Lies of P with a side if Alan Wake Remastered

Tunic. I feel it is overhyped to the point people will think there’s a huge Fez-like gameplay twist, but there’s not.

It’s just a really really good Zelda-like that uses an unreasonably charming illustrated manual to successfully spark the sense of wonder/discovery/mystery of playing games as a kid in the 90s.

And again I’ve really over sold it there. It’s not even nostalgic - it just gates knowledge in a fun/creative way

CrossCode. It’s a 2D ARPG with a good story and well-designed world with puzzles, exploration, and combat.

PlateUp, it’s surprisingly addicting. Very similar core loop to Unrailed but more much more open-ended.

Runs well on the Steam Deck but really chugs battery for what it is, even on low settings.

Plays better with a controller; the keyboard controls are kind of weird.

Subserial Network. A weird little pseudo-indie game with an odd retro-futuristic vibe. It mixes cyberpunk post-humanism with web 1.0 nostalgia. You’re part of an organization that deals with subversive synthetics, and your task is to locate a leader of this movement by infiltrating their online spaces. The game presents you with a handful of windows (email client, browser, lo-fi media player, etc.) and the gameplay mostly consists of reading to find clues to piece together and keywords to search.
I greatly enjoyed the vibe and world-building, and was pleasantly surprised by some of the reveals. The ending was a little abrupt for my tastes, but overall this has been one of my favorite gaming experiences this year.
I highly recommend it if you enjoy cyberpunk (the literary genre), early internet nostalgia, or epistolary storytelling.

FFXIV. Somehow managed to convince my entire immediate friend group to start playing. It’s been a blast.