Ghost of Tsushima, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Cyberpunk

Factorio

You might want to check out Red Dead Redemption 2 in story mode. The graphics and physics are pretty incredible. It’s a little old now, but I think it still holds up well, especially if you like the “old west cowboy” aesthetic.

It would be a massive shame to not throw Fallout: New Vegas a nod.

None of the one suggested.

https://libregaming.org/play-libre-games/

luanti

0ad

endless sky

mindustry

wesnoth

Red Dead Redemption 2 will probably hit all the nerves. Open beautiful world that still hasn’t been matched by another game.

The Spider-Man games are also great and Spider-Man 2 is just around the corner.

And Path of Exile 2 is currently all the rage even though it’s still in early access.

And when you still have time you can play Baldur’s Gate 3, first game to win Game of the Year in all contests.

I always have to recommend Vampire: The Masquerade, Bloodlines. Cheesy AF game from the early 'aughts, but it holds a special place in my heart and is a fantastic RPG. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAIR9faz9pM

Baldurs Gate 3 seems like a no brainer

Probably some stigma associated with it but Genshin Impact is kind of in the vein of Breath of the Wild with the open world exploration and puzzle solving. Tons of story arcs, and they are pretty dang good. While it’s not offline, it’s not multiplayer unless you want it to be.

i would recommend titanfall 2, its a masterpiece

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.

Cruelty squad, balatro, broforce, yakuza games, ghostwire tokyo, gta 4, deep rock galactic, risk of rain 2, binding of issac are some of my personal reccomendations

Just Cause 3 is great fun.

I recently picked up Metro Exodus and it’s been a great experience.

God of War is OK,looks nice but felt a bit constrained and formulaic.

• 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.

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.