For ARPGs if you feel burnt by Diablo IV, I can recommend Path of Exile. Arguably the king of the genre today.

Others mentioned Grim Dawn, which has a bit slower gameplay, but a good choice nonetheless.

If you’re looking for indie ARPG, then there’s Chronicon. Nice little game that I really want to go back to again.

Morrowind and FTL. Both I revisit every couple of years.

I suspect Stardew Valley might become something like that too, but I only had one cycle of stopping and coming back with it so far.

Are you sure that’s Outer Wilds? https://store.steampowered.com/app/753640/Outer_Wilds

Maybe what you are thinking of is Outer Worlds, which is a common mix-up. https://store.steampowered.com/app/578650/The_Outer_Worlds

I don’t think Outer Wilds is on GOG unfortunately.

For me there are a couple.

Hades (2020) - I’m not in any hurry with this one. I’d get it if GOG starts to sell it, otherwise I’ll wait a bit more.

Outer Wilds (2020) - I’m getting impatient with this. I’d like this more on GOG too, but I think I’ll just buy it when Steam winter sale comes.

The Guild III (2022) - quirky trade/life sim game and I have some fond memories of the second one. But that had quite a few bugs even long after release and I hear the third game still looks unfinished so I’m patient.

Exactly true with it not being a primary hobby for most people who game.

When I was a kid gaming wasn’t as widely considered as an acceptable hobby in general, but as a kid you just didn’t care what grown ups thought (games make people violent anybody?). By the time I hit university, people got shamed for it by non-gamer peers and I did a computer science degree too so it wasn’t a group of non-tech people who did the shaming either. By my early twenties I learned not to talk about it and just mention gaming as a hobby if asked and never elaborate further…

I’m afraid I’m a victim of algorithms because I pretty much only look at stuff from GOG and Steam front pages or games that are recommended as ‘similar’ over there. And of course youtube.

As a side note. I should even stop checking those because I just keep playing the same games nowadays instead of chipping away at my backlog.

Good for you if that’s your experience, but I cannot say the same. The difference I found is with the way those people ignore arguments and insult you.

I can talk to a person from a technical field and come out of that conversation feeling like shit because I was called all kinds of stupid indirectly.

I had this too. I decided that I’ll get the max rating from Grampa and the everything will calm down, but after reaching that point in game I was sort of burnt out and stopped playing.

Also I never could get into the island part of the game. I felt like I abandoned what I worked for all that time!

Papers, Please just turned ten recently. It’s a simple concept (just check the papers!) getting progressively more difficult as you get further. The bleak setting with the colours and music gives that very “nice” 50’s soviet vibes. Definitely recommended.

“Oh hidy-ho officer, we’ve had a doozy of a day…” Definitely a good watch.

And that’s the way it should be.

I’m actually tempted to say Snatch too. City of God (Cidade de Deus 2002) is up there with it. Some time ago I probably would’ve said Donnie Darko, but I’ve grown out of it over the years.

I guess I should mention 4 more. Most of these are playable in some form or other too, but still.

• Dune II - I didn’t understand any English when I was playing this as a kid, but had lots of fun with it either way. Open source remake (needs original data files): https://dunelegacy.sourceforge.net/website/index.html
• Golden Axe - This one was somehow memorable to me out of all the cheesy beat 'em ups. https://store.steampowered.com/app/34276/Golden_Axe/
• Stunts - The first racing game I played. Very nice map editor too. I even remember the bug where if you hit a peak between two ramp edges you’d fly straight up towards the sky! A brief search didn’t give me any faithful offline remakes, but here’s the wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stunts_(video_game)
• Secret Agent - I’m fairly sure this or Dune II was the first graphical game I ever played on PC. https://store.steampowered.com/app/358350/Secret_Agent/

I second XCOM, if we are talking about the original two, Enemy Unknown/UFO Defense and Terror from the Deep. I heard good things about the more recent ones, but I never played those.

Might I recommend the timeless classic Heroes of Might and Magic III? Most of the campaigns are not too difficult after you get the hang of things, if I remember correctly. And you can get a hundred hours out of it even if you only play the official campaigns.

Quake III Arena. It came out in the 20th century, which sounds crazy to me. It was about 10 years ago I last played it or its remakes.

I got into Q3 a few years late, but there was still a fairly healthy local community for it back then. Quake 4 came out and then Quake Live, which I played for a while, but the local community was missing by then.

Sure I could still play it, but I’m guessing there aren’t even enough people to fill a 5v5 capture the flag match anymore, Q3 or QL… a shame. But at least I have good memories of it.

I don’t even remember when was the last time I used banknotes. Not since COVID. I probably wouldn’t be able to recognize the banknotes anyway so go right ahead, I guess.

Papers, Please. Maybe not crying, but could definitely put you into a depressed mood if you manage to get into character. Needing to make a choice between letting some poor bastard’s wife follow him without proper papers and feeding your family is tough.

10k? I hope it’s hours and not money. Even though 10k is some insane amount of hours too.

Yeah, my intention was to ask more in the spirit of the capital Patient Gamer, as in the community name, instead of just a gamer who is patient. Some good discussions happening here so it’s all good either way.