Psychonauts
I'm so happy to find another game worth loving......I know I'm probably at the back of a long cue of people raving about Psychonauts, but I was truly surprised at how quickly I became engaged not only in the game-play but also the story.
Although there's an element of violence and the suggestion of gore....so far I haven't killed ANYONE. OK, the tale is not integral to game-play and at the end of the day, it still takes on the action - puzzle - story- action format that we've seen in the action/adventure since the start but the tempo has changed so that the irritating cut scene or puzzle in the middle of exciting action is gone. Instead story, puzzle and action rapidly interchange to give the illusion of being one and the same thing. It helps that the tale is so compelling, that you're as excited to know what comes next in the narrative as you are to complete the puzzles, and get on with the next challenge - so much so that although it's not a two player game, it was really fun to share the game controls with Ron. In addition, the characters and story are so sensitive and complex that you immediately feel emotional responses to your character, his friends and enemies.
Finally - it's feel-good, affordable, downloadable and episodic. I'd recommend this game to anyone. I'm going to see how many of my non-gaming friends I can convert with this one ;-)