Factorio. I don't even need a second pick
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Yeah I mean you're not gonna have time to eat or sleep, let alone play an entire other game.
Ah, but would you keep Workshop access?
If so, Garry's Mod is almost cheating. There's a bit of everything in it.
So that and Warframe. I picked up WF ten years ago and it's still in my top ten recently played games. Though I have a love/hate relationship with the Metagame it turned into, it still remains.
Tabletop Simulator might be cheating too
RetroArch ;)
That's an android app, why waste a steam game on that when you can get it out of steam?
I get the point you’re making, but I still wanted to point out that RetroArch is multi platform, not just Android.
Fallout 4 and Civ VI
Easy
So I'm going for longevity. These two definitely wouldn't be my first choices for top games.
Elder Scrolls Online and Minecraft. There is enough story, social, and creativity that I would hope it works out.
Once Baldurs Gate 3 gets solid modding, and assuming modding is allowed, that takes a spot.
Slay The Spire for replay value and Rocket League for "pvp" itch.
Satisfactory & Mass Effect
Mass effect legendary edition is one game with 3 games inside, so does that still count?
Factorio.
Second game: Factorio, with mods enabled.
Deep Rock Galactic and Pinball FX3. I'm tempted to put Baldurs Gate 3, but once you've done a number of runs, I feel like you'll be done with it.
Dwarf Fortress and Dota 2
Rimworld and M&B Bannerlords
I really wanted to fit Crusader Kings 3 in there, but I think ultimately these two cover all the bases, and have an amazing modding community to keep it fresh and interesting.
Skyrim and Half-Life 2
Slay the Spire and Noita
The Long Dark and Valheim
For longevity?
Satisfactory and Elden Ring.
Honestly, something like Call of Duty or fortnite might be nice too. I haven't played in years but the skill ceiling is very high so it could at least keep me occupied for a very long time.
TF2 and TF|2
Binding of Isaac (flash) Binding of Isaac Rebirth
Literally thousands of hours of entertainment, pretty much
Warframe is a good one. After 4000 hours I got burnt out of some of the things it does poorly and haven't played in a year, but overall it's fun with crazy new content on a regular basis for free.
Terraria has far more depth than I ever expected, and way more than that added since I last played. This game can sustain a player for ages.
I would say Satisfactory but I did actually get tired of it for a while. Itching to go back with the 1.0 release though. I love it but the two above have better longevity.
Baldur's Gate 3, and um... Warthunder. Maybe Elite Dangerous instead of Warthunder. But why can't I play the $650 worth of other games that I bought and barely played?
Dwarf Fortress and No Man's Sky. I wanted to say Satisfactory instead, but felt it might be too close to Dwarf Fortress in nature and that would make it hard to want to play either game if I was burned out from one of them.
Factorio and project zomboid
Dead Cells and Beat Saber. I don't know that I'll ever tire of dead cells, and beat saber my husband and I love to play together, trading off after three songs like we used with DDR when we were kids
No man’s sky and palworld
Funny how there's a solid lack of quadruple "A" games here in the comments.
What do you mean i love paying $60 for a game and then being asked to buy a $20 dlc and new cosmetics cough cough EA, Ubisoft Microsoft cough excuse me. Indie games will always have a special place in my steam library and its in recently played tab.
Slay the Spire would be the first slot where a lot of others could fill the second.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
Octopath Traveler 2
the talos principle 1 and automobilista 2
Battletoads and Frog wars.
Stardew Valley (maybe not that if I can just use the Android version), Hyperbolica, Portal 2?
Skyrim and Witcher 3. Shoutouts to Baldurs Gate and Witcher 2, but the latter is far too short for me to want it on my "you can only play this" list, it's quirky but there's something special as hell about it for me. I've played it through about 15 times.
Vermintide 2 and Tekken 8.
Both games have high skill ceilings, so I could probably spend years (and have) playing both and still finding ways to improve or optimize gameplay.
Beam.NG would be one just because it covers nearly every driving discipline and the other would probably be Cyberpunk. It’s not even that Cyberpunk is my favorite, but it has so much content in it at this point that it would keep me busy for years.
DayZ and minesweeper. DayZ has probably the best replayability over any other game I've played. On top of that it's also the game that gives me adrenaline rush like no other game has. DayZ is highly underrated and I highly recommend it in 2024 as it just keeps on giving.
Nioh 2 and Satisfactory