I’d happily take “fully co-op Elden Ring” (keep meaning to try the mod, tbf), and “Dwarf Fortress, but in 3D and you can play/explore/participate like Minecraft.

For some definitions of “play”, absolutely!

Epic would need to have a “import your games and achievements and saves from Steam” feature AND THEN ALSO have a much better performing app than they currently do, for me to convert. But years later and EGS is still a pretty awful user experience compared to Steam. There’s just no way.

NMS is super janky in spots… but it pulls off a whole lot of awesome things I can’t do anywhere else, so I tolerate all the junk and loading stutters and fading in geometry…

Dwarf Fortress, for me. Even the graphical one on Steam, I needed to watch YouTube videos to really start digging in to it.

I mean… 2023 is shaping up to be pretty dope so far. FF16, Pikmin 4, Diablo IV, Armored Core (assuming it’s good), Tears of the Kingdom…

Might’ve meant “material” progress, like “tangible” or progress that’s real and meaningful? “Materialistic” I think usually just means thinking about things you own rather than the quality of your life and relationships? Though saying it out now, I guess that works kind of… But I’ve only ever heard “materialistic” referring to people who only care about what someone owns rather than being a good person; never about video games or the kind of progress I think you’re wanting.

Anyway, lots of good suggestions here. I can’t add anything that meets all your qualifications; but if you are willing to dramatically break your install size requirement, I’ve been having a lot of fun lately with the Forza Horizon games (4 and 5) which are open-world racing/challenge games; but literally everything you do contributes to experience points and money you can use to upgrade and purchase new cars, and there are a lot of challenges which aren’t just races, there’s speed trials (how fast can you hit this one stretch of road), trick trials (how many jumps can you pull if in a minute) and so on.

But the install is like 65GB for FH4, and 150+GB for FH5… hundreds of high detail cars and massive open worlds, I guess… :(

I was really sad the day I completed the last Picross S game on Switch. I had run out. I was playing in bed to unwind my brain at the end of the day. Found a clown on Steam that’s decent, but my Steam Deck is too big to play lying down in bed comfortably. 😥

The only good outcome of the merger IMO is hopefully getting rid of Bobby Kotick. The fine devs across the company deserve better leadership and a safer working environment than they’ve had over the years under his frat boy reign.

But do I think Microsoft will eternally play fair with the acquisition? Not by a long shot.

I went through the same phase several years back when my child was born, and you’re right—games where you can pause any time are the only kind worth playing for several years after a new child.

I was VERY confused about Counter-Strike 2 having any kind of urban planning at all… and then I saw the screenshot better and worked it out. 😅

The issue, I imagine, is that there’s a community online who pays attention and cares about it, and we’re almost completely separate on the Venn diagram from a huge swathe of gamers out there who do all the preordering. 😩

Probably Minecraft. I have no way of checking, but I’ve played a LOT of that, just randomly getting the itch over the years and spending a few day here and there I’m sure adds up.

I really have enjoyed game-specific communities on Reddit in the past – Dragon Quest and Pokemon in particular; also the /tipofmytongue and /tipofmyjoystick were quite helpful. And /speedruns was super nice!

Also gardening and hot pepper growing; and since I live in Japan a place to discuss current events and life over here is also quite useful.