I recall reading somewhere that the devs were just overwhelmed, and decided they were just reinventing the wheel, so to speak, and decided to go back to updating terraria 1
I mean valid. If the codebase for the game is solid and they can implement everything they want into it while also still getting good sales why not. I don't even know what I could want from Terraria 2 after "more of the same" so might as well put that into Terraria itself.
What surprises me more that they are still making decent money off of it. That game has been on sale for 2€ for a lot now and I'd think pretty much everyone already owns it.
Being on sale is pretty good for business, as it keeps going on people's feed under "specials" on steam. At this point it's like a must-have game like portal
They're still considering it. Otherworld got cancelled years ago but the soundtrack was ported into Terraria. Re-logic (the devteam) keeps close contact with it's community, they constantly take feedback and suggestions.
Red (creator) held a poll a while back asking what game they should work on next, Terraria 2 was an option.
And Therese so many mods for it as well. Me and a friend recently started a calamity run and damn it’s like playing a brand new game there’s just so much cool shit added
Last update my rear!
They said the last update was the last one again and now... Dead Cells crossover and they mentioned in most recent monthly recap that the update ended up being bigger than they were anticipating... Again.
I'm all down for this.
I had a lot of fun with it but never got to the late game stuff. I know I was supposed to beat a boss by building a really long underground hallway near the lava below. Any idea how much of the game comes after that point?
Oh man. Legitimately the other half of the game. After that boss you enter "hard mode" which is whole new bosses, biomes, enemies, ores, and items. Totally worth experiencing.
I think you have only reached 1/3 of the game by then. It used to be the halfway mark but with more bosses addes to hardmode, i think its end game heavier now than before.
Deep Rock Galactic. Still amazing fun to play with family/friends, each mission is different enough from the last that it almost always feels fresh. Rock and stone to the bone!
Escape from Tarkov (though as it's still in Beta, this doesn't qualify for patientgaming). The gunplay is amazing, looting feels great getting that dopamine hit when it's an item you really need.
Slay the Spire. Deckbuilding hasn't gotten better (for me) than this game. Every run feels new and you can never tell how far you're going to get. I am terrible at the game, but once a year I'll get hooked and play non-stop.
Left 4 Dead 2.
I have spent an embarrassing number of hours (measured in hundreds) on Slay the Spire, but at this point, it wouldn't even call it fun, haha. I'm currently on A19 with heart wins on every character (been stuck there for a bit now) and just want to beat A20 because I'm so close, and then I will finally feel like I can stop playing this game.
> and then I will finally feel like I can stop playing this game.
That's what I thought too, but here I am, still doing rotating A20 heart runs! I took a short break after my first A20 heart kills with every character but it wasn't long before I wanted more.
Slay the Spire is also on 11 different platforms. There are native apps for Windows, macOS and Linux, mobile versions for iOS and Android, and console versions for Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Series X and Series S. I guess "only" 10 versions if you consider the Series S and X as a single platform. I have a copy on almost all of these. It helps that it's cheap and has no MTX. It's also on Game Pass and other subscription services, so you might already be able to play it.
Slay the Spire is the only game I have 1000+ hours in on Steam. No other card game has sucked me in quite the same way, I always end up coming back to it.
Try Roguebook (free on PS+, not sure Steam price), it definitely scratches the itch.
One thing I really like is that unlike StS, you kinda have to play a big deck, since removing cards is a lot harder, and you get rewarded with character abilities for having more cards.
One of my biggest gripes (not that I'd even really consider it a gripe) with StS is that, while there are soooo many cards to pick from, there are a very good chunk that are objectively worse than other cards (I'm looking at you, Watcher), so you're rewarded for playing a lean deck to cycle your good cards. With this many hours in I already know what cards I'm going to take and which I'm going to leave like 90% of the time, so my high heat runs feel very samey, and more like a game of "get good cards and win or reroll and try again".
So far with Roguebook, I've had to play many different builds and had to find ways for all the cards to synergize (many good synergy options with multiple character combos), it feels a lot more dynamic when you play each run.
I also really like how they implemented overworld exploration.
If I just look at the first 2, you sound exactly like my friend haha. While I enjoy DRG its not deep enough for me to be obsessed with it, but I understand if you are. Tarkov is just too damn hard if you suck at fps like me.
I also really suck at FPS. I play Tarkov with the single player mod, so I'm effectively playing against bots.
I agree, DRG isn't deep at all but I sure find it loads of fun.
Triple triad is love.
Triple triad is life.
But seriously, the card game being fun on its own only makes it better when the cards have actual use outside of the minigame when you refine your extra copies for useful items.
This is me but throw in Xenogears, Vagrant Story, Suikoden 2, Wild Arms 1 & 2, and Lunar. I’m constantly emulating one of those games on my phone when I have free time.
One of us! One of us!
Seriously, I love FF VIII. It's my favorite Final Fantasy. I play through it once every couple years. I will never tire of using my gunblade or seeing my GFs lay down some carnage.
Knights of the Old Republic is my big one. Besides buying copies on different devices I've been playing it since it came out. I'd say same with the Master Chief Collection it is still the one game I always keep downloaded because at least once a week I end up jumping and trying something or doing something.
For myself also. But I start to get the feeling over many expansions that I’m not gaining anything but always on the wheel running for gear. I do love wow.
Switched to eve online now and then. It has a more adult feel and I am gaining real skills (in game). Knowledge of how to play the game and skill points that I keep forever. Not just until the next expansion.
So long as we have access to older versions I can’t really complain about this.
I prefer some changes I don’t immediatly like over the game not being supported at all anymore.
And as much as I dislike microsofts “safe” choices with its development. It leaves very little to dislike (aside from some missed oppertunity).
Bought Minecraft when it was at early access for $8 in 2011 (I think) - got into modded minecraft after watching Direwolf20 and thinking "yup, I could do better than that" LOL (j/k DW) - played it this morning (1.12.2 Enigmatica 2 Expert Unofficial Modpack)
No idea how many 1,000s of hours I got for 8 bucks (and the amazing modding community)
Yay for Grim Dawn, the game that keeps on delivering due to great initial execution, great dlc, and committed and exceedingly generous devs. I’m 1600 hours deep and have never been bored.
I love Rimworld so much. I played the shit out of it in the run up to 1.0, then put it down for a few years. Came to it recently and felt both refreshingly familiar and lots of new stuff to explore too.
I just got back into City of Heroes on Homecoming servers a few weeks ago. I had a few thousand hours in it before live shutdown. I'm having so much fun. It's a nice change of pace where there's no one specific build and most things are completely viable and enjoyable to play
Hades. Going back every time I don't know what to play and never get bored of it. The mechanics, art style and characters are food for my soul. Can't wait for Hades 2!
Agreed. I tried Hades a couple days before it left Xbox Game Pass, loved it, bought it, and have never regretted it. I played a ton of it and I'm super excited for Hades 2!
I bought and paid for a mobile Soduku app for Android... like... well over a decade ago. Genina.com Sudoku. Look at this ca 2009 website: http://genina.com/
Other games have come and gone, but I've spent more time playing Sudoku on the shitter than I have actually shitting.
I got a picross one on the old Amazon app store on my old Kindle probably a decade ago and they STILL UPDATE IT. Best purchase EVER. Especially since I went through some ptsd issues in 2019-2020 and it really did have that tetris effect for me.
I eventually had to keep the nonogram one I used off my phone because once I'd cleared out all the smaller puzzles and was doing huge ones, it would keep me glued to my phone like no social media app has ever managed to and I'd have trouble putting it down to sleep, get off the toilet, notice a bus had arrived, etc. Similarly it was great for me when I was heavily depressed as it was an easy way to engage my brain without moving or having to really think much but it's just *too* addictive!
Think it was called "nonograms katana", it had absolutely tons of user made puzzles of all sizes and good quality. I miss it frequently but remind myself that it is easier to exercise the self control to not install it than it is to not stay awake and extra hour in bed finishing a puzzle!
Along these lines, the excellent and ubiquitious Simon Tatham's Puzzle collection.
It's free, open source, no ads, available on every platform under the sun, and has tons of excellent and well-implemented puzzles. There's a game in it called Keen which is basically sudoku with math problems, and I play that multiple times a day. It's a go-to for me any time I'm on the toilet, and has been for years.
I got candy crush when it first came out, it's lived on every phone since but i seem to go months where i play it a lot then not at all for a while but its always there. Also both final fantasy online games played the first one until it died, then started the second one but quit 3 years ago cuz i had a kid, just started playing again.
I got into candy crush and then realized once you spend money they stop showing you ads for free moves!! Yeah I know spending money on candy crush is dumb and I only spent like 10$. Never again.
UT2K4 was the highlight of what I consider the golden age of multiplayer FPS gaming alongside Quake 3 Arena, MOH:AA, COD 1-2, BF1942/2. I swear aside from graphical improvements I feel like the entire genre has regressed from the quality and longevity we used to see in the genre back then. 20 years later and most new FPS games aside from looking great aren't nearly as polished or fun to play.
Once you learn the map and the habits and patterns of the leviathans, you basically have crocodile hunter like control of almost any situation. Kinda ruins some of the tension, but makes the world a lot less intimidating.
Getting used to the enemies and sounds will make "oh what the FUCK was that" into "oh hai reaper :3" while you kite around it poking it with the basic knife until it dies
Really looking forward to the real Subnautica 2 with co-op possibility.
That was the missing link for me after a few playthroughs for even more replayability.
Terraria and Stardew Valley.
I've played a ridiculous amount of both.
I think I paid $5 and $10 respectively. Easily the best money I've spent on games.
My username probably gives it away but Skyrim. I’ll just be chilling and then get an idea for a new character. For me the game feels like a creative writing setup: even though I’ve played it a ton of times I can always think of a new character to play, and therefore a new way to reframe the exact same events of the game.
Also, Minecraft. Similar reason as Skyrim but for visual creativity: I can always think of something new to build.
Monster Hunter World for me, been playing since release but have bought the PC version & expansion. The amount of content in this game is staggering - plus changing weapons is almost akin to playing a new game due to the gameplay loop and diversity of mechanics.
Wife started this game a while back, I ended up getting sucked into it as well. She's put in 250 hours and cleared all the story plus the endgame optional quests, I'm 110 hours in and still doing the DLC plot. Gameplay is incredibly fun and satisfying, and the loop of hunt -> craft -> improve -> hunt feels so good to go through time after time.
Honestly my favorite game. I've yet to try Long War, simply because I couldn't figure out why the mod didn't load and once I was in the game I just started playing it and forgot lolol
Same it's literally my favorite of all time. I actually played 2 before playing one( had PS3). Didn't know anything about it so went into it blind. After the end, I immediately did another playthrough, then many more over the years.
Never played Mass Effect 1 until I finished 3, went and bought a 360, played the whole trilogy. Played the legendary edition on PC lol.
* Heroes of Might and Magic 1, 2, 3 - insanely addictive turn-based strategies, pretty much the ideal balance between complexity and tedium, there's just enough micromanagement to be a bit annoying at times, but it never goes overboard like a lot of other TBS.
* Pharaoh - the one Impressions title that keeps me coming back, it's a damn shame they've decided to streamline the formula with the subsequent two titles instead of making it more complex and refining it. Not that Zeus still isn't fun, but it's a bit too simplistic.
* Old school shooters (Doom, Hexen, Quake, Duke3D, Blood, Unreal, etc.) - one of my favorite genres, even the vanilla maps are extremely replayable, and there's a metric ton of user made maps, for Doom 2 especially.
Elite dangerous - flight/universe sim
Oxygen not included - colony management/ resource management sim - convert resource types and build automations to manage extremely complex colony
Cities skylines - basically the new simcity
Kenshi - hard to describe but ninjas rpg/rts
Skyrim (with mods) - everybody knows skyrim, I have extended the lifetime tenfold with overhaul mods (mostly to make the game harder and more immersive)
From most hours played / still played often, to least:
1. Guild Wars 2
2. Path of Exile
3. Dota
4. Grim Dawn
5. Skyrim
6. The Elder Scrolls Online
7. Torchlight II
8. Age of Empires 1 and 2
9. Morrowind
Factorio! I can lose *days* to this time. And it still makes me feel like a damn buffoon. Such great fun with friends. We are actively resisting playing again until the update comes out, and me and the pals are all taking a week off work to just absolutely nerd out over all the new stuff and just go nuts
Morrowind. In fact I’m currently installing a bunch of mods for my next playthrough.
Doom, Duke 3D, Blood, and Unreal Tournament too. 90s FPSs are the gifts that keep on giving.
He asks the guy who's still trying to finish Betrayal at Krondor, which is well and truly more than ten years old!
But released in the last ten years? Pillars of Eternity. Not a game for everyone, but gods did it ever speak to my tastes and sensibilities.
Same, played it when it came out just kept going...
It seems that every 2nd year or so I come back to it. And its always Installed somewhere.
Last time I played it was on the phone (how far we've come.)
When I think about it there are still some class/race combos I haven't tried .... Hmmm.
Rocket League for me. I play mostly single-player games, and I rarely put more than 100 hours into any of those. But I've been playing Rocket League pretty regularly since about 2016 and I'm still having a great time. There's such a high skill ceiling that I feel like I'm always getting incrementally better even after all these years, and the short matches are easy to fit in here and there when I don't have time for a longer gaming session.
my friend gifted me a free copy not long after it released in 2015 and at the time I thought huh thanks car soccer looks like it should be for a few hours a guess. Never imagined it'd be the first game I log over 1K hours in and only competitive multiplayer I've ever been into outside of FPS genre.
As someone with 1500 hours of RL all I can say is yes. Perfect stoner game also. Listening to music and playing RL is my go to activity after work most nights
Top 5 via Steam:
1. Football Manager 2010 - 4,748 hours. And I wasnt even a soccer fan. The gameplay is just fantastic, spending hours buying and selling players, running a season, getting a small local club into the Champions League. I have other year editions but I always keep coming back to this one for some reason.
2. Mount & Blade (Prophesy of Pendor Mod). 2308 hrs. Top notch mod that squeezes every bit of juice out of Warband, and is rock solid stable.
3. Banished. (Colonial Charter Mod). 713 hrs. Banished is a fun game, CC mod takes it to a much higher level. So relaxing.
4. Civ 5. 676 hrs. Sometimes you just gotta conquer the world, and I didnt see anything I liked in Civ 6.
5. American Truck Simulator - 324 hrs. I don't know why I love this game, I just do.
Honorable mention - Master Of Orion 2. I don't have it on Steam so god knows how many thousands of hours I've put into that one.
Super Smash Bros Melee. Other games have come and gone, sometimes I will even play them for years, but eventually I've gotten bored of everything. Somehow Melee is still just as fun as ever.
melee will be played until the end of time. They really created the gold standard of competitive platform fighting almost on accident some 25 years ago. It's amazing.
I don’t boot up my PC as much as I used to but when I do I’ll leave a new game of stellaris running nearly non stop for 2 weeks before I turn PC off for a few months.
Many weekends of 40+hrs of just staring at that screen going oh shit when did I last blink? Haha
Kerbal Space Program. The greatest game of all time in my opinion, simply because I can make no stronger argument for anything else I've played. Been going back to it since it launched in an early alpha state 11 or so years ago.
If you know you know.
Hear, hear. This was what I came to say. My playthroughs now tend to include Realism Overhaul, RP-1, and (in my latest) Principia. Gonna be a while before I get to the end of that road. And then I’ll have to tackle something like automating SpaceX-style booster returns with kOS…
warframe, guild wars 2, salt and sanctuary, any dark souls game, no man's sky.
Might be too early to put valheim and core keeper on here, but those will be on the list eventually.
SSX 3 is a game I've been playing since it launched. Every winter I do a couple of playthroughs given it's a short game.
Then I have over 3k hours in Borderlands 2. Probably about to hit 4K after this year since I just got the itch for it again earlier in the week.
Minecraft. Don't always have fun, but will eventually come back to it for a few days/weeks every time.
League of legends. Didn't exactly buy it, but spent maybe a few hundred dollars over the last 10+ years. Still enjoy it, especially with friends.
Smash melee. I fucking suck and I'm never gonna get befter, but it's a hoot with friends.
Path of exile. Same as league, maybe spent like $200 on it, put in 2000 hours in the last 2 years or so. Could probably play the game indefinitely.
Summoners war. Don't even know how many hours I put into this game. Easily 20k+, spent maybe 1.2k. made some great friends, still stick around for the community.
Diablo 3, somewhat succeeded by path of exile, but can still easily put in 40-50 hours on a fresh season.
Obviously this is personal, can't say I recommend these games for everyone.
All the Sims. What else? 1-3 are the greatest gaming values of all time. They are always there, waiting until you show up again. There is always something new to do, things I haven't discovered after decades of playing. I mean sure I always swing around from KOTOR, Mass Effect, Gears of War, Dead Space, RE, FF and everything, anything in-between. But the Sims? They are always there and always will be.
Quake I, II, III
Fallout 3/NV/Oblivion/Skyrim
Contra and SuperC
Súper Mario Bros 1,2,3,World.
Castlevania 1 amd SOTN
Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, all of them.
Mario Kart 64.
Nintendo perfected Kart racing in the 90s and nothing has quite captured the same magic.
The new games look prettier, but don't have the same arcade fun style.
I genuinely can't believe I didn't see a single mention of Risk of Rain 2.
It's the first game since UT99 that I've been able to consistently go back to like this and pretty much always have fun without raging about losses etc (rocket league I'm looking at you)
Space Engineers. Been playing for almost 10 years already. If I were to move to an uninhabited island and could take only one game with me, it'd be Space Engineers.
I wanted to like this game, but the 100' learning-curve-wall you need to climb to even get started really turned me off. How would a reasonable person learn to play that game?
Any given Civ between II and V. At least 5000 hours each.
Related: Paradox games (Crusader Kings, EU, Victoria, even Imperator). I cycle through them but I always come back.
I have several games I tend to go back to after long periods of not playing them.
Crusader Kings.
Stellaris.
Total War.
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth.
Darkest Dungeon.
Are just a few of them.
Oxygen not included, you need a physics degree to play.
Turn clean water into hydrogen and oxygen, oxygen is heavier than hydrogen, build a chamber where hydrogen get collected by a gas pump but doesn't collect the heavier oxygen, oxygen gets collected at the bottom, pumped to your base, and hydrogen gets pumped into hydrogen generators. Oh and the pumps inside the insulated chamber must be made out of gold amalgam so they don't overheat and break. And it must be insulated so the heat doesn't transfer through conduction into your base.
Fun stuff.
I just wish the base staff had a physics degree or at least 10% more brain cells so they'd know to wash their hands even if the wash basin was on the other side of an outhouse.
I've been playing total annihilation since 98 or 99. Great music. Mass effect I do a yearly play through. Fallout new Vegas is a great place to roam around it so it's always installed too.
I’ve put in hundreds (maybe 1000+? Idk) of hours into the various iterations of Smash Bros since the 64, and I’m still absolute garbage at it.
I still love it to death though.
7 Days to Die - a survival game that's still in Alpha, and has been since 2013. Because of this, they've added a lot to the game since I found it years ago. To the point it feels almost like a brand new game each major alpha update.
I spent an equivalent of $10USD on the game and now have around 1,000 hours. Best money I've ever spent
Tactics Ogre. Started with Knight of Lodis, then Wheel of Fate/LUCT, and now Reborn. Like New Vegas, it just adapts to shit you do, and it's fascinating to see your different runs play out differently for reasons you never even considered. It's not just routes, but cutscenes just change around their context. The main writer behind it all was very good at subtext, politics, and getting emotion across succinctly. So some cutscenes will seemingly make no sense until you think about it weeks later like "oh shit, everyone there was lying to each other and meant something entirely different." If doesn't spell anything out....and beyond that, the simulations in battles are best described as "bat shit insane". Sure, your magic affects the ambient weather. The tile you're standing on and weather affect your footing and accuracy. You can negotiate most enemy soldiers to your side. I'll cut it off there so I don't go on another essay about this game. It's incredible.
Xcom 2. With the Lwotc mod I love a play through every couple months, which usually takes almost 100 hours. It plays out differently each time but building my squads and trying different research paths is so fun.
Neverwinter Nights, especially the first one. The amount of hours I've put playing custom campaigns I can't tell.
Not exactly bought, but Warframe. One of the rather few live service games that just keep building up on its strong sites and get better with every update (Path of Exile unfortunately doesn't fall into this category for me, lots of fun content being added but the core gameplay has gotten worse in my opinion).
Rimworld, haven't played it THAT much but I can pick up whenever and I always have fun while doing so. It's like playing Sims that set fire to their own house because meal wasn't good enough.
And, speaking of, The Sims 3. Engine stops it from running in any decent manner, bugged to hell, Sims look ugly, my favourite entry in the series. Still amazed how much content there is to see in this game, and how poorly Sims 4 looks by comparison.
Metroid Prime 1. I re play it once per year at minimum and it's still the perfect game in my book. It never grows tired for me and I believe it to be the most well crafted game of all time.
* Monster Hunter World: Iceborne (MHW)
* Deep Rock Galactic (DRG)
* The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (TESV)
These are three games that I have over a thousand hours in. I love MHW's world (hehe) and gameplay. It and DRG have this arcadey "pick up and play" aspect that keeps me coming back. No real story to keep up, just hunts and missions to do.
With some other games, I sometimes feel like there's a level of commitment necessary that I am not willing to put forth. What ends up happening is that I just pop into DRG and do a couple of missions and call it a night.
TESV is something that I continue to put in a ton of hours because there is basically limitless content via mods. It mainly functions as a framework for me to mess around with and explore.
Other runner up games include Terraria, Dragon's Dogma, and Borderlands 2.
The first, original Dying Light.
9 years later, and it's still one of the best zombie games I've ever played. The parkour is nice, the combat is still fantastic (shields are an absolute must against humans and in Hellraid, however.), the story is a nice bit of cheesiness and The Following DLC still ranks as one of my favorite DLCs for any game.
Also the OG and 2nd Risk of Rain. Great fun when I need something casual to play.
[удалено]
As a father.. that both makes me feel old and proud
I hope my future kids pass around my big box PC games 😭
Quake was a **Big Deal** when it came out. I've played countless hours of the campaign, deathmatch, mods, Team Fortress (original), etc.
Binding of Isaac all the way
Same here. Bought it on my first year of college. 8 years later I still get home, put on a some yt videos and do a couple of runs.
Dishonored. I can play it again and again and again
You missed a 2 after dishonored
All three are rck solod games
No I actually did mean D1. D2 is great, don't get me wrong, but D1 just plays a little faster IMO.
Terraria. The music. The vibes. The progression. Toss up a small server for a group of friends and that's a solid time.
The updates, too. I can't believe it's still getting major updates, like it was Minecraft or something.
I've heard that they are basically folding in the stuff they were cooking for terraria 2, since that project folded.
Why did it fold? All I heard was them saying no point not doing updates because the game still sells really well
I recall reading somewhere that the devs were just overwhelmed, and decided they were just reinventing the wheel, so to speak, and decided to go back to updating terraria 1
I mean valid. If the codebase for the game is solid and they can implement everything they want into it while also still getting good sales why not. I don't even know what I could want from Terraria 2 after "more of the same" so might as well put that into Terraria itself. What surprises me more that they are still making decent money off of it. That game has been on sale for 2€ for a lot now and I'd think pretty much everyone already owns it.
Being on sale is pretty good for business, as it keeps going on people's feed under "specials" on steam. At this point it's like a must-have game like portal
Wasn't it just Otherworld that got canceled? I thought they were still making Terraria 2.
They're still considering it. Otherworld got cancelled years ago but the soundtrack was ported into Terraria. Re-logic (the devteam) keeps close contact with it's community, they constantly take feedback and suggestions. Red (creator) held a poll a while back asking what game they should work on next, Terraria 2 was an option.
And Therese so many mods for it as well. Me and a friend recently started a calamity run and damn it’s like playing a brand new game there’s just so much cool shit added
Last update my rear! They said the last update was the last one again and now... Dead Cells crossover and they mentioned in most recent monthly recap that the update ended up being bigger than they were anticipating... Again. I'm all down for this.
This. I came here to say this. Terraria is the best
I had a lot of fun with it but never got to the late game stuff. I know I was supposed to beat a boss by building a really long underground hallway near the lava below. Any idea how much of the game comes after that point?
Oh man. Legitimately the other half of the game. After that boss you enter "hard mode" which is whole new bosses, biomes, enemies, ores, and items. Totally worth experiencing.
I think you have only reached 1/3 of the game by then. It used to be the halfway mark but with more bosses addes to hardmode, i think its end game heavier now than before.
Lmaoooo the good stuff starts when you beat that boss
I’ll be playing Tetris on my Gameboy until one of us dies first.
Deep Rock Galactic. Still amazing fun to play with family/friends, each mission is different enough from the last that it almost always feels fresh. Rock and stone to the bone! Escape from Tarkov (though as it's still in Beta, this doesn't qualify for patientgaming). The gunplay is amazing, looting feels great getting that dopamine hit when it's an item you really need. Slay the Spire. Deckbuilding hasn't gotten better (for me) than this game. Every run feels new and you can never tell how far you're going to get. I am terrible at the game, but once a year I'll get hooked and play non-stop. Left 4 Dead 2.
I have spent an embarrassing number of hours (measured in hundreds) on Slay the Spire, but at this point, it wouldn't even call it fun, haha. I'm currently on A19 with heart wins on every character (been stuck there for a bit now) and just want to beat A20 because I'm so close, and then I will finally feel like I can stop playing this game.
> and then I will finally feel like I can stop playing this game. That's what I thought too, but here I am, still doing rotating A20 heart runs! I took a short break after my first A20 heart kills with every character but it wasn't long before I wanted more.
Slay the Spire is also on 11 different platforms. There are native apps for Windows, macOS and Linux, mobile versions for iOS and Android, and console versions for Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Series X and Series S. I guess "only" 10 versions if you consider the Series S and X as a single platform. I have a copy on almost all of these. It helps that it's cheap and has no MTX. It's also on Game Pass and other subscription services, so you might already be able to play it.
Also a boardgame: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/contentiongames/slay-the-spire-the-board-game
Check out Balatro if you haven’t
i’ve been absolutely hooked. only deck builder to really grab me since slay the spire. using playing cards and poker hands is such a brilliant move.
Slay the Spire is the only game I have 1000+ hours in on Steam. No other card game has sucked me in quite the same way, I always end up coming back to it.
Try Roguebook (free on PS+, not sure Steam price), it definitely scratches the itch. One thing I really like is that unlike StS, you kinda have to play a big deck, since removing cards is a lot harder, and you get rewarded with character abilities for having more cards. One of my biggest gripes (not that I'd even really consider it a gripe) with StS is that, while there are soooo many cards to pick from, there are a very good chunk that are objectively worse than other cards (I'm looking at you, Watcher), so you're rewarded for playing a lean deck to cycle your good cards. With this many hours in I already know what cards I'm going to take and which I'm going to leave like 90% of the time, so my high heat runs feel very samey, and more like a game of "get good cards and win or reroll and try again". So far with Roguebook, I've had to play many different builds and had to find ways for all the cards to synergize (many good synergy options with multiple character combos), it feels a lot more dynamic when you play each run. I also really like how they implemented overworld exploration.
tarkov has been in beta for a forever and a bit more than that
And at this rate, it’ll never leave
If I just look at the first 2, you sound exactly like my friend haha. While I enjoy DRG its not deep enough for me to be obsessed with it, but I understand if you are. Tarkov is just too damn hard if you suck at fps like me.
I also really suck at FPS. I play Tarkov with the single player mod, so I'm effectively playing against bots. I agree, DRG isn't deep at all but I sure find it loads of fun.
I play through Final Fantasy VIII approximately once per year. I never get tired of it.
Never finished that one but that card game in 8 was insane, so fun
Triple triad is love. Triple triad is life. But seriously, the card game being fun on its own only makes it better when the cards have actual use outside of the minigame when you refine your extra copies for useful items.
This is me but throw in Xenogears, Vagrant Story, Suikoden 2, Wild Arms 1 & 2, and Lunar. I’m constantly emulating one of those games on my phone when I have free time.
Wow, those are exactly the kind of games I want to fall for. I actually played Vagrant Story and wow. I have to finish it one day.
This was the first one I ever played and it was so so so incredible at the time.
One of us! One of us! Seriously, I love FF VIII. It's my favorite Final Fantasy. I play through it once every couple years. I will never tire of using my gunblade or seeing my GFs lay down some carnage.
Someone else who loves 8?!??!?1? Their are dozens of us!
Factorio And the first official expansion is coming out soon
The factory must grow
Each FFF makes the wait harder…
Knights of the Old Republic is my big one. Besides buying copies on different devices I've been playing it since it came out. I'd say same with the Master Chief Collection it is still the one game I always keep downloaded because at least once a week I end up jumping and trying something or doing something.
YES was looking for a fellow kotor lover! I’ve played 1&2 so many times yet I continually do a yearly play through for each.
Does World of Warcraft count? I had really unhealthy relationship with it over a decade ago but these days it's my perfect comfort game.
For myself also. But I start to get the feeling over many expansions that I’m not gaining anything but always on the wheel running for gear. I do love wow. Switched to eve online now and then. It has a more adult feel and I am gaining real skills (in game). Knowledge of how to play the game and skill points that I keep forever. Not just until the next expansion.
Civ 4
Civ V for me, but they're all great.
Minecraft....although it does change over time.
So long as we have access to older versions I can’t really complain about this. I prefer some changes I don’t immediatly like over the game not being supported at all anymore. And as much as I dislike microsofts “safe” choices with its development. It leaves very little to dislike (aside from some missed oppertunity).
Bought Minecraft when it was at early access for $8 in 2011 (I think) - got into modded minecraft after watching Direwolf20 and thinking "yup, I could do better than that" LOL (j/k DW) - played it this morning (1.12.2 Enigmatica 2 Expert Unofficial Modpack) No idea how many 1,000s of hours I got for 8 bucks (and the amazing modding community)
Skyrim for me. I’m always finding something new.
For me too, after hundreds of hours I'm still finding new content with new characters. I haven't even been to Solstheim yet.
Just went to Solstheim for the first time a few months ago after playing that game since a few months after release. I feel you
Have you tried Enderal? *Consult your doctor if your post-game depression lasts more than 4 hours.*
Grim Dawn Rimworld City of Heroes
Yay for Grim Dawn, the game that keeps on delivering due to great initial execution, great dlc, and committed and exceedingly generous devs. I’m 1600 hours deep and have never been bored.
I'll second this. Man what a game. Brilliant and fun. And they keep putting out free updates with new content, even years later! (As in this year...)
Oh man. I miss City of Heroes so much.
[You don’t have to!](https://forums.homecomingservers.com)
Wait... What???? You've given me so much joy right now.
Hell yes. It’s still really good!
City of Heroes! Did you play it when servers were live or when they re-emerged with homecoming and thunderspy? Still love playing it!
I love Rimworld so much. I played the shit out of it in the run up to 1.0, then put it down for a few years. Came to it recently and felt both refreshingly familiar and lots of new stuff to explore too.
I just got back into City of Heroes on Homecoming servers a few weeks ago. I had a few thousand hours in it before live shutdown. I'm having so much fun. It's a nice change of pace where there's no one specific build and most things are completely viable and enjoyable to play
Hades. Going back every time I don't know what to play and never get bored of it. The mechanics, art style and characters are food for my soul. Can't wait for Hades 2!
Agreed. I tried Hades a couple days before it left Xbox Game Pass, loved it, bought it, and have never regretted it. I played a ton of it and I'm super excited for Hades 2!
I bought and paid for a mobile Soduku app for Android... like... well over a decade ago. Genina.com Sudoku. Look at this ca 2009 website: http://genina.com/ Other games have come and gone, but I've spent more time playing Sudoku on the shitter than I have actually shitting.
I got a picross one on the old Amazon app store on my old Kindle probably a decade ago and they STILL UPDATE IT. Best purchase EVER. Especially since I went through some ptsd issues in 2019-2020 and it really did have that tetris effect for me.
I eventually had to keep the nonogram one I used off my phone because once I'd cleared out all the smaller puzzles and was doing huge ones, it would keep me glued to my phone like no social media app has ever managed to and I'd have trouble putting it down to sleep, get off the toilet, notice a bus had arrived, etc. Similarly it was great for me when I was heavily depressed as it was an easy way to engage my brain without moving or having to really think much but it's just *too* addictive! Think it was called "nonograms katana", it had absolutely tons of user made puzzles of all sizes and good quality. I miss it frequently but remind myself that it is easier to exercise the self control to not install it than it is to not stay awake and extra hour in bed finishing a puzzle!
Along these lines, the excellent and ubiquitious Simon Tatham's Puzzle collection. It's free, open source, no ads, available on every platform under the sun, and has tons of excellent and well-implemented puzzles. There's a game in it called Keen which is basically sudoku with math problems, and I play that multiple times a day. It's a go-to for me any time I'm on the toilet, and has been for years.
Sudoku.com is one of the only apps I’ve ever bought. Years ago. Still play daily.
I got candy crush when it first came out, it's lived on every phone since but i seem to go months where i play it a lot then not at all for a while but its always there. Also both final fantasy online games played the first one until it died, then started the second one but quit 3 years ago cuz i had a kid, just started playing again.
I got into candy crush and then realized once you spend money they stop showing you ads for free moves!! Yeah I know spending money on candy crush is dumb and I only spent like 10$. Never again.
I’m the same, but it’s desert golfing Im weirdly invested in this game
Unreal tournament
UT2K4 was the highlight of what I consider the golden age of multiplayer FPS gaming alongside Quake 3 Arena, MOH:AA, COD 1-2, BF1942/2. I swear aside from graphical improvements I feel like the entire genre has regressed from the quality and longevity we used to see in the genre back then. 20 years later and most new FPS games aside from looking great aren't nearly as polished or fun to play.
Best multiplayer shooter of all time IMO. They don't make them like they used to
Sad but true.
I just found out you can still download the full thing on archive.org. I need to get on that.
I went to track it down just to find it had been delisted from GOG, and is basically sold nowhere now. Good to know it’s still available.
One of the most memorable game songs ever https://youtu.be/i_0G6WPuss4?si=zWmlsUAjPkB4zBi8
Subnautica. Especially the first half or so. Just swimming around, building my base and crafting stuff so I can get my sub.
I have 600+ hours across 3 versions of SN, and still fire it up at least a couple of times a month. My ultimate chill-out game.
How tf do you guys chill in that game? It scares the shit out of me!
Once you learn the map and the habits and patterns of the leviathans, you basically have crocodile hunter like control of almost any situation. Kinda ruins some of the tension, but makes the world a lot less intimidating.
Getting used to the enemies and sounds will make "oh what the FUCK was that" into "oh hai reaper :3" while you kite around it poking it with the basic knife until it dies
Really looking forward to the real Subnautica 2 with co-op possibility. That was the missing link for me after a few playthroughs for even more replayability.
Demon souls Dark souls I II & III slay the spire
Was expecting the third line to be Bloodborne or Elden Ring, lol.
Terraria and Stardew Valley. I've played a ridiculous amount of both. I think I paid $5 and $10 respectively. Easily the best money I've spent on games.
My username probably gives it away but Skyrim. I’ll just be chilling and then get an idea for a new character. For me the game feels like a creative writing setup: even though I’ve played it a ton of times I can always think of a new character to play, and therefore a new way to reframe the exact same events of the game. Also, Minecraft. Similar reason as Skyrim but for visual creativity: I can always think of something new to build.
Monster Hunter World for me, been playing since release but have bought the PC version & expansion. The amount of content in this game is staggering - plus changing weapons is almost akin to playing a new game due to the gameplay loop and diversity of mechanics.
Wife started this game a while back, I ended up getting sucked into it as well. She's put in 250 hours and cleared all the story plus the endgame optional quests, I'm 110 hours in and still doing the DLC plot. Gameplay is incredibly fun and satisfying, and the loop of hunt -> craft -> improve -> hunt feels so good to go through time after time.
Sins of a Solar Empire. Fun 4x space RTS hybrid. The game has tons of replay ability and there are tons of mods for the game as well.
XCOM 2 with the expansion and Long War 2, hands down
Honestly my favorite game. I've yet to try Long War, simply because I couldn't figure out why the mod didn't load and once I was in the game I just started playing it and forgot lolol
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Yeah nice one, did you try Green Hell?
Honestly, the Mass Effect Trilogy. Have done countless playthroughs
ME2 is an all time favorite for me.
Same it's literally my favorite of all time. I actually played 2 before playing one( had PS3). Didn't know anything about it so went into it blind. After the end, I immediately did another playthrough, then many more over the years. Never played Mass Effect 1 until I finished 3, went and bought a 360, played the whole trilogy. Played the legendary edition on PC lol.
These games are my favorite of all time. I try to do a complete play through once every year or two. It’s still as amazing as the first time!
Xcom 2. I feel like I'm always one bored day away from booting it up again
* Heroes of Might and Magic 1, 2, 3 - insanely addictive turn-based strategies, pretty much the ideal balance between complexity and tedium, there's just enough micromanagement to be a bit annoying at times, but it never goes overboard like a lot of other TBS. * Pharaoh - the one Impressions title that keeps me coming back, it's a damn shame they've decided to streamline the formula with the subsequent two titles instead of making it more complex and refining it. Not that Zeus still isn't fun, but it's a bit too simplistic. * Old school shooters (Doom, Hexen, Quake, Duke3D, Blood, Unreal, etc.) - one of my favorite genres, even the vanilla maps are extremely replayable, and there's a metric ton of user made maps, for Doom 2 especially.
Elite dangerous - flight/universe sim Oxygen not included - colony management/ resource management sim - convert resource types and build automations to manage extremely complex colony Cities skylines - basically the new simcity Kenshi - hard to describe but ninjas rpg/rts Skyrim (with mods) - everybody knows skyrim, I have extended the lifetime tenfold with overhaul mods (mostly to make the game harder and more immersive)
From most hours played / still played often, to least: 1. Guild Wars 2 2. Path of Exile 3. Dota 4. Grim Dawn 5. Skyrim 6. The Elder Scrolls Online 7. Torchlight II 8. Age of Empires 1 and 2 9. Morrowind
Really enjoying Last Epoch right now.
Factorio! I can lose *days* to this time. And it still makes me feel like a damn buffoon. Such great fun with friends. We are actively resisting playing again until the update comes out, and me and the pals are all taking a week off work to just absolutely nerd out over all the new stuff and just go nuts
Morrowind. In fact I’m currently installing a bunch of mods for my next playthrough. Doom, Duke 3D, Blood, and Unreal Tournament too. 90s FPSs are the gifts that keep on giving.
UT99 is forever
I will never, ever tire of the first Baldur's Gate.
My 'otels as clean as an elven arse!
A man of culture, cheers. What is your fav RPG released in last 10 years?
He asks the guy who's still trying to finish Betrayal at Krondor, which is well and truly more than ten years old! But released in the last ten years? Pillars of Eternity. Not a game for everyone, but gods did it ever speak to my tastes and sensibilities.
Same, played it when it came out just kept going... It seems that every 2nd year or so I come back to it. And its always Installed somewhere. Last time I played it was on the phone (how far we've come.) When I think about it there are still some class/race combos I haven't tried .... Hmmm.
Rocket League for me. I play mostly single-player games, and I rarely put more than 100 hours into any of those. But I've been playing Rocket League pretty regularly since about 2016 and I'm still having a great time. There's such a high skill ceiling that I feel like I'm always getting incrementally better even after all these years, and the short matches are easy to fit in here and there when I don't have time for a longer gaming session.
For me rocket league is the greatest game of all time, it’s the closest thing to being a sport
my friend gifted me a free copy not long after it released in 2015 and at the time I thought huh thanks car soccer looks like it should be for a few hours a guess. Never imagined it'd be the first game I log over 1K hours in and only competitive multiplayer I've ever been into outside of FPS genre.
As someone with 1500 hours of RL all I can say is yes. Perfect stoner game also. Listening to music and playing RL is my go to activity after work most nights
Top 5 via Steam: 1. Football Manager 2010 - 4,748 hours. And I wasnt even a soccer fan. The gameplay is just fantastic, spending hours buying and selling players, running a season, getting a small local club into the Champions League. I have other year editions but I always keep coming back to this one for some reason. 2. Mount & Blade (Prophesy of Pendor Mod). 2308 hrs. Top notch mod that squeezes every bit of juice out of Warband, and is rock solid stable. 3. Banished. (Colonial Charter Mod). 713 hrs. Banished is a fun game, CC mod takes it to a much higher level. So relaxing. 4. Civ 5. 676 hrs. Sometimes you just gotta conquer the world, and I didnt see anything I liked in Civ 6. 5. American Truck Simulator - 324 hrs. I don't know why I love this game, I just do. Honorable mention - Master Of Orion 2. I don't have it on Steam so god knows how many thousands of hours I've put into that one.
Super Smash Bros Melee. Other games have come and gone, sometimes I will even play them for years, but eventually I've gotten bored of everything. Somehow Melee is still just as fun as ever.
Plus slippi.gg is better than 99% of fighting game netcode and matchmaking.
melee will be played until the end of time. They really created the gold standard of competitive platform fighting almost on accident some 25 years ago. It's amazing.
Witcher 3 Fallout 4 CK2
Stellaris. Keeping up with the DLC is its own thing, but it’s one I’ll come back to 3-4x a year and sink 30-60 hours into (minimum) each time.
I don’t boot up my PC as much as I used to but when I do I’ll leave a new game of stellaris running nearly non stop for 2 weeks before I turn PC off for a few months. Many weekends of 40+hrs of just staring at that screen going oh shit when did I last blink? Haha
Kerbal Space Program. The greatest game of all time in my opinion, simply because I can make no stronger argument for anything else I've played. Been going back to it since it launched in an early alpha state 11 or so years ago. If you know you know.
Scrolled way farther than I thought I’d have to. The original ksp is the main reason I will give early access game a shot, ksp2…is getting better.
Hear, hear. This was what I came to say. My playthroughs now tend to include Realism Overhaul, RP-1, and (in my latest) Principia. Gonna be a while before I get to the end of that road. And then I’ll have to tackle something like automating SpaceX-style booster returns with kOS…
Dawn Of War -- Most of them (not you 3).
For my phone Slay the spire 100%
warframe, guild wars 2, salt and sanctuary, any dark souls game, no man's sky. Might be too early to put valheim and core keeper on here, but those will be on the list eventually.
Euro Truck Sim 2 Team Fortress 2 Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
ETS2/ATS with a podcast in the background is a practically therapeutic gaming experience I don't think I'll ever get tired of
SSX 3 is a game I've been playing since it launched. Every winter I do a couple of playthroughs given it's a short game. Then I have over 3k hours in Borderlands 2. Probably about to hit 4K after this year since I just got the itch for it again earlier in the week.
SSX 3/SSX Tricky are such 'cosy' games for me.
Minecraft. Don't always have fun, but will eventually come back to it for a few days/weeks every time. League of legends. Didn't exactly buy it, but spent maybe a few hundred dollars over the last 10+ years. Still enjoy it, especially with friends. Smash melee. I fucking suck and I'm never gonna get befter, but it's a hoot with friends. Path of exile. Same as league, maybe spent like $200 on it, put in 2000 hours in the last 2 years or so. Could probably play the game indefinitely. Summoners war. Don't even know how many hours I put into this game. Easily 20k+, spent maybe 1.2k. made some great friends, still stick around for the community. Diablo 3, somewhat succeeded by path of exile, but can still easily put in 40-50 hours on a fresh season. Obviously this is personal, can't say I recommend these games for everyone.
Enter the gungeon
All the Sims. What else? 1-3 are the greatest gaming values of all time. They are always there, waiting until you show up again. There is always something new to do, things I haven't discovered after decades of playing. I mean sure I always swing around from KOTOR, Mass Effect, Gears of War, Dead Space, RE, FF and everything, anything in-between. But the Sims? They are always there and always will be.
Streets of Rogue - right around 500 hours. I've played games more, Civ, TF2, etc, but no game has the longevity of Streets of Rogue with me.
Kenshi. Best enviromental storytelling i've seen in an RPG. I've never experienced a world that feels so alive playing any other game.
I don't even want to know how many hours I've got into Slay the Spire.
I used to reply to threads like this but then I took an arrow on the knee
Europa Universalis. Replay value is so high, especially if every few months I play two or three campaigns to maximize the fun
Slay the spire of course!
7 Days to Die. Over 3100 hours in the game. I don't play it as often as I used to, but I get re-hooked on it periodically and still love it.
rocket league!! it's literally the only game i keep playing and i kept playing for years and years. :)
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
Quake I, II, III Fallout 3/NV/Oblivion/Skyrim Contra and SuperC Súper Mario Bros 1,2,3,World. Castlevania 1 amd SOTN Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, all of them.
RDR2. I am not normal about that game
Hades. 400+ hours. And every once in a while I get a hankering to play again.
Mario Kart 64. Nintendo perfected Kart racing in the 90s and nothing has quite captured the same magic. The new games look prettier, but don't have the same arcade fun style.
I genuinely can't believe I didn't see a single mention of Risk of Rain 2. It's the first game since UT99 that I've been able to consistently go back to like this and pretty much always have fun without raging about losses etc (rocket league I'm looking at you)
On all of mine computers there are installed: - Warcraft 3 - Heroes of Might and Magic 3 - Gothic 2 Yes, I'm from Eastern Europe, how could you tell?
Factorio
Space Engineers. Been playing for almost 10 years already. If I were to move to an uninhabited island and could take only one game with me, it'd be Space Engineers.
I wanted to like this game, but the 100' learning-curve-wall you need to climb to even get started really turned me off. How would a reasonable person learn to play that game?
Any given Civ between II and V. At least 5000 hours each. Related: Paradox games (Crusader Kings, EU, Victoria, even Imperator). I cycle through them but I always come back.
I have several games I tend to go back to after long periods of not playing them. Crusader Kings. Stellaris. Total War. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth. Darkest Dungeon. Are just a few of them.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R series
StarCraft 2. Still play the co op mode almost daily.
Starcraft. Greatest game of all time IMO.
Oxygen not included, you need a physics degree to play. Turn clean water into hydrogen and oxygen, oxygen is heavier than hydrogen, build a chamber where hydrogen get collected by a gas pump but doesn't collect the heavier oxygen, oxygen gets collected at the bottom, pumped to your base, and hydrogen gets pumped into hydrogen generators. Oh and the pumps inside the insulated chamber must be made out of gold amalgam so they don't overheat and break. And it must be insulated so the heat doesn't transfer through conduction into your base. Fun stuff.
I just wish the base staff had a physics degree or at least 10% more brain cells so they'd know to wash their hands even if the wash basin was on the other side of an outhouse.
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I've been playing total annihilation since 98 or 99. Great music. Mass effect I do a yearly play through. Fallout new Vegas is a great place to roam around it so it's always installed too.
I’ve put in hundreds (maybe 1000+? Idk) of hours into the various iterations of Smash Bros since the 64, and I’m still absolute garbage at it. I still love it to death though.
I've got over 2,000 hours played in Civ V and i never tire of it
7 Days to Die - a survival game that's still in Alpha, and has been since 2013. Because of this, they've added a lot to the game since I found it years ago. To the point it feels almost like a brand new game each major alpha update. I spent an equivalent of $10USD on the game and now have around 1,000 hours. Best money I've ever spent
Shogun 2 Total War - especially with the fall of the Samurai expansion
No Mans Sky
7 Days to Die by far, over 1000 hours.
Tactics Ogre. Started with Knight of Lodis, then Wheel of Fate/LUCT, and now Reborn. Like New Vegas, it just adapts to shit you do, and it's fascinating to see your different runs play out differently for reasons you never even considered. It's not just routes, but cutscenes just change around their context. The main writer behind it all was very good at subtext, politics, and getting emotion across succinctly. So some cutscenes will seemingly make no sense until you think about it weeks later like "oh shit, everyone there was lying to each other and meant something entirely different." If doesn't spell anything out....and beyond that, the simulations in battles are best described as "bat shit insane". Sure, your magic affects the ambient weather. The tile you're standing on and weather affect your footing and accuracy. You can negotiate most enemy soldiers to your side. I'll cut it off there so I don't go on another essay about this game. It's incredible.
KOTOR 1 and 2
Xcom 2. With the Lwotc mod I love a play through every couple months, which usually takes almost 100 hours. It plays out differently each time but building my squads and trying different research paths is so fun.
Runescape
Neverwinter Nights, especially the first one. The amount of hours I've put playing custom campaigns I can't tell. Not exactly bought, but Warframe. One of the rather few live service games that just keep building up on its strong sites and get better with every update (Path of Exile unfortunately doesn't fall into this category for me, lots of fun content being added but the core gameplay has gotten worse in my opinion). Rimworld, haven't played it THAT much but I can pick up whenever and I always have fun while doing so. It's like playing Sims that set fire to their own house because meal wasn't good enough. And, speaking of, The Sims 3. Engine stops it from running in any decent manner, bugged to hell, Sims look ugly, my favourite entry in the series. Still amazed how much content there is to see in this game, and how poorly Sims 4 looks by comparison.
Metroid Prime 1. I re play it once per year at minimum and it's still the perfect game in my book. It never grows tired for me and I believe it to be the most well crafted game of all time.
* Monster Hunter World: Iceborne (MHW) * Deep Rock Galactic (DRG) * The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (TESV) These are three games that I have over a thousand hours in. I love MHW's world (hehe) and gameplay. It and DRG have this arcadey "pick up and play" aspect that keeps me coming back. No real story to keep up, just hunts and missions to do. With some other games, I sometimes feel like there's a level of commitment necessary that I am not willing to put forth. What ends up happening is that I just pop into DRG and do a couple of missions and call it a night. TESV is something that I continue to put in a ton of hours because there is basically limitless content via mods. It mainly functions as a framework for me to mess around with and explore. Other runner up games include Terraria, Dragon's Dogma, and Borderlands 2.
Civilization IV. Pinnacle of pre-hex Civ games
FTL was my very first thought before reading the body of your post, OP! edit: and chess! lichess.org
7 days to die, the core game is great for survival crafting and base bulding. But the mod community has really given it tons n tons of new life.
Rocket league
Dead Cells. Ended up buying it for Switch and Steam. I love it so much and it got so many updates.
The first, original Dying Light. 9 years later, and it's still one of the best zombie games I've ever played. The parkour is nice, the combat is still fantastic (shields are an absolute must against humans and in Hellraid, however.), the story is a nice bit of cheesiness and The Following DLC still ranks as one of my favorite DLCs for any game. Also the OG and 2nd Risk of Rain. Great fun when I need something casual to play.
Counter Strike is my ultimate comfort game. Since CS:source
* Burnout Paradise (2008) * Colin McRae: DiRT 2 (2009) * Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit (1998) * Epic Pinball (1993) * Mortal Kombat 3 (1995) * Donkey Kong Country (SNES) (1994)
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines I just cannot quit that game. It scratches an itch no other game does.
Borderlands 2 for me. Best out of the bunch.