Linux

The multiplayer classics:

• Counter-Strike 2
• Dota 2

Some single player gems:

• Black Mesa (Half-Life remake)
• Half-Life 2
• Soma

Probably check out Batman series, they run quite well on Linux, just been working my way through them myself. Otherwise Red Dead Redemption 2 I found difficult to put away once I started.

Most games will run fine through Steam, as long as you check of the compatibility box in steam settings. Otherwise there is Heroic Launcher, and Lutris as different launchers.

Team Fortress 2 has native support and is very addictive and has a large active community despite the game being over 15 years old now.

...just don't play in casual servers. It's filled with bots

Here's a couple based on the vibe you're feeling. You'll need some compatability stuff like play on Linux to play some of them.

• RPG:Witcher 3
• City builder: Cities Skyline (one is better because of mods).
• Factory builder: Factorio
• Side scroller: Cuphead
• Historical conquer map: Crusader Kings 3
• Total War: Medieval 2
• Explore/Adventure: Subnautica (good with controller)
• Puzzle: Manifold Garden / Portal
• Rougelike: Hades
• Rougelike/Cardplay: Slay the spire

I've completed all of these and had a blast with all of them. :)

I think other peoples suggestions are great already, so I want to contrast them.

I'll suggest some of the good old free software games that got me into Linux way back before steam even ran on it:

• Cave Story
• Super Tux Kart
• Battle for Wesnoth
• 0 A.D.

• Mahjongg
• Tetris
• Chess
• Checkers

Like other posts, Factorio. You will lose sleep. Set timers...

Proton and Vulkan make most things easy-ish if you are using Steam. Note that there is a little properties button on the game page that you probably need to use to force it to use Proton so it will install. Proton DB is your friend. Lutris + Wine is pretty good too. Proton is just Wine with enhancements.

You may find Helldivers a lot of fun too, especially if you can play with friends. It is suitably ridiculous in the best way and is sort of human vs aliens/robots. All of the humans (us) play on co-op teams to bring Democracy to the universe. There is a game master from the company that makes it that is leading the war against us. Like I said, suitably ridiculous. Most of my friends are playing it nightly and it will be a big part of our LAN party this weekend.

Going on a limb here but... it's basically the other way around, which games CAN'T you play on Linux. Basically games with actively prevent it via bad anticheat or DRMs.

Otherwise check ProtonDB.

My favorites being Baldur's Gate 3 at the moment but also, not addictive but really excellent Half-life: Alyx and more casually Viewfinder.

It depends on what kind of game you like. Here are 2 video games I play on Linux:

• Minecraft is a sandbox game with a survival aspect, where you can be as creative as you want while still having fun challenges. There are many different playing styles. It costs about $30 and requires a Microsoft account to play legally. Minecraft: Java Edition officially runs on Linux. Minecraft: Bedrock Edition (the one with console cross-play) does not run on Linux by any official methods.

• Mindustry is a techy/industrial game, I've heard some say it's like if Factorio was a tower defense. It is free and open-source (under GPLv3), requires no account.

For purchasing or acquiring games, I'd recommend Steam. It has lots of games and many of them work on Linux. There's also Heroic Games Launcher for Epic and GOG games.

With Lutris + Wine-ge you can play practically any game you want. My recommendation is the games I have enjoyed playing since I got my PC a few months back, in no particular order.

1. God of War
2. Spiderman Remastered + MM
3. Horizon Zero Dawn + FW
4. Guardians of the Galaxy
5. Forza Horizon 5
6. Armored Core 6
7. Maybe Hogwarts Legacy if you're into the gameplay hint mash RT

N++ is a very fun puzzle platformer. Vvvvvvv is a very fun puzzle platformer with cool music Hades is an excellent isometric fighter game with cool music 2048 is a very simple puzzle game that's very very replayable. It's like solitaire with simple addition Unreal tournament is three gold standard first person action game period. The npc enemies are no fucking joke and is fun and fast

If you're going to be on Steam, and become a gamer, the other suggestions over here are good.

However, if games aren't really your thing, and you just want a casual gaming experience, then I'd suggest a few Linux native games, that exist in all distro repos: gweled, ltris, lbreakout2, lgeneral, frozen-bubble, gnome-mahjongg, gnome-tetravex, xye, kobo-deluxe, aisleriot, powermanga, open-invaders, supertux, pingus, berusky, opentyrian (requires data from the dos game, which are also free to download elsewhere).

Then there are some more heavy hitters (still native linux games), like freeciv-gtk3, opencol, 0ad, tuxracer, lincity-ng, simutrans etc.

Dead Cells. Bloody love it.

Surprised no one has said it, but Minecraft. I love it as much now as I did when I was 12. It can be as simple or as complex as you want it, especially if you start playing with mods. Then there's servers such as Hypixel which for all intents and purposes are an entirely separate game in and of themselves.

I'm sure part of it is nostalgia, some of my fondest gaming memories were playing Minecraft with friends, but I still find it to be an excellent way to relax.

(Tangentially related, anyone else remember when waiting 3 months for 1.2.5 > 1.3 was an absurdly long update time for the game? Different times.)

The best game of all time: dungeon crawl stone soup. Open source dungeon crawler that has been developed for 20 years. It is free and you can play in your browser. And since deaths are permanent, it is an easy game to walk away from since game sessions tend to be short (because it is easy to die).

https://crawl.develz.org/

Another classic is Dwarf Fortress.

Stellaris on Steam has a fully-native Linux executable.

PowerWash Simulator

Dwarf Fortress.

But you need to read the wiki :)

Download steam to buy and play games first: steampowered.com

If you want addictive, try Stardew Valley and Factorio. I think both have Linux-native releases on Steam. I've got 182 hours in Factorio. The factory must grow.

(edit) ah fuck I fell back into Factorio again

OSRS

FTL

3 free games I love

• RVGL is a classic racing game
• Beyond All Reason is a deep and complex RTS
• Brogue is a surprisingly accessable traditional roguelike.

"unciv" is a good FOSS Civ V clone! The gameplay is addicting and it runs on anything

Rain World