Hmm, adding one more in the mix: Full Throttle. I absolutely loved that game. Some blamed it to be “too short” and “too easy”, but frankly… I loved it. The main character had attitude and solving puzzles didn’t cause gray hairs or anything… so it was fun. Get it if you can find it.

GK 2 I bought, and it’s those “recorded real life actors” stuff, but I really liked it back then. It was also easier, but very nice in my opinion. I know a bit of German language, so it was cool to put some of that in use as well.

GOG indeed is great, and I totally support them (voting with your wallet works…)

Gotta love GOG, I hope their making a good living from such a great niche business idea and great execution!

Broken Sword 2 (I think I played this a bit, got stuck… and eventually stopped. :))
http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/broken_sword_2__the_smoking_mirror

I have to add also Gabriel Knights (pre-3d ;) those were simply great experience. Tough as hell, but with walkthrough guide & patience they were great stuff:
http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/gabriel_knight_2_the_beast_within
http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/gabriel_knight_sins_of_the_fathers

@Juuso You’ll love Broken Sword pre-3d, not sure you’ll like it as much afterwards.

I’d also recommend Runaway for a modern example of a new game in the classic handrawn art style. (It’s an experience, just wait to you meet Lulu and the girl-boys, oh boy)!

I guess point ‘n’ click adventure games aren’t dying, but handrawn point ‘n’ click adventure games, those may be more a rare species these days.

@Keith: your comment make me thinking that perhaps 3D in adventure games has the issue of camera/controls: it’s so easy to make them bad. Maybe that’s what bothering me in 3D adventure games.

to me, sadly, almost every modern game is some sort of game movie…

As far as actual 3d engines are concerned Monkey Island 4 really was ruined by a bad control scheme, because they weren’t really using the medium correctly. While I prefer 2D to 3D in look, as far as whether it works or not is really a control issue not a look issue. What you want is a third person perspective over somewhat static backgrounds. If scrolling backgrounds are to be employed then you need to treat them like you would 2d, you build them up in 3D, and move a camera along them still at a third-person perspective. It would still work correctly since adventure games were really meant to be in the third-person, not right in the action like a first-person shooter. That said, you can even have a first-person adventure game (technically text-adventures are first-person, as the feedback is directly to you, as you are the one doing it).

Also you can get any visual style you want in 3D just as in 2D although maybe a bit different. Personally I like 2D better because the art style is defined by the artist (or whoever is producing/directing/etc), whereas in 3D it’s more defined by the technical aspects. “How many polygons can we get away with. Can we use shaders?” etc.

Anyway. Perhaps my own thinking about “adventure games” is somewhat limited to point’n'click. In fact… my mind almost thinks that “adventure = point’n'click”. Certainly all these Alan Wake, Silent Hill, Penumbra (horror games all by the way) stretch the limits of genre definition. Same goes for Heavy Rain which is almost like a movie feeling in that game.

@Leroy: Perhaps I’m also hating the Guybrush art. It can never compete with this:

Broken Sword… I wanted to play that as a kid. Perhaps I’ll need to check gog.com for those games.

Is Syberia 3d? It does a fine job hiding it…