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!
I would just recommend you to refer to metacritic and see the best games of all time for PC if you're using PC. My personal recommendation is certainly Baldur's Gate 3. If you prefer multiplayer but would like to avoid the toxic community, then I suggest Deep Rock Galactic.