I’m a casual gamer who’s been largely inactive for the past few decades, and so I’m looking for some some good game recommendations. I don’t mind if they’re old as long as they came out after 2003 (because that’s when graphics of many games really started improving), maybe between 2008-2019. I’m also quite a picky gamer.

Here is a list of games that I’ve played before and that I liked (in no particular order):

  • The Stanley Parable
  • Counter-Strike: Source
  • Counter-Strike Global Offensive
  • Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
  • Grand Theft Auto V (just started playing this one)
  • Freeways
  • The Wizard’s Pen
  • Need for Speed: Most Wanted
  • Need for Speed: Heat
  • Shadow of the Tomb Raider
  • Simon Tatham’s Puzzle Game Collection
  • Minecraft
  • Hamsterball
  • Sifu
  • Tekken 6
  • SuperHOT
  • Papers Please
  • Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
  • Accelerator (by TenebrousP)
  • The Professional
  • Paraopticon
  • Socrates Jones: Pro Philosopher
  • ir:rational
  • Viewport
  • Lyxo
  • Shadowess (by playchilla)
  • Duet (by Kumobius)
  • Chain Reaction
  • Gumslinger
  • Intersectiion Controller
  • Little Alchemy
  • Magic Survival (by Leme)
  • Spy Tactics
  • Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil
  • Cyclomaniacs 2
  • Learn 2 Fly 2
  • Piano Tiles 2
  • The Sims 3
  • Plants vs. Zombies
  • Tetris (on Facebook)
  • Solitaire on Windows 7
  • Space Cadet Pinball
  • Purble Place

Here are games that I’ve played that I didn’t like:

  • Quake II RTX
  • Doom (1993)
  • Counter-Strike 1.6
  • Left 4 Dead
  • Half-Life
  • Speed Dreams
  • Assault Cube
  • Terraria
  • Minetest
  • Xonotic
  • Piano Tiles
  • Geometry Dash
  • Payback 2
  • Touchgrind Skate 2
  • Pixel Wheels
  • NBA 2K11
  • Defense of the Ancients
  • Dota 2
  • Sim City 2000
  • OpenRCT 2
  • OpenTTD
  • The Sims 4
  • Doki Doki Literature Club
  • Tetris (any other implementation I’ve tried)
  • Solitaire on Windows XP

Here are games I would like to avoid:

  • Battle Royale / Deathmatch- style games (Fortnite, PUBG, etc.)
  • MOBAs (League of Legends, Mobile Legends, etc.)
  • Hero shooters (Overwatch, Rainbow Six Siege, etc.)
  • Games with fantasy-based elements (Skyrim, The Witcher, Souls games etc.)
  • RPGs
  • Side-scrollers / Shoot-em-ups / Top-down games
  • Platformers
  • Horror/supernatural games (Resident Evil, Silent Hill, etc.)
  • Management games (Civilization, Cities: Skylines, etc.)
  • Artillery games
  • Outer-space/post-apocalyptic games (Halo, Fallout, etc.)
  • Cookie clickers / Walking simulators
  • Rhythm games
  • Sports games
  • Game adaptations of existing media (Star Wars games, Arkham games, etc.)
  • Board/card/gambling/collectible/gacha games\
  • Games that have microtransactions/required DLCs
  • Text adventures / Visual novels
  • Trivia games
  • VR games

Other than that, everything is fair game. I don’t have any aversion towards graphic language/gore/sex.

My tastes might be too specific, but I hope someone here may be able to provide me with a recommendation!

  • iheartneopets
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    1 year ago

    Ehhh, that one is kind of reading-heavy, as well as being top-down. It might not be what OP is looking for.

    • runjun@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      All dialog is voiced and the OP excluded most games so I’m just recommending a banger game.

      • Ashtear
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        1 year ago

        I agree with the rec here. I think at this point OP is just going to have to roll the dice on the recent hits and see if it can change some of their tastes. Or just drop the medium altogether.

        Maybe it’ll help a little that Disco Elysium is isometric, not top-down. Though it’s an RPG. And text-heavy. 🤷‍♀️

        • greenmed123@lemmy.worldOP
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          1 year ago

          Yeah, being isometric does help. Though the thing that steers me away from Disco Elysium is not the text-heaviness (which I don’t really mind), nor the RPGness (since it seems that it’s been implemented quite uniquely in this game), but that there may be some kind of alien insects (?) in the game.

          • Ashtear
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            1 year ago

            I damn near guarantee the “alien insect” is not what you’re imagining, and even if it were, it’s less than 1% of the game.

            It’s one element of a larger setting, the kind of original idea that we rarely see in RPGs. It’s not your typical fantasy tropes. I’m being vague here because discovering the nature of the world you’re in is a big part of the game.