Iji (PC) - I downloaded Iji with no knowledge about it other than a post on The Independant Gaming Source. Boy was I in for a treat. You're Iji, a young woman who has been turned into a cyborg who can use Nano technology. An alien race has decended upon the planet, but you wake up not knowing what happened. Your brother contacts you via the intercom and halfway explains the situation. Along your journey to find the truth and stop the events from unfolding further, you pick up new weapons, combine weapons to form new ones, read logs and journals written by the Tasen(the aliens), ect. To make a comparison, the gameplay feels kinda like Metroid. One aspect that sets Iji apart from some of the other action adventure games is the upgrade system. While simple, it requires you to make tough choices as to which upgrades you need/want. Example, do you increase your total health, or do you put a point into Tasen weaponry so you can pick up that fancy new weapon? Do you use that point for overall strength to be able to kick that door down and possibely get more ammo, or do you increase overall weapon attack damage? You can also add it to increase all weapon's ammo capacity or upgrade your cracking ability(used to hack doors, crates, enemies, and combine weaponry to make new variations). Obviously the experience to gain these points is collected thru-out the level and by killing enemies. However, you are limited to 5 levels per sector. So that's 5 points you better spend wisely because by end of the game you will not be able to fill your stats completely. Five per sector is on the normal difficulty. It becomes one less per each difficulty higher(down to 3, the highest only allows health upgrades). The other thing that makes Iji stand out is the storyline. Not only is it surprisingly well thought-out for a game of its type, but it also changes depending on your actions. Sure, you can kill everything in sight(which is what I did), but you may also kill as few as you want. Right down to having 0 kills thru the whole game. Dialogue and logbooks change accordingly(they regularly tell of the events unfolding). It's surprisingly long as well. I took my time, but it took me around 4 1/2 hours to beat(game time says 5, but I had downtime while eating). I rank Iji right up there with Cave Story in terms of action adventure awesomeness. Did I mention the music is kickass as well? You can download the game and the music for free here -
http://www.remar.se/daniel/iji.php

Ben There, Dan That! (PC) - Anybody who is a fan of the old Lucasarts point and click adventure games like Monkey Island and Sam & Max will love Ben There, Dan That!. It is a complete throwback to those games and very, very funny. I'm not going to say anymore because if you know and love point and click games, this is right up your alley. One note: try everything on everything before you actually do what you're suppose to in an area. Ben and Dan usually have hilariously awesome comments when trying various things. That's a staple in point and click adventures, but Ben and Dan(the devs) have gone to an extreme with the interactions. Ben There, Dan That! is free and gets my highest recommendation. Also the sequel, Time Gentlemen, Please!, is a mere $5. Oh, I also recommend throwing on some music before booting the game because it has none and there are minimal sound effects.
http://www.zombie-cow.com/?page_id=17

Little Wheel (browser) - Little Wheel is a really short point and click flash game about a robot and his quest to restore power to his world. Has a slight Wall-E feel. Quick, easy(they tell you what's clickable), and cute. One of the best browser games I've played.
http://fastgames.com/littlewheel.html

Tumbledrop (browser) - Tumbledrop is a physics based puzzler of sorts. A pink star is perched atop a stack of various shapes and you are tasked with getting said pink star safely to the small platform on the bottom. You do so by clicking whichever shape you wish to erase and the others will act accordingly. However, the platform is small so if you make a mistake, the star may fall into the water. In which case you'll have to restart. The mechanic itself is fun, but it's made even more-so by the cute artstyle. There are only 20 levels, but if you enjoy the puzzle game genre you'll find a good 15-20 minutes of enjoyment here.
http://www.tumbledrop.com/

Judith (PC) - A very short story with minimalist graphics and interactivity. The real achievement here is the atmosphere and tension it produces with practically nothing. If a game as simple as this can bring forth such emotions, why are high budget games having such a hard time doing it?
http://db.tigsource.com/games/judith

Light's End (XBox Live Indie Games) - Taking a line from their website, "Light's End is inspired by the engrossing stories of classics like Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger." Same sort of style(with some not so great character portraits, but servicable) but no combat. You basically run around talking to people and learning of the plot and then progressing to the next section. The hook is that you are able to walk up to any character, take control of them, then view the story from their perspective. Progression usually involves talking to the right people with the right person. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it's an enjoyable escape when I don't want to go killing everything or solve a bunch of puzzles. Light's End costs 200 Microsoft points($2.50) in the Indie Games section of the Xbox Live Marketplace.
http://www.lightsendgame.com/