I never got very far in Grim Fandango either before I stopped it. Don't know what everyone sees in that game either.

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You so owe yourself a playthrough. Grim Fandango had a great, creative story and just piles and piles of style. Great music. Engaging characters. Just overflowed awesome all around.

I actually really disliked the music and the overall atmosphere of the game. I played a fair ways through. It just didn't grab me.

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I never got to finish Grim Fandango either, the whole story looked quite interesting, and it had ton of interesting characters to meet, i guess i just didn't like being forced to control the main character via the keyboard and also i hated the inventory system. I think it would have been much better in 2d with full mouse support and an easier inventory system. Actually i think the game would have been a failure, if it wasn't for the story which is one of the most unique and interesting ever created for a computer game and the humor which i found to be awesome. Every adventure gamer should try this game if only for the plot and the humor alone. In my opinion, if it was done in 2d with easier interface controls, this game would have been the greatest comic adventure game ever made. Viva the revolution!..

Actually now that I think about it, the thing that might have turned me off was that it seemed very Tim Burton-ish. And I can't stand Tim Burton...except his Batman movies.

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I'm willing to concede that the game might have been more accessible if they had gone with traditional mouse support and inventory system like in The Longest Journey, but I think the control scheme is one of those things where it's just a matter of different people's tastes. Personally, I find the continuous right-clicking to cycle through the different command cursors in Sierra games to be pretty tedious, especially going back and playing them nowadays, but it's something I never even noticed when I was younger. Awesome games like Gabriel Knight almost feel like a chore because there are several extra cursors to click through, and no way to cycle through them in reverse. Still, an annoying control scheme alone would never be enough to put me off seeing a good story through to the end, but maybe I'm just more patient than most.

I loved Grim Fandango, but I really don't like the interface.

The biggest issue for me was just seeing with what one can interact in a given room. To do that, you have to move your character around the room and wait until his head points at something. Even when this happens, you don't necessarily know what he's looking at (it doesn't show a label of what that hotspot is). And if there are two hotspots next to each other, it can be annoying to move around until you end up looking at the right one.

The inventory is also tedious. You can't see an overview of what you're carrying or quickly select the item you currently need. Instead, you have to cycle through the inventory one item a time.

Apart from the interface, the graphical detail level is also terrible (low poly counts, low texture details). This can be attributed to the age of the game, but it's still a significant distraction from the game's quality.

Ah, but it looked pretty darn good when it came out! You could say the same thing about any old "3D" game--X-Wing or Tie Fighter for example--those games were the epitome of immersive gameplay back then, but they look pretty bad by today's standards.

Now I personally think that if you're going to judge a game like Grim Fandango by the user interface, then you deserve to miss out on the experience that the end of the game will give you. The ending to that game is fantastic, and I don't think the interface is THAT bad. Personally, I think it enhanced the game that it was in 3-D, and I think that it being a classic point-and-click 2-D game would've greatly taken away from the immersion of it. You just gotta give the interface a chance...it's really not so bad if you would just keep an open mind and not keep thinking "Dammit, why couldn't they just make this a point-and-click?"

I'm not gonna get on your back about it if you have given the game a real chance, but it sounds like MusicallyInspired went into the game with the wrong frame of mind, and I don't think Grim Fandango ever really had a chance when you already set your mind about it from the UI.

And yeah, now that you mention it, MI4 was pretty bad. I forgot about that awful Monkey Combat crap at the end. I got distracted by visions of Murray, who almost single-handedly (err...single jawed-ly) makes the game worth playing.

Oh a side note, I think that AGD or IA should talk to Jane Jensen and work with her to release a new video game. From what I understand, she still has a couple more plots up in her head. I know she's currently working that Gray Matter game, but maybe she's got some cool 2-D Point-and-Click plots left in her. It would give her a chance to make some side money, and AGD or IA would have a chance to release an original 2-D game that they could actually make money off of. I know i'd buy it... I know it seems far-fetched, but i'm just sayin...

The throwaway cameo and the hidden Murrayball is enough to make the game worthwhile? I love Murray and all, but those are some low standards there.

Murray, Morte, and Bonehead - the talking skull trifecta...of DOOOOOOOOM!

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I would love to see QFG5 REDONE with the AGS engine. The remake was so good, and the entire series is so solid until 5..