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 can kinda see why they've been out of gaming for decades. I'm also a bit confused by their qualifiers... They say they don't want top-down games, but listed liking pinball... Is that not a top-down pinball game?
Well, Pinball is a top-down game, but I've included it in the games I like because it's one of the first games I've played. If I played it now without any preconception or nostalgia, I probably wouldn't like it.