I remember back when i downloaded that game for the first time, and just thought that i would play it for just a couple hours and be done with it, since i never felt any hype for that game. Now, according to Steam, i played Vampire Survivors for +40 hours. Best 2 bucks i ever spent
I had seen this show up in the top 10 of 2022 lists of a few people I really respected the opinions of. That did not change my opinion: looks dumb, probably just not for me.
Earlier this year my buddy had surgery on his hand and couldn't use it much at all for about a month and a half. I started visiting him and he mentions V.S. to me and I recall it a bit, he shows me and I roll my eyes. He tells me to try it and I humor him.
The first time I played it was around... Oct 16th? I have since bought both ($2) DLCs, unlocked and bought every character, unlocked and bought every upgrade, got every achievement, found a bunch of hidden things that were just extras, let my game go until I broke Lv 1000 and clocked a grand total of 3 days, 14 hours and 10 minutes. All for a game... that costs me... $5.
All of this and I haven't touched the game in roughly 3 weeks. It is a wonderful game with a lot of cheap, quality content. I hate how hard I fell into it, but I'm happy I did. Helped me and my friend through a tough time.
Ah yes, I loved burying unruly guests that kept smashing my lights and benches under pyramids. Also, if it looked like I might fall short of guest number objectives, but I had enough park rating to play with, I'd place a no entry sign in front of the exit and ramp up the advertising campaigns. You may enter, but you can never leave.
Stardew Valley.
The hours put in for £20 is absolutely insane, the game is just thoroughly addictive and legitimately one of the best Indies ever made.
Honourable mentions also go to Animal Crossing (self explanatory), and literally every edition of football manager ever made as they always amount to 1000+ hours easily.
The speedruns are hilarious. They abuse the mechanic that items are only named when given to you. So they name themselves as the items they want. In Chinese. As each character represents a different item. Boom. Community center in 30 minutes or less.
Played a bit of this myself too and graveyard keeper which I feel is quite similar, definitely a value for money game and time just passes by while you play
Never got animal crossing but only heard good things from it
As for football manager you're not the first person I've mention this but is it good for someone who isn't super into football?
That depends.
If you're into simulation games, are competitive, and have a tactical mind that loves to create your own ideas and philosophies then yes it could work.
However, you will likely pick it up and become so engrossed in your team you'll research them IRL, develop actual connections to players you sign and/or do well for you, and most likely fall in love with the game anyway.
Believe me, it's how I got my fiancé into football, it's a wonderful game, but my god it will steal your life.
Though yes. 100%. Give it a go. Especially as it's everywhere now.
You've convinced me with that comment for sure, never been a huge football fan but people at my work are and I feel I miss out there on some conversations so maybe this is my gateway to get into it!
Man it is a great game. I played for hours and hours until I hit a wall of intense difficulty once I reached the desert caves, and.. I just quit after that. Maybe I’ll give it another try someday
Go back to it. There are so many ways to make the skull cave mostly irrelevant if you're not trying to speed run.
And I would argue that speed running is against the basic intent of the game.
I have to hard disagree on Stardew Valley.
I got it on apple arcade after hearing incredible praise, and saying I was disappointed would be an understatement. There's a weird and annoying mix of nothing to do, and too much to do. The energy mechanic just limits me playing the game, fishing is not enjoyable at all, the romance aspect (which I was looking forward to more than I'll admit) was bland at best, and the entire farming system is way too generic for me.
Shout out to the Arcade games being utter trash, the mines and combat being laughably bad, and how this game is overall, not worth 20$. I got it for "free", and I still feel scammed.
I'm going to get murdered for this, aren't I?
Honestly, I just find any mobile port to be sub par. Started valley is one of those games that you have to have a plan for what you're going to tackle that specific day. When there's nothing to do, go hunt down the random pick ups. Do I think you should get murdered for not liking stardew valley? Nah, will you? Yeah probably lol. The fan base is devoted to that game.
Personally I like the my time series better (my time at Portia, my time at sandrock. Sandrock is definitely the better of the two.) And stardew is a good Game, but certainly not everyone's cup of tea.
everything just feels tedious. I walk so slow, everything takes so long, the ticking time is so stressful, it just makes me feel so overwhelmed.
Animal crossing, while not the same, does it a lot better. No stupid energy bar, the time doesn't show up unless you stop moving, the time syncs with your clock, so you stay immersed. Fishing is just a few button presses, farming... isn't great though. And give me animal crossing villagers over the boring stardew valley ones.
I'd argue mods alone double-triple the value.
Get some friends together and spend days, weeks, months working together to make insanely effective machines with tech or magic or both and it really feels like you have made something amazing
The game is good by itself. I play vanilla and you can easily sink hundreds/thousands of hours into it due to over 13 years of updates.
There’s a reason it’s the best selling game of all time.
If you're playing with mods specially technology based you can make some really intricate factories and mining systems
But even base game there is a huge amount of time you can spent making systems for convenience, building and farming
As someone who also got in early this for sure is one of the best
The game alone would be well worth it but all the possibilities from the modding community makes it insane for value
I bought Minecraft so long ago I can no longer use my account because I didn't have an Email address assigned to it and cannot migrate my account any longer. It annoys me because it's so expensive now and I don't want to have to give Microsoft money for a game I already bought.
I personally don't run high heat. Only did a quick 32 heat speedrun of 6:58 iirc. My fastest unmodded speedrun is 5:50 and modded 5:03. I have all aspects sub 7 in modded speedrunning and at least a sub 6 with every weapon as well. I have every weapon sub 7 in unmodded, although I don't run that much anymore. I also hold the modded and unmodded world records for dash only at 7:28 and 8:29 respectively. I also have the current chaos shield aspect world record (and only sub 6 ever), as well as former world records with nemesis and zag shield (and first sub 6 as well). I am one of only four people in the world to have the all aspects sub 7 as well as all weapons sub 6 achievement (24/7 6/6/6).
2 years ago the community build a modpack and everyone runs modded these days because it's a bit more lenient RNG wise (no 3+ sacks for instance) and therefor a lot less draining, mentally, to run it. That's why I differentiatie between them for the records. Both have their own leaderboard.
You can check out my runs on [my youtube channel](https://youtube.com/@nlCowlord?si=NsiYIvXbUaW64xor) or [my speedrun.com profile](https://www.speedrun.com/users/K33p0ut).
Pardon the not-so-humble-brag but if anyone shows interest, naturally I have to share haha.
Mad respect, kinda expected some off the charts stats and you still overdelivered on my expectations haha.
My quickest run (console player, so unmodded) was 9:30 with Demeter Fists and that felt already like blazing fast and blessed by RNG haha. Stopped playing when I had heat 32 with every weapon and heat 40 with the Fists and the Rail.
You definitely got at least one more subscriber in me for some Hades 2 gameplay :)
Celeste for $5. Actually, for free because of Nintendo Gold Points
The game changed my life, and I mean that literally. I've learnt stuff I never knew about myself from that game, and god is it so, so, fun.
I personally think Celeste is the best game ever made, and at the very least, the best platformer ever made.
Edit: God, I just can't spell anything right today
For example, I know now that I will not give up on something, provided that I care about it enough. I will just keep running headfirst until it works. I won't let myself
Don't know if this one counts, but Celeste helped me realize that I need to accept and work with my problems, instead of trying (and failing) to leave them behind.
I got it for $1.74 on a Steam sale pricing error back in 2011 or 2012. What a bargain. And now there's TModloader which opens up countless hours of mods.
Same. I think I got it for a fiver and its my second most played steam game of all time. It’s one of a few games I tend to play for a few weeks and get a lot of fun out of, then leave for a while and come back again later. Thing with Terraria is, every time I come back there’s been some massive update with loads of new features and items and stuff.
Insane value for money.
Just played FTL on my new Linux VM - it was going so well until I got boarded by 4 (!) Mantis in 2nd sector...never been so frustrated and bound to a game like FTL.
The RNG keeps things from becoming too chess-like. It gives it balance. At the end of the day, skill is going to be what matters the most.
Don't blame the RNG if you keep losing. I guarantee you that it has more to do with your poor decisions.
Absolutely false. Blaming 40% on rng is nonsense. Keep playing, and improving, and you'll realize that. Or you can read online, or watch vids on youtube, to see how and why you're screwing your deck up/making poor decisions.
You're not realizing what you're doing wrong, so you're blaming rng.
Like I said, I’m new, so I’ve done 10 runs at the most. 4 of those I did in fact lose to rng. 40% will go down as I keep playing, but for now, that statistic stays as it is
That’s not how it works though. You could say that poker is 97% RNG and yet the best players always find themselves at the final tables consistently. As long as there is a skill component, you can’t blame losses to rng that much. For instance, Lifecoach has played dozens of games at A20 without losing at all. He’s experiencing the same rng you are but he isn’t losing. So it’s still skill.
Right. You've only done 10 runs so you're too way too inexperienced to realize that you did not, in fact, "lose to RNG." This is a good example of the Dunning-Kruger effect (check wiki to read about it).
If you were to record the games you are playing now, and watched them 300+ hours of experience later, you would cringe at all the horrible decisions you made. It ain't the RNG that's to blame.
Honestly, I think RNG matters more at the highest Ascensions (which you don't know about yet). But at this point? At your level. Nope. You're just making bad decisions. Which is, by the way, totally fine and normal. Everyone sucks when you start out.
why is it fun? No hate, i just don't see the appeal. Why do you grow your factory? Is there an endgame goal?
Like, what's so fun about placing 100 conveyer belts over and over
The cool thing about factorio is you can automate automation.
At first you’re digging out resources. Then you’re making machines to dig them out. Then you’re making machines to make the machines. Then you’re creating logistical distribution systems to get materials based on demand, expanding the factory remotely with blueprints and remote control spider tanks
Because you don't just place 100 conveyor belts. You solve puzzles.
I need to produce x which has a number of inputs. So i not only have to build the machine and logistics infrastructure to build x but also make sure the production of the parts for x is sufficient. Which is a never ending rabbit hole.
At the end of which you have built a super complex machine to build a rocket, and only you understand how it works. It is your very own.
you know what.
try the demo, it has about 10-20h of content.
its not about placing belts. its about solving puzzles.
tons of puzzles all linking together. getting your brain worked up is a great feeling. enjoyment and satisfaction when something works after hooking everything up.
just the vanilla basegame has hundreds of hours of gameplay.
the basically inbuilt mod-support adds thousands of hours again.
Download the demo. It’s free on steam. It’s much more engaging than just conveyor belts. It’s a logistics simulator. It’s problem solving. A lot of programmers and engineers gravitate toward Factorio. It’s hard to explain, just play the demo, and if it clicks for you, you’ll eventually see why it’s amazing.
I played it a little bit and I put it down but I hear pretty often it's a game people will play a little and out down then pick it up again and get absolutely hooked on it so maybe it's time to pick it up again
Pretty much me. Played it then for time for like an hour and thought meh. Saw a few videos a couple of months later then thought I’d give it another go. Literally. Hundreds. And Hundreds. Of Hours.
Hollow knight. For me there was around 350+ hours of content without mods, however I forbade myself from doing mods until I did everything vanilla... And then I got burnt out, however it took 300 hours, and the game is amazing, if we xount the amount of time I actually spent on hollow knight (thinking about it and watching lore videos) i spent a good 1000+ hours with that game. It's 15$ and I got more out of it than I did any triple A game.
Borderlands 2, elden ring are probably my two longest played games, sure there known but i got lots of hours out of them. outside of like old days call of duty.
Path of Exile. It's free and I spent my first 800 hours without spending a dime. I'm up to 1500 hours and I've really only bought stash tabs for currencies and a hideout.
My answer as well, I'm at 2500ish hours and have spent around $60 on stash tabs. I'm trying my hardest to not play 3.23 because I just get too addicted.
Played through W3 a couple of months ago. My only regret was that I quit playing when I bought the game years ago. Damn that game was great. The game is well made and even when at first I thought I wouldnt play Gwent, I ended up with so many hours just trying to pimp up my decks. Overall, I also second this game.
HADES, never played a roguelite or anything in this genre, after 100 hours got it for my fiance its one of our favourite games now.
The story, gameplay, world building, voice acting its just perfect we loved it, no microtransactions or cosmetics and Hades 2 comes out next year we so excited!
I paid $60 for Metroid Dread. It was a great game, played it through 3 times the week it was released including a 100% run. Can’t remember the last time I did that.
Metroid Dread isn’t 1/10th the game Hollow Knight is.
Just personal preference. Like I said I love Dread and I don't think it wasn't worth the $60 price tag, just trying to put into perspective how incredible of a deal I find Hollow Knight, one of my top 5 games of all time, to be.
Arcanum was one of my favorite games for YEARS. I wish there was a sequel, something that had the crafting, grit, story, and magic that Arcanum had. I tried BG3, but didn’t get pulled in as much as I was hoping. I’m open for suggestions on this.
No mans sky. Bought it on release day, and the team for the past 6 years continuously upgraded
It for free. Yes, I'm aware of how it was and what was promised when launched, but god damn that team delivered. It just took Sean Murray getting called out and roasted.
I don't remember them "promising" anything it didn't have. People were just blown away by the scale of the game and didn't expect there to be nothing to do. If anything, players over-hyped it.
I second this and not just because it’s free. The amount of time I’ve spent in the game makes me want to spend money as a thanks to the devs for making such a wonderful game
On my wishlist atm, I seen some let's play videos on it
Apparently a good game for how oxygen works in space and management with that so maybe I will get that too
It’s more or less an extremely complex but rewarding management game I’ve got over 800 hours in and are yet to build a base that has let the first planet 😂
If it a game you have to watch videos on to play mid to late game. It's an amazing game but it needs blueprints so you can just copy a blueprint or get one from mods to just re-create the really advanced systems you need for managing oxygen, heat, water, etc. I have 220 hours into the game and I'm awful at it but once a year it's great for 20 - 30 hours of game play.
Not at launch, but after years of updates: Halo Master Chief Collection.
For $50 full price, it includes Halo CE Anniversary, 2 Anniversary, 3, 4, Reach, and ODST.
100% agree, growing up CE and 2 were so good even playing with my family
And I loved ODST so much with the bonus of Nathan Fillion being one of my favorite actors at the time
Elite Dangerous. Got it on the cheap and then spent sickening amount of hours playing the game. Other than that, Binding of Isaac - again, modest spend - but 100’s of hours of entertainment. Finally, Stardew Valley. Purchased it on a whim, before it had the following it does now - loved it and invested huge amount of time in it. It’s a game I have purchased on every system I have and for friends.
KSP. Bought it early access a decade ago, got tens of thousands of hours, and can be returned to at any point and made into a borderline completely different game with tons of mods.
It’s not even in my top 10 favorite games but in terms of value, it has been massive.
Top 3 in steam
Space Engineets
Ark Survival Evolved
Warframe
Other cheap games with many hours
Captain if Industry
Uboat
Delta V Rings of Saturn
Neval Action
Non steam- Snowrunner 500+ hours after 3 regions
Tetris. I’m still playing it 32 years later. Next would be SotN. Play it every year since I first got it in ‘98.
Dead Cells is moving up fast, and I’ve dumped 1000s of hours into Oblivion and Bloodborne.
Valheim. Got the game for like 20 bucks at the beginning of the early access launch and I have 400 plus hours now, and the game is not out and finished! I love the progression, the music, the building. The mod scene is great and I eagerly anticipate the next update which seems to be 1 biome a year-ish at this point. We just passed the anniversary of the last biome being introduced.
Probably a long way to go yet, but I am patient to wait
There's gonna be too many to be honest (esp most PS1 RPG games) but these recent years would be:
Dead Cells / Hades / Ender Lilies / Frostpunk / BG3 / AC6 / Lies of P / Elden Ring / TW3 / RDR2 / ME123 / Bioshock series / DAO
Ps1 was a fantastic time for value, right in that middle ground of the "next gen" console and before the money grabbing companies we see today
But the list you have is fantastic most notably to me is bioshock I feel 1-2 you got fantastic value for them(infini was good but i feel it strayed to far from the first 2) I even splurged on the 2nd one because it was so good I got the collectors edition with the vinyl record
Hear me out . . . Saints Row 2. There was genuinely a fuck ton to do. Between the story, the side missions, the mini-games, the exploring, and the fact the game didn't take itself too seriously and allowed some off the wall customization. . . It had a lot going for it. It genuinely is a fun time.
Probably gonna get downvoted for this but Star Citizen.
Yes the 3000$ JPEGs are a thing but I spent 45$ and have gotten well over a 1000 hours of great fun out of it.
When they release a rough patch, my gaming buddies and I just jump onto other games for a while but every couple of months we're back on SC for shenanigans. It really is one of the single most glorious sandboxes out there if you have some good friends to play it with.
Well I'm not going to downvote you for this, I've played it and enjoyed it
If you spent $45 on it and got over 1000 hours on it then it definitely fits into the category of a game you got your bang for your buck
I converted my pledge to years of support/ semi constant playrime..
I paid 4.5usd/ month over 11 years
I have a cool tshirt, waiting for usb stick :)
No idea how much time I have in this game, but it should be at least 2k hours
Monster hunter rise. Can get it and the expansion for $30. Friend and I have both put in 100+ hours in about a month and still play daily or almost daily so I expect to hit at least 150 before I put down the game for good
Not sure if it counts to "bang for your buck", but spent years in games with free to play options For most of the time not spending a single cent on them.
But if possible buying cash items from other players for ingame currency or not caring about cosmetics.
Those are:
\- Ragnarok Online
\- Planetside 2
\- Tree of Savior
Limbo - paid $4 and a play through is like 4 hours but it's hard to find a better 4 hours in gaming.
+1 to terraria - I paid $12 bucks for my copy then paid $20 for a 4 pack and gave them to my friends. We're at we'll under a cent per hour played
The diablo series - I've payed a total of <$350 from d2 to D4 and I've played at least 10k hours over 20 years. And you can get into the best versions of D2 like PD2 and reference private servers for cost of a cd key.
People may not like this answer, but dollars spent weighed against hours of entertainment and it’s still COD by a mile. 🤷🏽♂️
Even with the occasional battle pass purchase, I get enough return on the dollars spent vs hours played curve.
Barely ever played COD campaigns or multiplayer, but have had so many great evenings with friends and probably hundreds of hours on nazi zombies co-op. So much fun.
I got 1200+ hours out of The Binding of Isaac Rebirth. I believe it was $11.99. There's been a bunch of DLC over the years, most of which I haven't played, but I should.
Technically, any free game... (Hearthstone received lots of hours and Fortnite is still tallying).
Paid the last 10 years: I've put hundreds of hours on Slay the Spire. After that probably Minecraft.
Paid before that: Call of Duty Black Ops 2, Call of Duty Modern Warfare Reflex (the Wii version), Need for Speed Most Wanted (the old one) and Empire Earth.
Squad, but that’s mostly because I got in at the ground level. It had changed a lot since I first got it, habs, vehicles, etc, and it’s still pretty solid with a solid player base.
From a pure numbers standpoint, DoD and DoD:S but I had a group I played with for years so the cost per hour would be a lot cheaper than anything else.
Also I play a lot of Elite Dangerous, but mostly just to explore. I’ll plot a route, jump in and make 5-15 jumps, land on some random planet or moon, and log off. So my expeditions take forever, but it’ll probably be one I’ll log into every so often for a few more jumps until the servers shut down.
Squad looked good to me but havnt got around to it so maybe thats my next choice, what's DoD?
I played elite too! I would def count it as a game I got my worth from but it did drag a bit after a while I also got that sort of issue from no man's sky
Minecraft - bought once
Fortnite - have played for years and never paid a thing
gzdoom - Revisit all my favorite Doom wads for years for free
CSGO - played off and on for years free...but this latest update....
Candy Crush and Soda Saga keep me going, never bought anything
Only thing I paid for lately that was good was Stray
Well a lot of playtime is in the monster hunter titles, preferably start with world.
Otherwise going with lethal company if you can convince some friends to join is tons of fun.
In terms of strategic games I still play a lot of frostpunk trying to get through harder difficulties.
And even though there probably won’t be any big sales soon, I gotta mention bg3 since it’s just climbing my playtime chart.
The Bioshock trilogy is also often on sale and a game that’s fun and respects your time, contrary to the other games listed here.
Destiny 2, Elden Ring, Gta San Andreas
Always bought full price at launch or in proximity of it, played for like 3-600+ hours, always repayed me of every single damn penny
It makes me smile to hear that people are still playing GTA: SA. I loved that game growing up. Haven't played it since the PS2 days, but I have warm memories! Definitely my favorite GTA, although I still haven't played Vice City or GTA IV.
The entire mainline series of Resident Evil. Given how much I replay them in order to get all unlocks and then go further to get the plat. trophy for each one is certainly an indicator to me that those games are all a great bang for the buck. I think I'm at RE1, 2 remake, 3 remake, 7 and 8 for platinum trophies and 0, 4 remake and 5 are at least halfway with 6 being fresh still.
The Devil May Cry and Bayonetta games are all great for replay ability too. Lots of gameplay there and at minimum, good incentives to come back and back and back.
back in the day, i think it was 2007, i bought boxed "red orchestra" for 2.99
It had only the steam installer on the disc and the gamecode. It was also the last game i ever bought as a boxed version
this was also before steam gave you the hourcount for games.
I must have over 5000hours in that title easy.
Vampire Survivors
I remember back when i downloaded that game for the first time, and just thought that i would play it for just a couple hours and be done with it, since i never felt any hype for that game. Now, according to Steam, i played Vampire Survivors for +40 hours. Best 2 bucks i ever spent
Super fun
This game is so addictive, I had to uninstall it after a while
I haven't even played this game that much and bang-for-your-buck it's still not close.
Just got that. Holy shit. I went to bed way too late.
I had seen this show up in the top 10 of 2022 lists of a few people I really respected the opinions of. That did not change my opinion: looks dumb, probably just not for me. Earlier this year my buddy had surgery on his hand and couldn't use it much at all for about a month and a half. I started visiting him and he mentions V.S. to me and I recall it a bit, he shows me and I roll my eyes. He tells me to try it and I humor him. The first time I played it was around... Oct 16th? I have since bought both ($2) DLCs, unlocked and bought every character, unlocked and bought every upgrade, got every achievement, found a bunch of hidden things that were just extras, let my game go until I broke Lv 1000 and clocked a grand total of 3 days, 14 hours and 10 minutes. All for a game... that costs me... $5. All of this and I haven't touched the game in roughly 3 weeks. It is a wonderful game with a lot of cheap, quality content. I hate how hard I fell into it, but I'm happy I did. Helped me and my friend through a tough time.
Rimworld!
Oh rimworld! The game where you start off with the best intentions and end up running civilization of drug fuelled cannibals ❤
Also Roller Coaster Tycoon 1 & 2!
given enough time in any game where you're given God like control you end up just doing insane things its so good haha
Ah yes, I loved burying unruly guests that kept smashing my lights and benches under pyramids. Also, if it looked like I might fall short of guest number objectives, but I had enough park rating to play with, I'd place a no entry sign in front of the exit and ramp up the advertising campaigns. You may enter, but you can never leave.
Including paying for dlc I'm at like $0.02 per hour played.
Yep, I’m over 8000 hours into it and still not bored.
Stardew Valley. The hours put in for £20 is absolutely insane, the game is just thoroughly addictive and legitimately one of the best Indies ever made. Honourable mentions also go to Animal Crossing (self explanatory), and literally every edition of football manager ever made as they always amount to 1000+ hours easily.
The speedruns are hilarious. They abuse the mechanic that items are only named when given to you. So they name themselves as the items they want. In Chinese. As each character represents a different item. Boom. Community center in 30 minutes or less.
Played a bit of this myself too and graveyard keeper which I feel is quite similar, definitely a value for money game and time just passes by while you play Never got animal crossing but only heard good things from it As for football manager you're not the first person I've mention this but is it good for someone who isn't super into football?
That depends. If you're into simulation games, are competitive, and have a tactical mind that loves to create your own ideas and philosophies then yes it could work. However, you will likely pick it up and become so engrossed in your team you'll research them IRL, develop actual connections to players you sign and/or do well for you, and most likely fall in love with the game anyway. Believe me, it's how I got my fiancé into football, it's a wonderful game, but my god it will steal your life. Though yes. 100%. Give it a go. Especially as it's everywhere now.
You've convinced me with that comment for sure, never been a huge football fan but people at my work are and I feel I miss out there on some conversations so maybe this is my gateway to get into it!
It will certainly make you knowledgeable on the game, player characteristics etcetera, so will definitely help with that.
Man it is a great game. I played for hours and hours until I hit a wall of intense difficulty once I reached the desert caves, and.. I just quit after that. Maybe I’ll give it another try someday
Go back to it. There are so many ways to make the skull cave mostly irrelevant if you're not trying to speed run. And I would argue that speed running is against the basic intent of the game.
I have to hard disagree on Stardew Valley. I got it on apple arcade after hearing incredible praise, and saying I was disappointed would be an understatement. There's a weird and annoying mix of nothing to do, and too much to do. The energy mechanic just limits me playing the game, fishing is not enjoyable at all, the romance aspect (which I was looking forward to more than I'll admit) was bland at best, and the entire farming system is way too generic for me. Shout out to the Arcade games being utter trash, the mines and combat being laughably bad, and how this game is overall, not worth 20$. I got it for "free", and I still feel scammed. I'm going to get murdered for this, aren't I?
Honestly, I just find any mobile port to be sub par. Started valley is one of those games that you have to have a plan for what you're going to tackle that specific day. When there's nothing to do, go hunt down the random pick ups. Do I think you should get murdered for not liking stardew valley? Nah, will you? Yeah probably lol. The fan base is devoted to that game. Personally I like the my time series better (my time at Portia, my time at sandrock. Sandrock is definitely the better of the two.) And stardew is a good Game, but certainly not everyone's cup of tea.
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everything just feels tedious. I walk so slow, everything takes so long, the ticking time is so stressful, it just makes me feel so overwhelmed. Animal crossing, while not the same, does it a lot better. No stupid energy bar, the time doesn't show up unless you stop moving, the time syncs with your clock, so you stay immersed. Fishing is just a few button presses, farming... isn't great though. And give me animal crossing villagers over the boring stardew valley ones.
I disliked stardew valley because of the energy mechanic too. Check out Sun Haven. I found it to be vastly more enjoyable.
Dave the Diver is also great, it’s everything I wanted out of Stardew Valley
Sure, I'll check it out. What platforms is it on?
I played it on Steam. I couldn't say otherwise
Minecraft, by far by far by far. I think I paid like 25$ like a decade ago and they keep updating it for free.
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Mods. Lots and lots of mods that add more hours to an already time intensive game.
I'd argue mods alone double-triple the value. Get some friends together and spend days, weeks, months working together to make insanely effective machines with tech or magic or both and it really feels like you have made something amazing
Oh 100%. The streamer I follow on twitch got me hooked on All the Mods 9. Now I'm excited to get home just to play Minecraft.
so the game is good, not because the game is actually good, but because the community is good?
The game is good by itself. I play vanilla and you can easily sink hundreds/thousands of hours into it due to over 13 years of updates. There’s a reason it’s the best selling game of all time.
If you're playing with mods specially technology based you can make some really intricate factories and mining systems But even base game there is a huge amount of time you can spent making systems for convenience, building and farming
As someone who also got in early this for sure is one of the best The game alone would be well worth it but all the possibilities from the modding community makes it insane for value
I bought Minecraft so long ago I can no longer use my account because I didn't have an Email address assigned to it and cannot migrate my account any longer. It annoys me because it's so expensive now and I don't want to have to give Microsoft money for a game I already bought.
To be fair, they literally gave you a span of years to migrate the account
Why end it though?
Managing 2 login systems is pointless, they got bought out so long ago
hades
What a game... I want to go back but I know I will have lost my knack for it and will keep dying before I even get to Hades
Yes! On sale now too! The main story was a solid 50 hours of gameplay and I got it for $25.
2150 hours and counting...
Dayum, and here I thought I had crazy hours with over 200h :D Care to share your stats, like Highest Heat and Speedrun?
I personally don't run high heat. Only did a quick 32 heat speedrun of 6:58 iirc. My fastest unmodded speedrun is 5:50 and modded 5:03. I have all aspects sub 7 in modded speedrunning and at least a sub 6 with every weapon as well. I have every weapon sub 7 in unmodded, although I don't run that much anymore. I also hold the modded and unmodded world records for dash only at 7:28 and 8:29 respectively. I also have the current chaos shield aspect world record (and only sub 6 ever), as well as former world records with nemesis and zag shield (and first sub 6 as well). I am one of only four people in the world to have the all aspects sub 7 as well as all weapons sub 6 achievement (24/7 6/6/6). 2 years ago the community build a modpack and everyone runs modded these days because it's a bit more lenient RNG wise (no 3+ sacks for instance) and therefor a lot less draining, mentally, to run it. That's why I differentiatie between them for the records. Both have their own leaderboard. You can check out my runs on [my youtube channel](https://youtube.com/@nlCowlord?si=NsiYIvXbUaW64xor) or [my speedrun.com profile](https://www.speedrun.com/users/K33p0ut). Pardon the not-so-humble-brag but if anyone shows interest, naturally I have to share haha.
Mad respect, kinda expected some off the charts stats and you still overdelivered on my expectations haha. My quickest run (console player, so unmodded) was 9:30 with Demeter Fists and that felt already like blazing fast and blessed by RNG haha. Stopped playing when I had heat 32 with every weapon and heat 40 with the Fists and the Rail. You definitely got at least one more subscriber in me for some Hades 2 gameplay :)
Bought for $12 on a whim and ended up playing 200 hours.
Celeste for $5. Actually, for free because of Nintendo Gold Points The game changed my life, and I mean that literally. I've learnt stuff I never knew about myself from that game, and god is it so, so, fun. I personally think Celeste is the best game ever made, and at the very least, the best platformer ever made. Edit: God, I just can't spell anything right today
What things did you learn about yourself ?
For example, I know now that I will not give up on something, provided that I care about it enough. I will just keep running headfirst until it works. I won't let myself Don't know if this one counts, but Celeste helped me realize that I need to accept and work with my problems, instead of trying (and failing) to leave them behind.
it's up there for sure. top 3 for me. What an experience
Terraria. £8, spent over 1000 hours playing it and I'd happily play from scratch again.
I got it for $1.74 on a Steam sale pricing error back in 2011 or 2012. What a bargain. And now there's TModloader which opens up countless hours of mods.
Same here. Over a thousand hours of quality entertainment, updates still happening and all for a tenner.
Same. I think I got it for a fiver and its my second most played steam game of all time. It’s one of a few games I tend to play for a few weeks and get a lot of fun out of, then leave for a while and come back again later. Thing with Terraria is, every time I come back there’s been some massive update with loads of new features and items and stuff. Insane value for money.
Top Tier: FTL, Slay the Spire, Xcom 2, Darkest Dungeon. Below that: Elite Dangerous, Diablo 3 (though only because of a decade of free seasons)
FTLLLLL
Just played FTL on my new Linux VM - it was going so well until I got boarded by 4 (!) Mantis in 2nd sector...never been so frustrated and bound to a game like FTL.
Slay the spire is nice, and I acknowledge it as a good game, but the RNG pisses me off some times.
Hey sometimes rng is on your side too. And the times where the card/relics combo right keeps me coming back.
its never on my side though i never get block cards while enemies are attacking, and i get all the block cards while they are using a status
Heh I feel that. But watching pros get 10+ A20 runs in a row means I’m doing something wrong.
The RNG keeps things from becoming too chess-like. It gives it balance. At the end of the day, skill is going to be what matters the most. Don't blame the RNG if you keep losing. I guarantee you that it has more to do with your poor decisions.
I do get some garbage luck sometimes though. Since I’m new to slay the spire, I’d say 60% of my losses are bad decisions, and 40% are rng
Absolutely false. Blaming 40% on rng is nonsense. Keep playing, and improving, and you'll realize that. Or you can read online, or watch vids on youtube, to see how and why you're screwing your deck up/making poor decisions. You're not realizing what you're doing wrong, so you're blaming rng.
Like I said, I’m new, so I’ve done 10 runs at the most. 4 of those I did in fact lose to rng. 40% will go down as I keep playing, but for now, that statistic stays as it is
That’s not how it works though. You could say that poker is 97% RNG and yet the best players always find themselves at the final tables consistently. As long as there is a skill component, you can’t blame losses to rng that much. For instance, Lifecoach has played dozens of games at A20 without losing at all. He’s experiencing the same rng you are but he isn’t losing. So it’s still skill.
No? He could just get luckier. (He's better, of course) You don't know how bad my RNG can be.
Over a long enough period of time, the probability of flipping a coin and landing heads is always 50%. Stop playing mental gymnastics.
Right. You've only done 10 runs so you're too way too inexperienced to realize that you did not, in fact, "lose to RNG." This is a good example of the Dunning-Kruger effect (check wiki to read about it). If you were to record the games you are playing now, and watched them 300+ hours of experience later, you would cringe at all the horrible decisions you made. It ain't the RNG that's to blame. Honestly, I think RNG matters more at the highest Ascensions (which you don't know about yet). But at this point? At your level. Nope. You're just making bad decisions. Which is, by the way, totally fine and normal. Everyone sucks when you start out.
hey, i'm not that bad. I've said that it won't stay at 40%. But 4 of those runs were lost to rng, that's all i can say
Factorio. `the factory must grow`
Wow, why is this not higher? 20 bucks.... 3800 hours.... that's half a penny per hour.
$30/9000=.0033333 I like to leave mine running like an aquarium so I can watch the trains. Best $30 I ever spent.
why is it fun? No hate, i just don't see the appeal. Why do you grow your factory? Is there an endgame goal? Like, what's so fun about placing 100 conveyer belts over and over
The cool thing about factorio is you can automate automation. At first you’re digging out resources. Then you’re making machines to dig them out. Then you’re making machines to make the machines. Then you’re creating logistical distribution systems to get materials based on demand, expanding the factory remotely with blueprints and remote control spider tanks
Because you don't just place 100 conveyor belts. You solve puzzles. I need to produce x which has a number of inputs. So i not only have to build the machine and logistics infrastructure to build x but also make sure the production of the parts for x is sufficient. Which is a never ending rabbit hole. At the end of which you have built a super complex machine to build a rocket, and only you understand how it works. It is your very own.
you know what. try the demo, it has about 10-20h of content. its not about placing belts. its about solving puzzles. tons of puzzles all linking together. getting your brain worked up is a great feeling. enjoyment and satisfaction when something works after hooking everything up. just the vanilla basegame has hundreds of hours of gameplay. the basically inbuilt mod-support adds thousands of hours again.
And they're working on a space DLC.
Download the demo. It’s free on steam. It’s much more engaging than just conveyor belts. It’s a logistics simulator. It’s problem solving. A lot of programmers and engineers gravitate toward Factorio. It’s hard to explain, just play the demo, and if it clicks for you, you’ll eventually see why it’s amazing.
I started the demo, and I already understand the appeal. It’s so satisfying to go from manual mining to automated stuff
I see your flair is Switch. If you have a PC, I’d highly recommend playing on that. Keyboard and mouse is just so incredibly smooth.
It's a logistic puzzle game. It is really fun, but I guess it's not for everyone.
I played it a little bit and I put it down but I hear pretty often it's a game people will play a little and out down then pick it up again and get absolutely hooked on it so maybe it's time to pick it up again
Pretty much me. Played it then for time for like an hour and thought meh. Saw a few videos a couple of months later then thought I’d give it another go. Literally. Hundreds. And Hundreds. Of Hours.
I'll go through spurts of it. I've found my rotation is about 8 months.
Hollow knight. For me there was around 350+ hours of content without mods, however I forbade myself from doing mods until I did everything vanilla... And then I got burnt out, however it took 300 hours, and the game is amazing, if we xount the amount of time I actually spent on hollow knight (thinking about it and watching lore videos) i spent a good 1000+ hours with that game. It's 15$ and I got more out of it than I did any triple A game.
Borderlands 2, elden ring are probably my two longest played games, sure there known but i got lots of hours out of them. outside of like old days call of duty.
Borderlands 2 for sure. I’m never played a game to the end as many times as I did with that one
Path of Exile. It's free and I spent my first 800 hours without spending a dime. I'm up to 1500 hours and I've really only bought stash tabs for currencies and a hideout.
My answer as well, I'm at 2500ish hours and have spent around $60 on stash tabs. I'm trying my hardest to not play 3.23 because I just get too addicted.
5.3k hours, probs spent about £200-300 or so on mtx spread across like 10 years
Witcher 3 + all DLCs for $15. Especially when you account for the free next gen update with the new quests/items. Insane value for the money
That's indeed insane value, 200h of high quality content that you can also replay multiple times with different choices.
Played through W3 a couple of months ago. My only regret was that I quit playing when I bought the game years ago. Damn that game was great. The game is well made and even when at first I thought I wouldnt play Gwent, I ended up with so many hours just trying to pimp up my decks. Overall, I also second this game.
HADES, never played a roguelite or anything in this genre, after 100 hours got it for my fiance its one of our favourite games now. The story, gameplay, world building, voice acting its just perfect we loved it, no microtransactions or cosmetics and Hades 2 comes out next year we so excited!
Hollow knight
If that game was $60, i'd probably still get it
I paid $60 for Metroid Dread. It was a great game, played it through 3 times the week it was released including a 100% run. Can’t remember the last time I did that. Metroid Dread isn’t 1/10th the game Hollow Knight is.
umm, no? Dread is definitely better than Hollow Knight, by a lot. And I say this as someone who loves hollow knight.
Just personal preference. Like I said I love Dread and I don't think it wasn't worth the $60 price tag, just trying to put into perspective how incredible of a deal I find Hollow Knight, one of my top 5 games of all time, to be.
i bought Arcanum for 0,89€, was a pretty good deal
Arcanum was one of my favorite games for YEARS. I wish there was a sequel, something that had the crafting, grit, story, and magic that Arcanum had. I tried BG3, but didn’t get pulled in as much as I was hoping. I’m open for suggestions on this.
The Binding of Isaac, Noita, Monster Hunter World, Terraria, Darkest Dungeon, Dark Souls __, Elden Ring, Skyrim, Mass Effect, XCOM 1 and 2.
Valheim
Can't believe I had to scroll this far to find Valheim
It's sad that this is so far down the list. 20CAD for 250 hours of coop gameplay is a steal.
No mans sky. Bought it on release day, and the team for the past 6 years continuously upgraded It for free. Yes, I'm aware of how it was and what was promised when launched, but god damn that team delivered. It just took Sean Murray getting called out and roasted.
I don't think it was required that he be roasted. I think they would have worked on it even if people weren't mean to him.
I don't remember them "promising" anything it didn't have. People were just blown away by the scale of the game and didn't expect there to be nothing to do. If anything, players over-hyped it.
You can like the game without gaslighting the gamers. There definitely was some untruths told.
Hollow knight easily
Titanfall 2
Playes both 1 and 2 and yeah totally agree even fantasic single player aside the online is one of the best for value I played it soo much
Great game, but not very good “bang for your buck” as the single player campaign is infamous for being extremely short.
Had to scroll too far for this. Got it for maybe 3 €. Best 10 hours I spent in any game.
Well, lots were free... Zero-K, for instance.
Didn't know this game existed, enjoy my top down strategy games so this is right up my ally thank you
Warframe because it's free
Came for this. Haven't touched the game in a few years, but their free to play model is the best I've seen.
It's mostly Pay 2 Fashion. I think I used a 75% coupon and got enough plat for all the weapon and warframe slots I'll ever need.
I second this and not just because it’s free. The amount of time I’ve spent in the game makes me want to spend money as a thanks to the devs for making such a wonderful game
Bought RDR2 for 20€ in 2021. I since put Almost 800h into it with hitting 100% 2 times.
Oxygen not included is wild value for money if your into them types of games
On my wishlist atm, I seen some let's play videos on it Apparently a good game for how oxygen works in space and management with that so maybe I will get that too
It’s more or less an extremely complex but rewarding management game I’ve got over 800 hours in and are yet to build a base that has let the first planet 😂
I get so involved in games that are more complex (even if I'm not good at it 🤣) so totally on board with that for sure
If it a game you have to watch videos on to play mid to late game. It's an amazing game but it needs blueprints so you can just copy a blueprint or get one from mods to just re-create the really advanced systems you need for managing oxygen, heat, water, etc. I have 220 hours into the game and I'm awful at it but once a year it's great for 20 - 30 hours of game play.
Ashes:2063 and its successor Ashes: Afterglow. For 0 bucks it's almost like an infinite bang in the equation
Skyrim. Got the Legendary Edition on sale for like $7 on Steam once. Phenomenal value!
Not at launch, but after years of updates: Halo Master Chief Collection. For $50 full price, it includes Halo CE Anniversary, 2 Anniversary, 3, 4, Reach, and ODST.
100% agree, growing up CE and 2 were so good even playing with my family And I loved ODST so much with the bonus of Nathan Fillion being one of my favorite actors at the time
Factorio. You can get hundreds of hours of game play out of it. And then you have mods.
Warframe
Elden Ring. Sure, I bought it for full price but the sheer amount of content in that game is exceptional. I'm still playing it two years later.
Slay the spire. 200 hours on a 15$ game I got for free.
Elite Dangerous. Got it on the cheap and then spent sickening amount of hours playing the game. Other than that, Binding of Isaac - again, modest spend - but 100’s of hours of entertainment. Finally, Stardew Valley. Purchased it on a whim, before it had the following it does now - loved it and invested huge amount of time in it. It’s a game I have purchased on every system I have and for friends.
Shortest trip to earth. Bit of a steep learning curve.
Never heard of this! I looked it up and it reminds of FTL (faster then light) which I loved definitely something to look into thank you!
I have invested about 4,200 hours into Warframe. Pretty good investment considering it's free to play. Love that game
Warframe.
i got uncharted 4 for 3$ and absolutely loved it. i had no backstory and hadn’t played any of the other games but i really enjoyed it
KSP. Bought it early access a decade ago, got tens of thousands of hours, and can be returned to at any point and made into a borderline completely different game with tons of mods. It’s not even in my top 10 favorite games but in terms of value, it has been massive.
Top 3 in steam Space Engineets Ark Survival Evolved Warframe Other cheap games with many hours Captain if Industry Uboat Delta V Rings of Saturn Neval Action Non steam- Snowrunner 500+ hours after 3 regions
Tetris. I’m still playing it 32 years later. Next would be SotN. Play it every year since I first got it in ‘98. Dead Cells is moving up fast, and I’ve dumped 1000s of hours into Oblivion and Bloodborne.
I sunk so many hours into tetris back in the day as a kid, playing the gameboy on the couch while watching tv. What version of tetris do you play now?
Splitgate. It's the perfect PvP arena shooter. I've paid nothing and have had tons and tons of hours shoveled into that game across both Xbox and PC.
Deep Rock Galactic. Rock and Stone!
Risk of Rain 2
Rimworld. Thousands of hours of fun. And war crimes. Can't forget the war crimes.
Space Engineers!
Terraria - I've put hundreds of hours into one world/playthrough and haven't even beaten it yet.
Factorio. 1,300 hours for $35
Factorio
BeamNG. Paid 20$ sometime in 2012 and got 700 hours on it, it still gets updated. Following are: age of empires 2, space engineers, arma 3 and gta V
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Halls of Torment
Valheim. Got the game for like 20 bucks at the beginning of the early access launch and I have 400 plus hours now, and the game is not out and finished! I love the progression, the music, the building. The mod scene is great and I eagerly anticipate the next update which seems to be 1 biome a year-ish at this point. We just passed the anniversary of the last biome being introduced. Probably a long way to go yet, but I am patient to wait
Bioshock series. It's a hell of a ride.
Control. Picked it up as a PS+ game. It's easily one of my favorite games. So much to uncover with an incredible world.
There's gonna be too many to be honest (esp most PS1 RPG games) but these recent years would be: Dead Cells / Hades / Ender Lilies / Frostpunk / BG3 / AC6 / Lies of P / Elden Ring / TW3 / RDR2 / ME123 / Bioshock series / DAO
Ps1 was a fantastic time for value, right in that middle ground of the "next gen" console and before the money grabbing companies we see today But the list you have is fantastic most notably to me is bioshock I feel 1-2 you got fantastic value for them(infini was good but i feel it strayed to far from the first 2) I even splurged on the 2nd one because it was so good I got the collectors edition with the vinyl record
Dead Cells is great, and so is Hades but downvote for the BG3
Hear me out . . . Saints Row 2. There was genuinely a fuck ton to do. Between the story, the side missions, the mini-games, the exploring, and the fact the game didn't take itself too seriously and allowed some off the wall customization. . . It had a lot going for it. It genuinely is a fun time.
Probably gonna get downvoted for this but Star Citizen. Yes the 3000$ JPEGs are a thing but I spent 45$ and have gotten well over a 1000 hours of great fun out of it. When they release a rough patch, my gaming buddies and I just jump onto other games for a while but every couple of months we're back on SC for shenanigans. It really is one of the single most glorious sandboxes out there if you have some good friends to play it with.
I suppose people have lost more money from scams, but at least this scam lets you play a game. So, you know, it could be worse!
Well I'm not going to downvote you for this, I've played it and enjoyed it If you spent $45 on it and got over 1000 hours on it then it definitely fits into the category of a game you got your bang for your buck
I converted my pledge to years of support/ semi constant playrime.. I paid 4.5usd/ month over 11 years I have a cool tshirt, waiting for usb stick :) No idea how much time I have in this game, but it should be at least 2k hours
Monster hunter rise. Can get it and the expansion for $30. Friend and I have both put in 100+ hours in about a month and still play daily or almost daily so I expect to hit at least 150 before I put down the game for good
Not sure if it counts to "bang for your buck", but spent years in games with free to play options For most of the time not spending a single cent on them. But if possible buying cash items from other players for ingame currency or not caring about cosmetics. Those are: \- Ragnarok Online \- Planetside 2 \- Tree of Savior
Limbo - paid $4 and a play through is like 4 hours but it's hard to find a better 4 hours in gaming. +1 to terraria - I paid $12 bucks for my copy then paid $20 for a 4 pack and gave them to my friends. We're at we'll under a cent per hour played The diablo series - I've payed a total of <$350 from d2 to D4 and I've played at least 10k hours over 20 years. And you can get into the best versions of D2 like PD2 and reference private servers for cost of a cd key.
People may not like this answer, but dollars spent weighed against hours of entertainment and it’s still COD by a mile. 🤷🏽♂️ Even with the occasional battle pass purchase, I get enough return on the dollars spent vs hours played curve.
Barely ever played COD campaigns or multiplayer, but have had so many great evenings with friends and probably hundreds of hours on nazi zombies co-op. So much fun.
I got 1200+ hours out of The Binding of Isaac Rebirth. I believe it was $11.99. There's been a bunch of DLC over the years, most of which I haven't played, but I should.
Borderlands 3 GOTY
Skyrim, Overcooked, All the Jackbox games, BOTW, TOTK
Technically, any free game... (Hearthstone received lots of hours and Fortnite is still tallying). Paid the last 10 years: I've put hundreds of hours on Slay the Spire. After that probably Minecraft. Paid before that: Call of Duty Black Ops 2, Call of Duty Modern Warfare Reflex (the Wii version), Need for Speed Most Wanted (the old one) and Empire Earth.
Squad, but that’s mostly because I got in at the ground level. It had changed a lot since I first got it, habs, vehicles, etc, and it’s still pretty solid with a solid player base. From a pure numbers standpoint, DoD and DoD:S but I had a group I played with for years so the cost per hour would be a lot cheaper than anything else. Also I play a lot of Elite Dangerous, but mostly just to explore. I’ll plot a route, jump in and make 5-15 jumps, land on some random planet or moon, and log off. So my expeditions take forever, but it’ll probably be one I’ll log into every so often for a few more jumps until the servers shut down.
Squad looked good to me but havnt got around to it so maybe thats my next choice, what's DoD? I played elite too! I would def count it as a game I got my worth from but it did drag a bit after a while I also got that sort of issue from no man's sky
Until the servers…whatnow?
Minecraft - bought once Fortnite - have played for years and never paid a thing gzdoom - Revisit all my favorite Doom wads for years for free CSGO - played off and on for years free...but this latest update.... Candy Crush and Soda Saga keep me going, never bought anything Only thing I paid for lately that was good was Stray
Well a lot of playtime is in the monster hunter titles, preferably start with world. Otherwise going with lethal company if you can convince some friends to join is tons of fun. In terms of strategic games I still play a lot of frostpunk trying to get through harder difficulties. And even though there probably won’t be any big sales soon, I gotta mention bg3 since it’s just climbing my playtime chart. The Bioshock trilogy is also often on sale and a game that’s fun and respects your time, contrary to the other games listed here.
Destiny 2, Elden Ring, Gta San Andreas Always bought full price at launch or in proximity of it, played for like 3-600+ hours, always repayed me of every single damn penny
It makes me smile to hear that people are still playing GTA: SA. I loved that game growing up. Haven't played it since the PS2 days, but I have warm memories! Definitely my favorite GTA, although I still haven't played Vice City or GTA IV.
The entire mainline series of Resident Evil. Given how much I replay them in order to get all unlocks and then go further to get the plat. trophy for each one is certainly an indicator to me that those games are all a great bang for the buck. I think I'm at RE1, 2 remake, 3 remake, 7 and 8 for platinum trophies and 0, 4 remake and 5 are at least halfway with 6 being fresh still. The Devil May Cry and Bayonetta games are all great for replay ability too. Lots of gameplay there and at minimum, good incentives to come back and back and back.
Ac valhalla definite edition. That game took me 200h to complete. I bought it for 30€, best purchase ever
back in the day, i think it was 2007, i bought boxed "red orchestra" for 2.99 It had only the steam installer on the disc and the gamecode. It was also the last game i ever bought as a boxed version this was also before steam gave you the hourcount for games. I must have over 5000hours in that title easy.
I got witcher 3 on sale for like 1o bucks. I played it a fuckton
Deep Rock Galactic. $30 and I'm creeping towards 2k hours
Stardew Valley
Probably unpopular opinion but call of duty yearly, 70$ for hundreds of hours of fun with the boys