Amber was a very nice surprise. The 'theme' and even some of the pararormal gadgets remind me a lot of Jonathan Boakes' games, which i also love, but Amber somehow is just...better. My favourite story in Amber was that of Edwin (the story underwater about the teddy). Very nice and very sad at the same time. The whole game has quite a sad tone and IMO that makes it even more admirable.
As for Black Dahlia, it's a shame you haven't tried yet. Anyone who is into adventures should really give this one a go.
The depiction of the late 30's/early 40's 'mood' is perfect. The way real life events and historical facts are tied into the game's story is very well done. The acting isn't top knotch, but it's pretty decent for an FMV. Trust me, it's quite an unique game and you should really get a hold of a copy...somehow...

Privateer 2
Audio Options
Main Volume: -______| +
Sound FX: -_____|_ +
Music: -___|___ +
Voice: -_____|_ +
Brian Blessed: -_|_______________ +

7th Guest is criminally underrated. It's hard and the plot is silly, but it's a fun and well-constructed puzzle game. It's also one of the greatest technical achievements in the history of videogames.
11th Hour was another great game, if less of a technical feat. People couldn't play it on their computers when it came out either though. It was harder than 7th Guest, by a lot and relied heavily on anagrams that people had difficulties solving. Play it. If you like puzzle games, you'll love them both. The non-Myst, non-inventory puzzle/adventure genre (Shivers 1,2, Safecracker, etc) is more or less dead, so that hasn't exactly contributed to the series enduring popularity. Plus they're FMV games - which are also disfashionable. I'm ecstatic over the recent Professor Layton games for DS, though.
I still think GK2 gets off easy by comparison. That tape splicing puzzle was ridiculous.
Fair point on Realms of the Haunting if we're talking about FMV adventures which is what people generally mean (the topic really does state 90 FMV games, though) - I suppose it's debatable, but I really do think it's significantly closer to the FMV adventure than any other genre, despite shooting sequences. Also I believe the FMV was integrated into the gameplay at points. Tex Murphy was mostly not FMV either.

And even then he overpowers every other sound. About the only other actor who could steal focus from him would be Valentine Dyall and he's dead

I have always wanted to try that. It wasn't as crappy as some say, was it?

Night Trap.....

Police Quest: SWAT
Very interesting game. Has some crappy gameplay in the last mission, but otherwise a VERY detailed SWAT simulation with lots of information on police tactics if you ever want to know how real world Police/Military units work. When I went through training to be an MP, roughly half of the training I had already learned from the game.
It's also probably one of the most detailed and difficult sniper simulations around. The actual manual for the game (which i still have for the sniping data) is an actual data book with all sorts of sniper data.
PDF Link of the Police Quest SWAT manual.

Brian Blessed is an unstoppable weapon against eardrums.

Maybe I just don't remember it too well, but I don't remember FMV being such an integral part of Realms. Then it could just be that I remember the gameplay more than the FMV.
I would look into 7th & 11th more if it wasn't for the typically insane eBay prices for anything more than five years old and a little bit rare. Maybe they'll wind up here? Stranger things have happened.

Well, it really depends of what you expect to see in a X-Files game.
If you want to feel like you were in a X-Files episode, you'll appreciate it (even if you don't play Mulder and Scully).
If you want a great adventure game, well, you may be disappointed.

Sounds good. I will kinda miss Mulder though.

You don't play Mulder & Scully, that doesn't mean you don't see them ;)

I used to love these games even though they were not great.
Would like to see phantasmagoria2 and harvester. Have copies of both of them but can't get them to work

hahah. Such an awful game, but it had some great moments...the greatest of all being Boos Miller.