[RLacey]

After the success of last year's Underground awards, we're in the process of deciding the nominations for this year. Whilst I'm not about to reveal our own views just yet (you'll have to wait for the official announcement), we're keen to take into account the views of the forumites.

So, that said, what games do you think deserve a place in our 2004 awards, be it for their storyline, puzzles, scripting, graphics or any other reason you care to mention? We'll make sure that we consider anything brought up.

[Wormsie]

Well *yawn*... Apprentice 2. First of all, Herculen Effort has a vision of its own. They don't try to copy LucasArts or anything, the game is clearly a Herculean Effort game, and also a solid, stylistically coherent entity that doesn't change its tone over time. (Some amateur games can go from parody to serious to slapstick to a humour game in just one short cutscene, and that is rather off-putting.) They are also artistically competent. The writing is top-notch. Unlike in, say, 7 Days a Skeptic, the neutral voice of some mysterious narrator is not audible in the dialogue, but each character sounds completely unique. The soundtrack is better than in any other amateur game and better than in many commercial games (though occasionally a few of the tunes get a little repetitive). By this I mean not only the (sometimes rhytmically very clever) compositions, but also the arrangements and the production of the tracks. The game is rather short - actually just one chapter of a longer epic saga - so the story isn't that exciting, and too many of the puzzles are of the "get me the COAL and I'll give you the KEY" variety. I think Apprentice 2 has the best graphics, best music, best writing and is, all in all, the best amateur game released in 2004. /fanboy mode off

I'm beginning to think that instead of "story" being one of the general categories of game criticism, it should instead be "writing". At least to me, good writing is a lot more essential than a good story.

[Sky Warrior Bob]

The Cirque De Zale & No Action Jackson titles were pretty good IMO, and certainly worthy of mention. And the 7 Days a Sceptic wasn't too bad, but nowhere near as solid of a title as 5 Days a Stranger.

And of course, the Apprentice 2 should sweep the whole sheabang.

SWB

[Erkki]

Man, I haven't played a single new amateur adventure game this year, or at least finished one. I suck.

[BerserkerTails]

Apprentice 2
Two of a Kind
7 Days a Skeptic
No Action Jackson

[ConcreteRancor]

I haven't even played the first Apprentice yet. I'm stuck in Cirque de Zale, and I want to finish that before I start another one.

[Captain_Tuttle]

Is no action jackson still in beta ? i've been waiting for the final version to come out before I download.

[AGA]

It's in eternal beta, I don't think it will ever be 'officially released'. The version available is totally playable though (I wouldn't have reviewed it otherwise...). Some people experienced some bugs apparently, but I had no troubles myself.

[Toefur]

How about some love for Other Worlds?

[Stalker]

I have neither played Cirque de Zale, No Action Jackson nor Other Worlds yet - those seem to be the most critically acclaimed games this year, so I wanted to wait with them until I'm through with my finals in 3 1/2 weeks -, but the one game I truly enjoyed last year was Two of a Kind. The final puzzle could have come from a LucasArts game, and I'm sure I'll remember it for the years to come. I only wish it had been longer... didn't even take me three hours to finish (then again, most commercial games from the 90's just took me around 5-10 hours, too... at least the ones with sort-of logical puzzles and no "wandering around aimlessly because I overlooked a tiny inventory item three pixels big"-hunting).

[Vel]

I'd nominate Enclosure for everything except graphics and music, which I'd nominate Apprentice II for.

[Mickey Bitsko]

My vote goes to Principles of Evil, made with AGS. The young woman who made it did a bang up job and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.

Plus, the heroine is a hottie!

[After a brisk nap]

I enjoyed Stranger by Night a lot. It does have the problem that many people's first reaction will be "It's not as good as 5 Days a Stranger."

I would imagine that the games that won the awards at The Crow's Nest (and this) should all be considered.

Maybe it's also worth mentioning The Inventory Award, although its focus is mainly commercial games and it seems blind to anything that isn't Cirque de Zale. (I liked Cirque, but in terms of gameplay it's probably the weakest of any of the 2004 favorites.) For the indie award it nominated Apprentice 2, A Case of the Crabs, Cirque de Zale, No-Action Jackson and 7 Days a Skeptic.