Not every game needs an endless depth of lore that only those without jobs or have other things that fill up their days can dive into. Stardew Valley is a farming simulator, it doesn’t need hundreds or thousands of years of history for you to study up on, and thank the dieties it doesn’t. It meets the prompt provided in the original post.

Not bagging on people who enjoy deep lore in games, you do you, but I only get about 1-3 hours a week to play so that shit is not for me anymore. I need a game I can very easily pick up, get some shit done, and be okay putting it back down again before not too much time is up.

A videogame that was made with complete love and devotion to the medium, made with talent and sincerity, and is a pinnacle of everything it stands, something that will stand the test of time…

And nobody mentioned Stardew Valley? I spent too long looking for it and didn’t find a single mention of it. Absolute mastery of its genre, an incredible amount of dedication spent by the developer listening to the fans, and I can’t imagine it not still holding up 10 years from now, or even 20 years from now.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is great, I love it, but there were so many performance issues with the game even with top tier hardware, and the game was borderline unplayable for others due to these issues. I have a little bias since my save didn’t sync across devices with the steam cloud and I have to start all over. Love the game, but I just can’t believe Stardew Valley isn’t even mentioned.