Asklemmy

1. Hollow Knight
2. Steamworld Dig 1 & 2

Hollow Knight is just amazing. Reinvigorated my love of Metroidvania-style games. The atmosphere, the environments, the movement, the controls, the music, it all works so well together. Just amazing.

Which leads me on to the second recommendation. Steamworld Dig and its sequel are pretty unique in the genre. They're Metroidvania games, but you're creating most of the tunnels and platforms as you go. Great character designs, and smooth progression all the way to the end.

To give something that most likely has not been mentioned: Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. The character banter is the best I've encountered in any video game thus far.

There could be hundreds that I post here, but going to just say the ones I go back to again and again.

Satisfactory, The Planet Crafter, Stardew Valley, Death Stranding, Kerbal Space Program, Cities Skyline, Cyberpunk 2077, Stray, Red Dead Redemption 1 & 2, Duke Nukem 3D, Doom 1 & 2, Decent, and of course Skyeim.

Recommending the obvious GOAT titles is getting kinda old now so I'll go with my personal favourite genre right now: roguelikes.

In that genre, my favourite of all time are the Darkest Dungeon franchise, Slay the Spire, Loop Hero, Vampire Survivors and Dead Cells.

I have been really, really enjoying the reworked Wayfinder. The story is ass but the visuals, gameplay and music are all awesome. The characters are likable, the build variety is pretty great, and the devs seem to be pretty in touch with the community lately. I never played it in its MMO state, but for $20 it's a real win.

I think the 1.0 release comes out in a few days, too!

Xiii shooter (original on PS2, not the remake)

Metal Gear Solid 1, 3, and 4. 2 is okay but it's the black sheep. 5 is a good game but doesn't fit the series great imo. We don't talk about Survive. Revengence is okay.

Maneater. Basically a remake of the old Jaws game from PS2 era gameplay-wise

FF7 original. If you're bored with it, try the New Threat mod by SegaChief. Absolutely worth a look.

If you're into pokemon rom hacks, Emerald SeaGlass and Crystal Legacy.

Crash Bandicoot 1-4. Ignore any titles from PS2 era.

Spyro 1-3. Also ignore any PS2 era titles.

Castle Crashers

If you have a non-gamer around that does like movies, give Beyond: 2 Souls and Until Dawn a look.

Spec Ops: The Line

Doki Doki Literature Club

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 1 + 2

I'm sure I'll add more.

the binding of isaac and deep rock galactic. best games I've ever played oh and maybe minecraft (I'm 28 and the past 2 weeks got into the mc rabbit hole AGAIN)

RoboCop: Rogue City

Katana Zero: Just try it. It's a 2D action platformer with good story.

Celeste. Great fun Mario-level game, but with a deeper story in both game and in development.

Pikmin (any instalments of the main series) - though I must admit I'm incredibly biased since this is coming from someone who cried her eyes out when she saw the Pikmin 4 trailer 😭 yes I cried over a game trailer that's about weird bugs. It is my fave franchise ever it's like my baby.

Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild - this is a game that makes me wish memory wiping technology existed. I would love to play this for the very first time again!

Final Fantasy X - the first Final Fantasy game I played and it is still my fave!

Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Sunshine - the most fun I've ever had with 3D platformers by far, Super Mario Galaxy's visuals are still so impressive.

The first game I EVER played gets a honorary mention - Super Mario All Stars for the Super Nintendo! The very first game I played on it was Super Mario Bros 3! 😃

The classic Doom collection, classic Doom has a massive modding scene and you can put the wads into a source port like GZDoom.

Vintage Story.

It's indie Minecraft-alike that expand survival element 100 times. With various unique lore and semi-realism gameplay.

Doom 1993/doom 2. Decades of gaming since it came out and STILL nothing has beat the tactile sound of the super shotgun paired with the moans of demons collapsing. Absolutely amazing. though I only have 100+ hours in these 2 games combined they are a must play.

Closest I can think of is the engineers plasma gun in Deep Rock Galactic which is my #2 must play game. Its SO fun and a successful grapple + special powder x2 + grapple + skull crusher to get into a nitra vein when the engie isn't around is so incredibly satisfying. 1700 hours shows I love it so much.

Minecraft. Need I say more? rough estimate as a lot hasn't been tracked but 1500 on switch and 153 days on prismlauncher is around 5,000 hours in this silly block game.

EDIT: didn't expect the variety of games in this thread, very interesting