XCOM: Enemy Unknown was released and got a very nice facelift. It’s an excellent update of the old classic and there’s a good mod community too. It goes on sale often and I think they just added a new DLC for it.
If you liked D2 look into Dungeon Siege 2 and the expansion.
Dunno if these count as recent, but:
Binding of Isaac, incredibly addicting roguelike can’t recommend enough
Super Meat Boy, 2D platformer
Highly recommendWaking Mars. I just played it on Android tablet (but I’m pretty sure it’s available on Steam for PC), and it’s one of the best adventure/exploration games that I’ve played in a while. It’s short, I beat it in a day, but it will stick with you and it is magical. Please go give it a try.
A two-for-one sale doesn’t try to get you to change your mind after you have made your initial decision. F2P games are all about trying to get the people who have chosen only to play for free to decide to pay instead. Most I am aware of will get you very close to accomplishing something, only to not quite get it at the last moment. You’ve already committed to the goal, so you find it harder to resist doing something else to achieve that goal.
I do in fact find that type of emotional manipulation to be more predatory than offering a 50% off sale that requires you to buy two drinks.
I have to jump on the FTL bandwagon, solid fun.
Also, check out TOME, a roguelike available at te4.org. Totally free, unless you want to donate to the creator. Engrossing. Pretty. Brand new version that was just released a few days ago.
Torchlight and Path of Exile are two Diablo 2 type games, though they’re pretty different from each other. I’ve been playing PoE a lot lately, and the gameplay is basic D2 “kill anything that moves” but the customization is one of the best features. There’s an impressively massive passive skill tree, and dozens of gems of different colors representing the attributes the gem uses. The gems are what give you attack skills, spells, auras, etc, and you can use some crafting items to change or manipulate your items. A lot of the skills I’ve tried are pretty fun, and you can get ideas seeing what other players use.
other casual games I have on Steam:
CastleStorm: The main part is sort of Angry Birds like, you shoot a ballista and try to knock down an enemy castle while he does the same to you. You also send out ground troops (march to the right guys!) and summon a hero which you control directly. Another plus is you can build your own castle, and use your exp to upgrade heroes, ballista, and abilities. You unlock all kinds of stuff as you progress, and it sounds complicated but the game walks you through it. It’s casual, but fast paced, and definitely one of those “how is it 3am already??” games that you just have to keep playing.
Alien Shooter/Zombie Shooter: There’s a few sequels to each, they’re all pretty similar. Just mindless, fast paced, fun, arcade shooting games. The amount of aliens/zombies increases every level until each level leaves you almost drained and dazed at the carnage you’ve just created.
UnEpic: Side scrolling RPG reminiscent of an 80’s game. Nice balance between difficulty and gaining new abilities/skills/weapons. A great fun, casual RPG. Oh, and there’s multiplayer too, with a whole new set of maps…
Volgar the Viking: Side scrolling arcade type game that’s brutally hard but can be (has to be) memorized. Nice level design, brutal difficulty, works best if you have a controller (Xbox 360’s are great).
Grand Theft Auto/Saints Row: again these work much better with a controller. The ultimate casual games, the open world gameplay means you can do whatever you want if you don’t feel like following the missions.
Have you considered trying this website? they have lists for Sims, Plants vs Zombies and even Diablo style games.
I’m going to stick to personal Diablo 2 suggestions since that’s the genre I love the most.
Path of Exile - An extremely in depth version of Diablo 2 and free to play. Definitely the best game like Diablo 2 around but it has quite a commitment with it so might not meet your needs.
Drakensang Online - Basically an online version of Diablo 2 in my eyes. Very simple game to pick up and very casual. Plays in your browser and is free.
Torchlight 2 - Recent game in the Torchlight series. The game series began with some of the people originally behind Diablo and is basically a casual Diablo experience. Just good old killing monsters gameplay.
HammerWatch - Probably the newest game which is kind of like Diablo, also super casual and just a lot of fun (especially with others).
Is grand strategy/real time combat something to sit back, relax an play?
It is for ME!
I’d recommend Rome II. Bit of a mess when it came out, but after patch 7 it’s a lot of fun. The main issue is the combat AI during siege battles sometimes leaving units idle, but they’re working on it.
It’s mostly turned based (except for the battles) so it’s one of those “one more turn, damn it!” games which can be played at your leisure, until you realize your leisure time has come and gone and now you’re late for work. The total war games in general are all great, and although this one started out a mess, it’s getting better and it’s starting to grow on me.
On what is my 3rd playthrough as Rome (you can be any of a number of different factions from Carthage to the Germanic tribes, to Sparta, etc, etc) I made the mistake of sending two of my most powerful legions up north around the Iberia peninsula to Brittania, only to find myself embroiled in a small war with the northern tribes after they decided they didn’t like it when I allied with their enemy, Rome came very close to being sacked.
Another suggestion would be Kerbal Space program. Lots of fun to build death trap… I mean rockets and see them blow the f up… I mean see them fly into space.
Even better: Path Of Exile