I fail to see how Flash has anything to do with DRM ??

And besides "some people are morons" is not a good reason to be a moron yourself. :-)

I fail to see how Flash has anything to do with DRM ??
Do I really have to explain that? There are people who won't buy games as they have DRM in them. There are people who won't buy games that use GFWL. I, won't pay $20 for a game written in flash. That's all there is to it.
It's a programming language I absolutely despise. That coupled with being totally unimpressed by the demo boils down to the fact that I consider the game too expensive. And I really couldn't care less if everyone else considered it the bestest game ever. I don't. And when it's my money at stake, only my opinion counts =).
And when it's your money at stake I would hope that it's only *your* opinion that ultimately counts.

Damn am I glad to not judge games based on what they are programmed in.

QFT

I agree that ActionScript wouldn't be my first choice to make a game either, but these guys obviously know what they're doing.
Except for the typical right click flash 'settings' menu, you would never guess that it's a flash/AS game at all, and i don't see how which language was used, whatever the language in question, can be a deciding factor and/or prevent someone from enjoying a game.
Anyway, like you said, your money, your call...
Story, characters, animations, art, music, inventory interface, lenght. Machinarium is miles ahead of its predecessors in every single aspect.
You can immediately recognise the style, but that's it for similarities.

Yeah, Steam will probably have this on sale at some point, so I'm fine waiting.

I'm under the impression it's there already...
Edit: Nevermind, just figured what you meant by sale...

Yeah, after your comment, I remembered that "on sale" can have two different meanings. Next time I'll use something clearer, like "discount".

No worries.
I haven't had a chance to get my cup of coffee yet and my brain is still stuck in 'sleep mode ';)

Ridiculous. DRM inarguably makes games worse. GFWL is annoying. Flash is a tool that can aid in creating a game. I don't really want to attack you personally, but I'll be damned if this isn't the worst reason I've ever seen to give a game a hard time. Why would you despise anything that can help developers make games so obviously polished as the one in question? I'll admit that the Flash thing sounded unattractive, but Namur already said it - the game looks and plays very well.
Personally, I despise paintings in which pencil was used.

DRM makes games no worse than Flash. Sure it does, on some instances it even prevnts you from playing the game at all. That's 'worse' anyway you look at it.
GFWL is no more annoying than Flash. Sure it is. You don't have to jump through any hoops to play a non GFWL flash game.
Like i said, your money , your call, but neither of those claims are valid, and the comparison is ridiculous.
You're an accomplished webdesigner and as such i suspect you to be a 'purist' that considers flash a crappy tool for any purpose. If that's the case, that's fine.
Or you're just irrational about flash games. That's also fine, just as long as you don't try to justify that irrationality with ridiculous comparisons.

So you think the level of game design, plot and enjoyability are all worth less in a flash game?

DRM makes games no worse than Flash. Sure it does, on some instances it even prevnts you from playing the game at all. That's 'worse' anyway you look at it.
And on some systems, Flash too can prevent a game written in it from running. In that respect, it's no different to DRM.
GFWL is no more annoying than Flash. Sure it is. You don't have to jump through any hoops to play a non GFWL flash game.
You have to install Flash, which is about as much of a hoop as GFWL is. You may have to jump through additional GFWL hoops if you want to use a on-line profile, but for an offline one, the hoops stop as soon as you put in your CD key (if one is required).
Now, Flash is fine in some cases for websites (although it is pitifully over used to the point of even more annoyance) but when it comes to stand-alone games, any programming language that reveals itself so easily (such as by an accidental right-click) is a poor choice as far as I'm concerned. For one thing it distracts from the game itself.
If anything, that's a fault of Adobe who should be giving developers the ability to disable that. Then again, if they already do, then it's the developer's fault for not using that ability. Either way, that's the final straw for me when it comes to Flash.
So you think the level of game design, plot and enjoyability are all worth less in a flash game?
From what I've seen of the demo, the game has been lacking in all that so far. To put it bluntly, it was boring. The main character annoying. The only thing going for it was the nicely drawn backgrounds.
Now, perhaps my impression from the demo was misconstrued, but that's the part of the game the developer chose to use as their demo so that's all I have to go on. And if I find that part of the game to be boring, I'm not about to go and spend $20 on it.
Whatever, this is my final post on this subject as we're just going to start going around in circles. I won't agree with what you post; you won't agree with what I post.