the following are what I consider to be some of the most top shelf shit in modern gaming:
Judgment - Japan simulator in which you play as an attorney-turned-PI trying to solve a case whose complexity and implications quickly spiral out of control. technically part of the Yakuza franchise, but it's a spin-off, so you don't need to be familiar with any of it. the game takes place in a very dense city district with all kinds of shit to see and do. there are a million different mini-games to fuck with; traditional Japanese tabletop games (mahjong, shogi), old SEGA games (Virtua Fighter, Out Run, Space Harrier), a House of the Dead knockoff, a crazy Mario Party style VR game, batting cages, darts, even drone racing. there's a crazy amount of detail put into the city, to the point where you can fully explore the interior of many buildings. and a completion tracker gives you objectives for interacting with all of this shit, feeding you skill XP for doing things like eating every menu item at a specific restaurant, or beating a specific score in one of the mini-games, things like that. it also has a sequel,
Lost Judgment.
Cronos: The New Dawn - surreal survival horror in future apocalypse communist Poland. great world, interesting story, very meaty combat. this one is made by Bloober Team, whom everyone is now familiar with by way of the Silent Hill 2 remake.
Pillars of Eternity 2 - the last great CRPG. it is a direct continuation of the first game, so you will want to be at least familiar with its story. the first one is great in its own right, but it's a considerably rougher game. POE2 fixes all the first one's issues and iterates on nearly every aspect in a big way, this is Obsidian's magnum opus as far as I'm concerned. isometric, real-time pausable combat with deep RPG mechanics and a massive amount of build variety. DO NOT use turn-based combat on your first play-through, it was added long after release as an experiment, and completely changes the game's meta in strange ways (for the worse, IMO).
Avowed - An Elder Scrolls clone that actually does it right. its biggest barrier to entry is its incredibly dense lore; it's a spin-off of the Pillars of Eternity series, so it's sitting on two 60+ hour RPG's worth of world building, but it does a good job feeding it to you piecemeal. aside from that, it's incredibly accessible and very smart about its design. the world is packed with shit to explore, the combat is great, the story is cool, and the RPG mechanics are designed to let you fuck around with builds on the fly instead of having to commit right at the beginning of the game.
Selaco - futuristic, FEAR-inspired tactical boomer shooter built in GZDoom. it's still in early access, and development is slow, but what they've already released is fantastic, and episode 2 - which is reportedly quite a bit bigger than episode 1 - is currently in final testing. if you only play one boomer shooter ever, this is the one.
Red Dead Redemption 2 - an incredibly well-made old west simulator, with an excellent story and very memorable cast of characters. has lots of simulation elements that make it very immersive. it's technically the third game in the series, but it's a prequel, so you don't need to know anything about the other games.
MechWarrior 5: Clans - walking tank simulator, a successful revival of one of the greatest franchises in gaming history (MW5 Mercenaries is shit, it doesn't count). customization is the entire point of the game; there are dozens of mech chassis, weapons, and equipment to experiment with. your goal is to outfit your lance of five mech pilots with machines that will allow you to kill your way safely through long missions in hostile territory during which you receive little support. combat strategy is very deep - do you try to blow off the target's arm to destroy some of its weapons, damage its legs to slow it down and make it an easier target, or go straight for the center torso to try and breach its reactor as quickly as possible? these decisions and more will depend on your weapons loadout, and the strengths and weaknesses of both your mech and the enemy's. also has a cool story with some of the
best facial capture I've seen in the medium. some of the acting is a little hammy, though.
Armored Core VI - the Japanese MechWarrior, works very similar in concept but instead of being restricted to premade mech chassis, you can freely mix and match your mech's body parts to tune its durability and maneuverability. Armored Core was the original flagship franchise of FromSoftware before they struck big with Demon's Souls and its subsequent iterations; AC6 is FromSoft's long-awaited return to the franchise after all the lessons they learned developing Souls. directed by the guy who made Sekiro. the combat mechanics are extremely tight, and the boss fights are brutal.
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk (PC/current gen and last consoles, 2023)
seconding BRC, that game fucking owns.
I endorse this recommendation.
Parkour 3-D Platformer: You are a asian female message deliverer with parcour skills and you pretty much run and jump from the NSA State you live in.
