All these years of reading about you playing this game and I finally decided to see what the fuss is all about. I'm downloading it tonight.
Outside of Solitair, I find virtual card games hard to get into, but full respect for the dedication!
#8. The Last of Us
As I've said before, I don't like games with realistic depictions of violence. Ridiculous over-the-top violence like MadWorld and Bulletstorm or anything else filled with executions follow by a witty catch-phrase is great. But once you show me children getting attacked or innocent people being murdered for virtually nothing... well I'm less comfortable with it. But sometimes, uncomfortable is good. Uncomfortable is the only way you get a game like The Last of Us.
Joel and Ellie's jaunt across post-apocalyptic clicker-filled America was a great tale of suvival, but it got rough to watch and play at times. The corpses, the blood, the cannibalism, the torture, and attempts of child rape are all pretty awful and disturbing. Naughty Dog presented it all in a way that made it compelling and made you want to see if things get just a little worse or a lot worse. And having that wrapped up in excellent gameplay that encouraged stealth over mindless violence made it that much harder to put down.
The story and main game alone would make it a classic, but The Last of Us hits that rare one-two punch of having an incredible online mode too. "Factions" team vs. team battles might be simple, but god damn its really hard to stop playing. I utterly sucked at it, and no that's not just my opinion. I had more than one asshole with a microphone bitch at me and ask me if I knew what the hell I was doing (to be fair I did not, I was new). That hardly matters though. Once I had a general understanding of what I was doing, I was having fun even if I did continue to more or less suck. And remember, as bad you might be, everyone can get lucky with a molotov cocktail once in a while. The game is a total package. A great 12 hour story and adventure combined with an online mode that you can play pretty much forever... or at least until you get called "Fuck face" 200 times and your feelings get just a little too hurt.
The finale in terms of gameplay just about made slogging through the rest of it worth it. 
Snide (but well-deserved) comments aside, the ending is a legit moment of insight which is more than can be said for most endings, not just endings in game stories.
#7. Hollow Knight
Generally speaking I do not like games that are on the harder side of the difficulty spectrum. Easy and Normal? That's my jam. Hard? No sir, I don't like it. My reflexes have slowed down, and my free time is limited. If a boss battle takes me over a half dozen times, that's probably the end of the experience for me. Of course there are exceptions. There is after all Hollow Knight.
Hollow Knight is a Tim Burtonesque Metroidvania that is set in an insect kingdom that mostly ravaged by demons or some other wordly malevolent entity. It's a little creepy, but mainly its cute as all fuck. It's also mercilessly difficult. Much of that comes from the sheer variety of platforming and boss challenges. Many games recycle bosses and landscapes with a few changes, that allow players to put their previous experiences to use. Not Hollow Knight. Each area is full of new experiences that will challenge you, and more likely kill you. Repeatedly. It won't be pretty. Lord knows it wasn't for me. I "quit" playing several times before I couldn't resist much longer and returned to the game.
What kept me returning over and over is wondering what else this marvelous little world could contain. The world of Hollow Knight is absolutely gorgeous, filled with secrets and cute and frightening takes on creatures you'd find in the insect kingdom. And they usually want to kill you. However, every once in a while you'll stumble across a character that is preoccupied with ending your life, and might even help you. Additionally, to learn the history of the world and the reason why your character is on his journey, you'll need to spend plenty of time visiting and revisiting locations. But it is absolutely worth spending all the time you need in order to discover all the secrets in this little world. The wonderful stories and lore that exist in the world of Hollow Knight are the only thing that surpass the insane challenge that the gameplay provides, and it all combines to create one of the most satisfying experiences of the past decade.
Game Under, the premier Australian games podcasts, outsourced the review of this Australian game to an Irishman lol.
I still need to play this. I downloaded it through GamePass, but I need to finish Xenoblade first. So I might get around to it somewhere mid august. And that is only if I don't decide to play anything else first. 
robio said:Hollow Knight is far better than anything with Xeno in it's title.
How dare you! You take that back! 
I'm sorry, but you're comparing a game about bugs to a game where the main characters are so huge, humans are mere bugs to them. Clearly this can only mean that Xenoblade Chronicles is magnitues better than that Hole fighter game you talk about.
robio said:I will play and enjoy the far superior Metroidvania/platformer with the difficulty of a Soul's game.
And what game might that be then?
robio said:Hollow Knight is far better than anything with Xeno in it's title.
I gave this post a plus just so I could then give it a minus! Take that you heathen!
In all seriousness though, I do see people talk highly of Hollow Knight pretty regularly. I would like to give it a try myself someday.
#6. Stardew Valley
I had my doubts when Stardew Valley first surfaced. As a long-time Harvest Moon fan, I couldn't help be feel offended. This wasn’t just a Harvest Moon inspired game. It was a Harvest Moon rip-off. Even the chickens in the intro screen looked like they were lifted directly from the SNES Harvest Moon. After a couple hours of gameplay, yeah it was confirmed. This was Harvest Moon. Screw this game and the guy who stole it.
About a year later I gave the game a second shot and this time it clicked when I looked at it with a different perspective. Yes, it was a Harvest Moon rip-off, but it was the old classic Harvest Moon. Not the current version of the game that’s gotten bogged down with the social elements and choosing wallpaper for your house. Had the game kept going down it's original path, this is where it would have been (arguably the graphics would have been better, but I'll cut this ConcernedApe guy a break since he programmed the game completely on his on). It had everything good about the original games with more of.... well more of everything. More animals, people, things to do, places to go, festivals and everything. It even had quests to help keep things moving while your progress on the main story slows down a bit. The end result is the best Harvest Moon game I've played in over 15 years.
Stardew Valley is also part of what is probably the single best trend of the decade. Like Minecraft, Terraria, Monster Hunter World and a few others, Stardew Valley has provided players with a steady stream of free content. Four years and several major updates later, the game has twice the content that it did at launch. There are more festivals, more events, more crops, and more secrets to discover. The current version of the game has evolved so much it could almost have been all kept for a sequel. In a time where microtransactions and overpriced DLC are commonplace, this trend deserves recognition, and having it in a game I love makes it even better.
#9. Hearthstone
I'm not sure if I'm including Hearthstone because I genuinely loved it, or if it was because I was probably addicted to it. Either way, I spent over 1500 hours playing Hearthstone over a 4 year period and that's a conservative number. The actual is probably closer to 2,000. And when you log those kinds of hours into a game I think it's reasonable to include it on one of these lists.
Heathstone at it's core was a solid and easy to learn card game, and at times pretty well balanced (we won't discuss the Call of C'Thun era). However, it was everything around it that made it so good and so hard to put down. What started as a card game based on the World of Warcraft universe turned into a game with a world and lore all its own. It was much lighter and sillier than the world that inspired it, but engaging nonetheless. The presentation was excellent. You were supposed to be playing in a cozy tavern, and Blizzard did a great job of making it feel like as such with the backgrounds and sound effects. Everytime you'd start the game you'd be greeted by an innkeeper asking you to pull up a chair and stay awhile. And the effects of playing cards could at time be amazing.
Of course, the main reason I had such a damn hard time putting it down was the competitive aspect. There be ladders to climb here! Fight against other players and gain anonymous internet gaming fame!! Plus Blizzard did a good job of encouraging face-to-face play and getting people to create local tournaments where you could do this crazy thing called interacting. I played in a couple of these myself and they were always fun affairs. And with mixed feelings I can say I got pretty damned good at Hearthstone (though looking back at it I wonder what else I could have accomplished in those hours). I never quite made it into the Legendary ranks, but during the times where I really focused on playing, I would get damn close and get ranked into the low single digits. Anyway, I will always have a soft spot for this game, but I can confidently say I'll never return to it. Much like EverQuest, it's a game I'll always love, but will be best left in my past.