ...?",
pretty cool tho also a bit silly since it's optional meaning you can complete the game without figuring out who the killer is.

[Origami]

Did you start reading yet? =)