I’m not a gamer. Suggestions?

I'm bored. My usual hobbies are out for a bit and wife has a decent gaming pc so I thought I'd explore options that way. 
 

Im not a gamer. The last games I really played were the Batman Arkham ones on ps3(?)

Im not competitive. Nor am I interested in multiplayer stuff. 
A lack of hardware means no driving sims. And I'd rather explore and strategize anyway. 
 

Ive dabbled in Minecraft a bit, but it's not really my thing. In fact, it's been a long time since I can get more than an hour or two out of a game before I'm bored with it. 

I don't really want a strict format or a pushed storyline. In fact, I don't really care about completing objectives or scoring points.

Now all that is out of the way, I've been thinking about No Man's Sky. I remember being intrigued when it was new, but never tried it. Or throw some suggestions at me. Thanks!

I wish I could help on this one, I play NBA 2K on the PS4 or iRacing on my sim rig. Nothing else really interests me. 

Sandbox RPG is my preferred way of just running around, checking stuff out and doing what I want. 

My entirely biased recommendations:

Red Dead Redemption 2 - great story, but as nonlinear and open ended as you want it to be. Cowboy up.

Skyrim - Open world fantasy RPG - Dragons, magic, knights, etc.

Assassins Creed Valhalla - Viking free for all. 

In reply to birdmayne :

A coworker recommended red dead 2. I'll have to give that a good look. Watch some play throughs on YT or something. 

No Mans Sky, Skyrim and Fallout are my favorites.  I will add that we got our middle son an Oculus Quest for Christmas 2 or three years ago and we pass that thing around quite a bit, I am currently using it for 20 minutes of cardio each day.

Fallout is my favorite, and when you get bored with the stock game you can just add mods.

Red Dead is f'ing solid, though.  Even if it runs for E36 M3 on my ancient laptop.

Another thing. I don't have any subscription services. Is there such a thing these days as a demo before I drop coin on a title? Or a subscription service with a trial period?

I don't mind paying a subscription, is that a thing? Probably gonna cancel my motortrend anyway. 

In reply to barefootcyborg5000 :

No man's sky is THE answer. It's not intense, it's gorgeous, there's infinity things to do.....I would recommend it to anyone. 

Edit- I'm assuming PC. You can Xbox gamepass on PC, and on console. It's great because I can use the same save games on both my Xbox and my laptop. It seems to be the way to go for that. 

Sign up for an Epic Games account. They have a free game each week. I've collected nearly 100 free games so far through various promotions. If a game sucks, I delete it and move on. I prefer buying games off Good Old Games. You pay once, it is DRM free, you own it. I also like https://oldgamesdownload.com/ which has a bunch of old free games that should run on any computer..

I've been playing Total Annihilation for two decades now, still love it. Just robots blowing each other up. Even more fun with cheats.

Recently me and my two boys have been playing Streets of Rogue. It is an absolute batguano insane RPG that is never the same game twice. Each level is auto generated. It was $20 on Good old Games.

In reply to Mndsm :

Yes, PC. The only console I own is a wii and that's more my kids anyway. If I'm gonna play Mario it'll be 64bits or less. 

I've really never been a fan of multiplayer games, the enjoyment I get out of computer games is all personal, not competitive.

Single player games I've enjoyed a lot the last few years:

FTL: Faster Than Light.  Sometimes described as a "roguelike", it's a graphically simple spaceship tactical survival game.

Kerbal Space Program:  Rocket simulator.  Tons of fun if you're into space stuff, and very free-form.

Outer Wilds:  A really fun puzzle game involving spaceships and planets and zero gee.  More than that would be too much of a spoiler.  This game is awesome.

Prey:  A first-person perspective "immersive sim", in the vein of System Shock and Deus Ex.

Fallout 3, new Vegas, or 4. You have zero interest in 76, the MMO fallout. 

Red dead 2 is great, but Holy crap. Even skipping all the cut scenes on my second passthrough, it's a long drawn out game. Fantastic, absolutely worth playing, but long. 

The Witcher 3

Kerbal Space

An older Sims like 2 or 3 that you could find cheap or free with all the add on packs, I'm partial to 3 and 1 myself

Stellaris

Surviving Mars

If you were to sign up for a free trial, or look around online I think you can still find a month or three months of game pass ultimate for a dollar. I recommend that route, there are a crap load of Xbox games you can play on PC that way, and really just try a bunch of stuff. If your internet speed is good enough, the streaming games aren't bad to play so don't even need a download. 

In reply to barefootcyborg5000 :

Two more games I'd suggest then. 

Vampire survivors- it's a rogue like top down dungeon masher. What does that mean? You're in a dungeon and mobs come at you. You kill them, you level up, you get random upgrades, you die. You get coins, and you can use the coins to buy permanent upgrades and unlock characters. It's $3. I've got almost 30 hours out of it. 

Project zomboid- it's the sims, but zombie survival. 

You mentioned Minecraft, I will always argue that terraria is superior in virtually every way. It's got a TON of content and can keep you busy for weeks. It's usually cheap. I've got like 4 copies across various consoles. 

Y'all are great. I'll try to check out some videos this evening and see about finding trials. More suggestions are welcome. 

Dyson Sphere Program scratches an itch for me but I can understand how it might not reach most people.

Not a gamer either. The only video game I ever went down the rabbit hole for was something called Myst.  It is a puzzle solving kind of game so not for the action addicts or action junkies. Not sure if such games even exist anymore.

I don't get past word games. 

Get an emulator. Nintendo for days.

NOHOME said:

Not a gamer either. The only video game I ever went down the rabbit hole for was something called Myst.  It is a puzzle solving kind of game so not for the action addicts or action junkies. Not sure if such games even exist anymore.

Myst is great! Excellent recommendation, I had forgotten about this one.

The sequel was decent too. Ryven, I think it was called.

All of these are a little bit sandboxy:

Cities Skylines (modern Sim City)

Kerbal

Project Highrise (modern Sim Tower)

beamng.drive (car physics sandbox - controller is the suggested way of playing)

antichamber - first person puzzle game (think Portal, Quantumn Conundrum, etc)

subnautica - a weird, beautiful grind

Totally Accurate Battle Simulator looks pretty entertaining

slefain said:

I've been playing Total Annihilation for two decades now, still love it. Just robots blowing each other up. Even more fun with cheats.

I dont think its what OP is interested in, but the "sequels" Supreme Commander and Planetary Annihilation are pretty awesome.  Planetary annhilation is incredibly unique in the RTS world.

If you have the hardware: Witcher 3

Mass Effect 2

Fallout New Vegas (a bit clunky mechanics, but the best story and immersive world)

Low intensity time killers: FTL - Faster Than Light, and Into the Breach

In reply to ProDarwin :

Can verify, TABS is good entertainment. It's on gamepass too. 

birdmayne said:

NOHOME said:

Not a gamer either. The only video game I ever went down the rabbit hole for was something called Myst.  It is a puzzle solving kind of game so not for the action addicts or action junkies. Not sure if such games even exist anymore.

Myst is great! Excellent recommendation, I had forgotten about this one.

The sequel was decent too. Ryven, I think it was called.

Myst was just recently updated with modern graphics, same everything else

Fallout is something I would highly recommend. As a guy who has well over 3 months into FO4, and has played FO3 enough to have made a legit, no mods no glitches perfect character, I can say the world is engrossing and there's plenty to explore.

To whomever suggested Mass Effect 2: Good wrong answer. Mass effect is a trilogy and should be treated as such. You need to play all three games, no more, no less. I was never able to just play those games casually, but every year or two I clear my schedule and marathon through them. It's an emotional ride.

Seven Days To Die is another one I'm partial to. A minecraft style survival crafting game where you scavange supplies and materials to build a base and every 7th night a huge zombie swarm attacks. 

For the ultimate GRM experience: My summer car.