I’m clearly completely out of touch with gaming.
I’m a big fan on spiderweb software games. I’ve completed all 6 Avernums and all 6 Geneforges. I’m now part way through Avadon. They are crude, basically harking back to Ultima style RPGs from the 80’s, but sometime simpler is best.
As far as more recent games:
I am playing Pathfinder Kingmaker, and loving it. It takes a little getting used to the controls, (I still sometime find myself not accidentally casting cure wounds on a monster I meant to hit because I wasn’t able to reach my wounded character last round), and also some balance issues (you pet shouldn’t be more powerful than your character), but it has an interesting story and does a good job of scratching my D&D itch.
Finally I’ve been playing Borderlands 3, which I am slightly disappointed with. There is too much loot and its too easy. In Borderlands 2 I felt that I had to work to progress, choose my shots, and run for cover if things got too crazy, and dying on a fairly regular basis, particularly against bosses. In Borderlands three I felt I could just run in guns blazing and not break a sweat, and take out a boss in a minute or so just by standing there and shooting a lot. Progressing felt more like a grind than a challenge.
A bit this. And then not. I found at one point I was taking ten shots to kill every creature. The good loot stopped dropping for a bit, it was all crap, and it was a massive struggle and I was dying a lot. Then some other loot appeared and I was killing in a couple of shots again. So it gets patchy. Not completely easy. Not particularly a good mechanic either.
Bought Project Zomboid on a flier at the very end the Steam Winter Sale and I’ve been kind of obsessed with it ever since. Still in “Early Access” but feels very complete (been in EA for over 10 years now). The EA shows up in odd ways, like the world is full of chairs but you can’t actually sit on any of them (without mods).
Essentially “The Sims, The Walking Dead Expansion” you are the last person alive, as far as you can tell, in a world filled with zombies, and your job is simply to survive as long as you can. There is no goal, no real story, no ending, and permadeath. You just play until the zombies get you, and they will eventually get you. After you die you can return as a different person in the same world. You may even encounter your zombified former self.
There is a robust Steam Workshop modding community for it, and multiplayer was recently introduced just a few months ago. I prefer the solo experience myself, but the MP option is there for those that are into that.
Unless you’re playing with Moze and then Iron Bear’s Vanquisher rocket pods reduce everything to a fine paste regardless of the difficulty level. (At least that was my experience.)