Asklemmy

Satisfactory made me late for work the first week I played it

Can say with almost certainty that you'd love Planet Crafter. Think subnautica except you're terraforming a planet. Overwhelmingly positive reviews and I could not put it down

If you want something where you can just unwind & chill, look into the Slime Rancher games.

Assassin's creed series

No Man's Sky - One of the most beautiful games out there imo, and has vastly improved since its disasterous launch. Warning this one does require an internet connection (actually for a good reason) but you dont have to interact with anyone, and it's difficult to even encounter another player in the wild outside of the Anomaly hub and campaigns due to its sheer size.

Project Zomboid - Even if you have zero interest in zombie stuff it's still worth a shot. Has a massive detailed world based off Midwestern towns in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. It's still in development so there's some noticeably unfinished aspects, and they've only just begun to add non-zombie NPCs.

I liked spiderman and death stranding is also pretty nice although it's big and kinda slow

A few years ago I got into this weird russian game about gravity and detonating sideways nukes above ground.

The storyline is a bit complex, but essentially its about a resource-based society trying to build colorful apartment complexes to house it's population, but the government keeps bombing the developments anytime an even stretch is built.

To get around this, the player has to grab these incomplete apartments as they're dropped by helicopter from the sky and position them into interesting structures that can't legally be called apartments, thus saving them from detonation.

There's a romance angle too, where the apartment bomber convinces the player to build multi-storey apartments at the last minute, thus allowing the govt worker to deploy his vast arsenal at a profit and split the proceeds with the player 50:50.

Its a pretty intense game, and I can still hear the chilling screams of those occupants to the tune of that haunting russian folk song.

You've got a nice new pc and if you want to play something like BOTW, you might enjoy Red Dead Redemption 2. BOTW was also my favorite game of all time until i played rdr2. RDR has similiar mechanics to breath of the wild, like hunting, but the whole world is just so lively, immersive, and beautiful. I can't think of a single issue with the game, it's a true 10/10, can't praise it enough.

I also recommend any other rockstar game, specifically gta v and max payne 3, they are both great as well.

If you want an FPS experience, play the original call of duty modern warfare games first, MW2019 next, then black ops 1-3+cold war+6. I wouldn't recommend new mw2 or 3.

I'll also say the Metro games are great, they are like post-apocalyptic COD with a great story and nice gameplay. Super underrated series.

Edit: I have a specific taste for shooter games, so I'd suggest you read other comments if you are into other genres.

Risk of rain 2 is amazing if you like rogue like games.

Beyond 2 souls is good but the PC version is wack. They ruined the game by locking the movement when playing as the spirit Aiden. They turned it into a point and click which is so dumb because you miss so much from it. It's literally not the same experience. Grab the PS3 version and emulate it. My personal favorite story focused game

• Prey (2017). Good FPS gameplay with RPG mechanics, incredibly detailed semi-open world, emphasizes exploration and player freedom.

• Watch Dogs 2. Above average for an Ubisoft game. Great open world that emphasizes player freedom.

Honorable mentions that you've probably already considered: Cyberpunk 2077, Control, Alan Wake 2

Dread Delusion

Open World, meaningful (and hard choices), excellent writing. It's the best game I've played in recent years. It can also run on a potatoe, but that shouldn't be a problem for you. :)

• Cyberpunk 2077 (very good since 2.x and with Phantom Liberty expansion). Since I have similar hardware to you, you can play it with Raytracing enabled and have at least above 30 fps which should be enough for most playstyles except maybe fast melee-based combat. The game's lighting effects look absolutely gorgeous with Raytracing.

• Witcher 3 (keep at it. It's amazing. It can feel clunky at the beginning due to its weird combat mechanics but you get used to it. Also you can switch it up by integrating signs (magic) into your swordfighting. Which is what I recommend doing. I think it's more varied). Also, the game gets better as you go. The base game is great, but the DLCs are even better, especially Blood & Wine has kind of a legendary status among all DLCs, you rarely get such value inside a DLC, except Phantom Liberty which has a similar scope and quality to it.

• Baldur's Gate 3 is probably the best game of the last decade or so so highly recommended. It's not open world, but it's still huge and is at the same time very densely packed with stuff, so you need a lot of time when you want to explore and loot everything. The game feels huge that way. Especially compared to open world games, it's like the opposite - open world games have a vast area but almost nothing in-between major points, which means the world can feel empty in a lot of open-world games. Baldur's Gate 3 has something around every corner and never feels empty (unless you've cleared a whole area already).

• Red Dead Redemption 2 - a lot of people like it, so far it didn't feel right to me (so slow) but I can still see how it's a good game and if you like chilling with a game it might be just your thing

• Elden Ring is amazing but has very tough combat/action of course. Still, it really feels great as an open-world game. It completely throws the "Ubisoft formula" out of the window, which most open-world games follow, and that's precisely why it's so good. I've rarely had more feeling of true exploration and accomplishment within an open world game. Still, combat is very challenging, so if you prefer games to be on the easy side, then it's not right for you. But if you don't mind a challenge (a challenge you can also often delay for later when you're stronger) then it's a must-play. If you don't know, as most or all games from From Software, these games don't offer different difficulty settings so there is only one difficulty which is the same for every player (and it's tough). These games are also very fair and reward accurate playing - it's possible to not get hit at all by anything, for example, if you're really good. So they never feel unfair and when you die (which you do a lot) you'll always know why you died and have an idea how you could do it better. Besides the difficulty, what can also feel oppressive in those games is the fact that all enemies (except bosses) respawn whenever you rest. But Elden Ring kind of mitigates that because you can skip a lot of areas and come back when you're better prepared (i.e. gained more levels/attributes or better gear). Then, past challenges can start feeling easy. And skipping weak enemies is kind of the normal thing.

• STALKER 2 (may still need a couple more patches but it's playable and has a great overall atmosphere and visual design. They fixed the worst post-launch problems I think). Very strong in atmosphere and immersion.

I'm not seeing Elden Ring anywhere in the top voted posts, but if you're looking for something like BotW, you should consider it. Always somewhere new to explore and very non-linear. The lore of the world is insanely rich, but there basically is no story.

Tunic is awesome. Lots of exploration and lots of secrets to find. Don't look anything up, it's a very unique experience.

Hollow Knight is the first metroidvania I liked. Great exploration, but it's not exactly going to test the limits of your rig. Similar to the Souls games, lots of lore, little story.

Rimworld is so non-linear it's literally a story simulator. It creates unforgettable experiences and has infinite replayability. You can save and quit at any moment, so it's good if you only have an hour or two (but you could easily put hundreds of hours into it).

And I want to echo others who said Outer Wilds, RDR2, BG3, and CP2077.

My favorite game is Descent, I just wish I had the hardware to play the successor, Overload..

https://youtu.be/jQ5RFBo0L_U

Going off of subnautica and Zelda/portal I think you might enjoy outer wilds. I haven’t gotten very far myself but it’s a gorgeous game with a surprising amount of depth

Skyrim, Fallout: New Vegas, and Mass Effect Legendary are my favorites that I come back to repeatedly. Of course, they were all probably perfectly playable on your old PC.

Hitman World of Assassination was good and not playable on your old PC. I have not replayed it yet, but it is definitely repayable with the option to approach every level in different ways.

I've gotten bored with the Assassins Creed games, but the newer ones are very pretty and they're open world with lots of story and tons of things to do.

You mentioned Far Cry 3, there's also 4, 5, 6 New Dawn, and Primal. I haven't played 5, 6, or New Dawn, but 4 plays the same as 3 (just a different story) and I actually like Primal quite a bit.

The Just Cause series is really over the top mayhem, but I enjoyed them. Lots of open world destruction for a...just cause (or maybe just because).

The Saints Row games are ridiculous, childish fun. Very similar to GTA, but makes GTA look classy by comparison. I think Saints Row 4 and Gat Out of Hell are the best ones. The first 2 are quite dated at this point. There is a recent remaster of 3, I liked the original, but haven't played the remaster yet. There's a newer one that's just called "Saints Row", I've only played a little of it so far and its pretty bland.

XCOM 2

I've been playing V Rising in the last few days and it's a very good mix of survival, open world, exciting combat and a bit of designing your own castle.

Even more fun if you can play it with friends (though it's a bit more classic with servers: You'll have to find a public one to play on or host / rent your own).

But you can also just play it single player locally.

Great game though, I'd recommend it fully!

These are some suggestions for those little moments when you want a little break between games 😄

Tiny Glade - little diorama building game. I like playing this one when I don't have enough time for a full mission or quest in whatever game I'm playing, or I'm waiting for my buddies to get online.

Potion Craft: Alchemy Simulator - another cute little game. The NPCs make this one fun. You get visitors from other games coming to your shop to stock up on potions. Devs just did a big 2.0 update, and added more challenges and content. I played on super easy explorer mode and 100%ed the achievements in 52 in game days. I highly recommend this game! Another great one to play during in-between and waiting times, but also very easy to get sucked into 🧪

If you want the most extensive, expansive, awesome emergent story base building game out there, there's of course Dwarf Fortress. You can download it right off the devs, where it's free but takes a PhD to begin to make sense of the UI. Or you can buy it on Steam, where it will cost you a little bit, but thanks to massive UI improvements, it's actually playable by regular people.

I've been getting a lot of play time from Ostranauts.

From the Steam blurb:

Ostranauts is a hardcore noir space-sim. Manage life aboard your ship, and beware the cost of every decision you make. Scavenge and explore the boneyard. Create, build, and customise your ship.

There's kinda of a story, more like things are happening in the world. You're mostly just left to your own devices.

Another game that's taken up a lot of my 2024 was Baldur's Gate 3, pretty sure it doesn't need a short write up though.

Hollow Knight

Space Marine 2 has a crazy 4k texture pack that looks amazing. But playing Space Marine 2 over the original is a task enough on its own.

Honestly your rig would handle VR dogfighting in Elite Dangerous gloriously. But that would require hotas controllers and a vr headset but its so fun.

I think theres a crazy texture pack for the master chief collection out there somewhere.