Red Dead Redemption 2. I got like 200 hours out of it already and still not done.

I'd say Hitman III (now called World of Assassins) or No Man's Sky. Both are really great values for their price.

I think I'm mostly done with the Hitman franchise for now, but I'll probably come back to NMS next time Starfield has some big update and I need to scratch that exploration itch.

It's early access so I don't think it counts, but I played the demo some time ago: Gloomwood

Probably Omori, although I haven't gotten to two of four endings just yet. Its vibes naturally resonated with me over time, even at its darkest moments.

Final Fantasy XIII-2, modded with HD upscaled textures, community fixes, and Reshade. 2K Resolution w/ Improved AA + Color Correction + Motion Blur + Ray Tracing made this game look modern af 😎

And for the best game this year part, the developers really said "so FFXIII was linear? Well how about time is not linear!" Jumping back to old locations surprised me in that I actually wanted to go back to them and do optional content. And beneath the extra ass music (lol), is some of the most down right horrific/sad stuff shown in a FF game. Like the straight up Zombie apocalypse-like C'eith outbreak in the future that Serah even being near causes people to turn, she apologizes to them in battle as the turned enemies try to use remedy on theirselves to no avail. Being the last human alive and having to deal with seeing the last people alive dying off till it's just you on the planet. The cruel fate of some characters and the risks taken storywise and gamewise really surprised me.

Theme Hospital

Perfect Vermin. It takes only 15 to beat, it's fun, and it has a cool theme/concept/story

FF7 Remake and Celeste are my favorites so far.

Child of light Had it on my radar for some years, then in my Steam library for many more. Finally played it. Really nice vibe and combat system with amazing art direction and narrative.

Volcanoids is a fantastic co-op game that I keep going back to. Also just started playing Hardspace: Shipbreaker, interesting so far.

Rain World is absolutely amazing. I'm hopelessly addicted to it. Highly recommend if you like unique games.

Xenoblade chronicles X. I finally got a beefy pc that can emulate it with all the graphical upgrades the Wii u can't even fathom, and this game is so much less of a slog now that I'm an adult with a finer appreciation for menus stacked in menus sacked in menus

Gravity Rush.

Probably Manifold Garden. I just finished it last week and it was a consistently good experience. Highly recommended.

Probably Nier: Replicant, though I have some I'm just starting that could possibly beat it:

• CrossCode
• Alan Wake
• Red Dead Redemption II

Honorable mentions to (all great):

• Manifold Garden
• Human Resource Machine
• Ori and the Blind Forest

Inscryption

I have been enjoying on and off Immortal Redneck.

The King's Field Trilogy on PS1. These games bounced off me hard back in the day, but I got curious about them after reading about their influence on Souls. These were games that were waaaay ahead of their time, and so satisfying now that I have the patience to really appreciate what From Software were trying to create. Also: definitely play the translated version of the first Japanese one.