As for all the rest, have you played the last Broken Sword game? :) It's not a perfect adventure but is very enjoyable. I just hope there will be more, but I won't hold my breath.
Broken Sword 4: The Angel of Death is due out later this year. There's a site and a trailer and everything.
http://www.brokenswordtheangelofdeath.com./index.php?lang=uk
I think I recall reading that Revolution are also working on BASS 2 as well. ( Beneath a Steel Sky for those who aren't old enough. )
The thing that puts people off adventure games is getting stuck at a particular spot. Only a small proportion will look at a walkthrough, and only the hardcore will actually battle it out. It's story-driven - when was the last time you got stuck reading a story? You don't want to make it easy or there's no fun, but the game world doesn't stop if you can't do something, and should offer you other things to do and preferably another way around the puzzle you're stuck on.
I disagree, but I would, wouldn't I? I hate the 30-second attention span world we live in now. If we reach a puzzle we can't get past, we bin it and go and play something else? I'm not for one second going to argue with that, because it's very true and very sad. It probably *is* the reason that adventure games don't sell too. But damn, do we really have to accomodate these children of the MTV generation who can't spend a few moments puzzling? People like me who remember the Scott Adams and Infocom games where you might spend bloody week struggling over how to get past the damn fan ( Spiderman ) or how to get the gems away from Ringmaster without him turning you to stone ( Spiderman ) have a real hard time digesting that people can't stomach even an hour or two of being stuck.
If you take the real puzzles out of adventure games, you've just got a film. :/ But like I said, can't disagree with a word of it factually. I just really wish game designers coud be allowed to pay no mind to it and market to those of us who don't mind real puzzles.