As a lifelong avid gamer, I have my favorite games and opinions to match. Below are reviews of games I've played in the past, and although it doesn't encompass every game I've ever played, hopefully you find them helpful or entertaining at the least!
While this page may not be entirely up to date, my other reviews may be viewed on my steam profile
Warframe
This recommendation comes with a major caveat: If you don't have a friend who has already made significant progress or are not willing to find a clan in game that can help you out with getting basic things, I cannot recommend this game.
I've been playing Warframe since late 2014. Since then I've seen the scope of this game broaden and broaden to an unimaginable degree. The gunplay and movement is unparalleled, there are countless options and ways to augment your kit, and truth be told this has one of the best free to play monetization models I've seen (albeit with a somewhat predatory coupon system that can be given randomly on login prompting users to pay money in a short amount of time). Warframe is a fantastic game to play. Don't need to look past my playtime to know that I believe this game is a fun experience.
That said, there's a reason for my caveat at the start. The systems are many, the modding system can be extremely confusing, and without someone who already knows the system to help, getting into the game can feel like an insurmountable wall. Getting basic mods from the friendly community to help get a basic kit together is almost a necessity to avoid feeling left behind. This game's scale has increased to a MASSIVE degree over the years and it's a daunting task to approach it solo.
Warframe is a fantastic game and definitely ranks up with my favorites, but new players will have a wall to climb when I had a slope. Just make sure to have someone that can offer a rope.
Cobalt Core
I started playing Cobalt Core shortly after its release last year and fell in love with it. While my playtime is easily dwarfed by many games in my library, I consider it to be one of my top 3 games that I played in the entirety of 2023.
The deckbuilding roguelike genre is really enticing to me, and the comedic banter between characters is among the best of all games I've seen. Speaking of characters, each character you decide to bring along on your journey dictate what cards can drop in a run, giving reason to bring along a variety of crew from run to run. Once you unlock more characters too through successful runs, the gameplay becomes more and more engaging as you figure out how to combine one character's cards with another's.
The story is minimal in this game, but I still enjoyed it. At a minimum you'll need to complete 18 runs, picking a character that's on the crew each time at the end, in order to achieve the ending. It forced me to use each character and figure out which ones were my favorite and the like.
Another highlight of this game is definitely the soundtrack as well. I purchased it and still listen to it on an almost daily basis. A lot of OSTs are intense, or sad, or whatnot, but this game leans heavily into purely beautiful and happy tones, even in boss fights.
I enjoyed my time with this game to the extent that I made an effort to get 100% of the achievements in it (which is no longer the case since they added daily runs).
Big Crystal.
Webfishing
Webfishing is a pretty chill game to hang out in, and don't let the name fool you, it is the best thing about this game, moreso than the fishing element itself in my opinion. I haven't played in a public lobby but this game is the perfect way to catch up with friends, and with the low price tag I was able to just gift it to everyone in my immediate friend group while still doing "something" as a low impact activity.
This game also doesn't shy away from more adult activities such as drinking (and some gambling with the scratch cards), making it feel like a more welcoming space to adult players as a lot of these types of games typically feel sanitized to be approachable by a younger audience. The inclusion of an 18+ option on the lobby also means that users can curate their own experiences which is much appreciated.
That said, this game lacks a certain amount of polish in my opinion. A lot of inputs aren't suppressed when you're in menus for example, and on top of that there's no sorting functionality for the menu. Each time I launch the game I have to open up the settings and simply save them to apply them again as well (It does save the changes I've made I just have to apply them after a relaunch). Additionally, while there are loads of cosmetics for characters, there is the limitation of only being able to be a cat or dog, which a good portion of the furry community would likely be drawn towards other species (Dragons, foxes, horses, etc; I myself like to represent myself with a kobold - LET ME YIP). I know this game is a small scale title with a good amount of charm but there's also a significant amount of potential here to expand upon and clean up.