I really enjoy Maher's writing on video games, beyond his obvious talent as a writer I think he tries to evaluate the games he writes about in a time-period sen

I really enjoy Maher's writing on video games, beyond his obvious talent as a writer I think he tries to evaluate the games he writes about in a time-period sensitive way. I also share his dislike for some of the more absurd puzzles from this era. I mostly agree with you, but I would add that deeply illogical puzzles where a much much bigger issue in 1995 than today - when I played The Dig first time around I had no internet access and no means of obtaining help beyond me and a group of school friends trying everything we could think of. As such, I didn't finish The Dig until years later in ScummVM with a walkthrough. The Dig, Full Throttle and especially Grim Fandango are adventure games I still love, but I can't honestly say I love them as "games". I love the atmosphere, setting and story telling in these LucasArts titles, but find the gameplay in Monkey Island, Day of The Tentacle etc to be much better personally. I'd love to read a Maher piece on Grim Fandango actually!