I can second that, it‘s a good sim for what I can tell anyway. (Although also EA now, see OP‘s requirements)

it had a lot of backtracking which was annoying

…but very immersive on the treadmill, no? LOL

…I‘ll show myself out

You probably mean Dirt Rally 2, I meant the original DiRT 2, which is pretty arcade-y and easy.

(The one that had Games for Windows LIVE (yep lol))

I‘m happy for fans to get more, but the franchise never managed to grab me. And it‘s really hard to explain why since I don‘t have anything bad to say about the games I‘ve played. I guess they play it so safe that they‘re bland and unmemorable to me. Like it‘s less an engaging work of art and more a piece of homework by the book that‘s trying hard to be inoffensive and completely risk-averse to not upset the teacher.

But that’s just my opinion anyway, and not every game has to be for me.

Edit: There was no DLC bs in the games I‘ve played though, just complete games. I wanna explicitely praise that.

From all the racers I‘ve played, DiRT 2 and GRiD 2 are probably my favos, and Forza Horizon 4 is also really good. But the former two are EA now that Codemasters has been bought (although they weren‘t on release) and FH4 is delisted (and 30ish bucks anyway) so…

The rogue-lite (?) mode DLC is also surprisingly good, especially after you‘ve done the story missions once and can then ignore them and just try out weird stuff

Satisfactory

I think almost everyone knows this game. I‘m in phase 4 and about to start producing the needed items. All I‘m gonna say is that I would‘ve gone insane if not for community-made blueprints. My biggest gripes with the game are how awful it feels to build a train track, how dumb drones are (cause otherwise everyone would ditch trains, I reckon), and that the hoverpack doesn‘t have a built-in jetpack for when you‘re out of electrical grid range. All in all, I probably prefer this kinda game to be isometric/2D, it‘s finnicky to build a big factory in 3D, although more satisfying to then see it in 3D. I know this sounds negative but that’s just cause it’s quicker to list the negatives since there‘s too many positives - I did have a good time, as my 100+ hours thus far would suggest.

Horizon Chase Turbo

Putting the finishing touches on this one and, my God, get the Senna Forever DLC, it‘s the absolute best part of it! To anyone who doesn‘t know this game: It‘s an old-school racing game that runs at full 90 even on the Deck. I mean old old-school when racing games were 2D and scrolling, although this one is 3D it feels the same. It‘s nice to have a high fps racer on the Deck, so I recommend it. The aforementioned DLC gives it a 1st person camera and F1 racing, and it‘s a match made in heaven!

Glad to hear you‘re having a good time! That game really flew under a lot of people‘s radars. I hope more will give it a shot in the future.

That‘s hard to gauge since I haven‘t played Blasphemous or Mandragora and there certainly is some platforming but I can‘t say if it‘s to an extent you‘d tolerate or not. I personally haven‘t broken a sweat so far, it‘s only been some jumping over gaps and the odd breaking platform (essentially platforming on a mild timer) nothing precise if that helps?

I‘d say you have to do some mild platforming somewhat frequently though, at least in the parts I‘ve been.

It’s been nothing like Hollow Knight in that regard, I can promise that much.

I think you’ll like SnS then. It‘s about 80% Soulslike and 20% Metroidvania.

It‘s a game where you can tell that they played Dark Souls and thought „We really wanna make that as well.“ Armor‘s practically useless, you‘re just looking for the most OP rings and weapon movesets - just like in Souls games (magic is supposedly OP, but I wouldn’t know I‘m not playing a mage, I‘m a 2h kinda guy).

It‘s a game with lots of love and little budget, with lots of things to find and lots of extra things to fight if you look around.

This is all just my opinion being maybe 20% into the game so far, though.

Salt & Sanctuary

I‘ve finally decided to put my mind to Salt & Sanctuary which has been in my library for… a long time but it never grabbed me. Now I‘ve started a new character and I‘m following a guide, it feels more engaging and fun to me with more direction. The guide‘s crazy detailed and I‘m amazed someone sat down and typed all that out (screenshots incl.) for a - in my opinion - rather niche title. The only thing that bugs me is the animation update rate, the game can run at triple digit fps, it still looks and feels like 60.

Octopath Traveler

I‘ve also bought and started Octopath Traveler on Steam which I didn‘t want to at first since I a) have it on Switch already and b) like achievement hunting and boy does that game want you to turn every pebble for that. However, the music is so effing amazing (check out the title theme on YT or wherever) and the game so visually beautiful, I just needed the 60 fps and full res. I realized there‘s something very soothing for me in experiencing a jrpg story in pixelart. I regret nothing (yet).

Brilliant phrase lol

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Did the cat only try to kill you when it saw other cats or did it try to kill you at some point period? If the latter, how did you deal with that? Did that ever go away?

I… can‘t believe this is real, what in the condescending fuck is wrong with that idiot

Manually enabling a proton version did the trick, I was able to download it after! That was a way simpler fix than I anticipated, I wonder why the Deck behaves like this for this game only (from my library at least).

In any case, thanks a lot!

I‘ve completed Cyber Hook and I can‘t recommend it enough. Screw the story, the gameplay loop and movement is what it‘s all about. It‘s an absolute hidden gem, hands down. I strongly recommend everyone to give it a shot!

I‘ve also been playing some Horizon Chase Turbo and while I think it‘s pretty unique nowadays and runs great on the Deck, it‘s a bit too fast-paced for the small screen in the higher difficulty levels. Still recommend it though.

Lastly, I‘ve done some further quests in Assassin‘s Creed: Unity and I remember reading here that the movement reached perfection in this title and while it might be the best movement in the series (I dunno), I think the movement’s absolutely terrible lol, and the combat is worse still. Everything is so inprecise and slow, the character jumps to ledges I didn‘t even think about and takes ages to climb even when pursued or flatout refuses to climb something for five seconds… And I still don‘t know why AC had to turn into these permanent tavern brawls, stealth seems to be impossible, I‘m now resorting to just smoke bombing and cleaning up every fight. I do enjoy the sightseeing and world but man… I liked Origins more as a game. I won‘t pretend like I‘m an AC god, but other entries in the franchise clicked with me more (2, Black Flag, Origins).

Fuck Microsoft for buying studios for billions upon billions and then going for layoffs after layoffs, but…

Including its prototype phase, Everwild had been in development for over a decade, with anonymous developers indicating they had struggled to nail down a clear direction for the title, even after a recent reboot of the project.

Quite understandable to me to axe a project that hasn‘t been going anywhere for a decade, only this part is understandable though.

Off-topic but your user name made me chuckle, good one