Asklemmy

Shop Titans (played on PC). It's just predatorial and I got caught in its addictive gameplay loop for every waking hour of 2 days. I'm lucky that it was only 48 hours (compared to other people) and that I hate playing on mobile unless it's short sessions of non-mechanical stuff because it seems mobile is full of games like this.

Temple run. I used to play it a lot back in high school, unlocked everything with gameplay only including seasonal things like Santa Claus. It was fun enough, but updates would regularily reset my game completely loosing everything I archieved and unlocked, and the developers never gave a shit about that issue. I eventually gave up on it because of that.

I had 2000+ hours in Sea of Thieves before I stopped playing. I enjoyed the multiplayer aspect - meeting new people and having long chats without big groups (max crew of 4). It also has decent pve content. But the devs did a terrible job at bug fixing and it felt like they cared more about the lore/story telling than the sandbox aspects and combat which is the core of the game.

I'm always torn about Elite Dangerous, similar to Eve's grind I beleive. It's a space game that requires hundreds of hours and 3rd party databases to have any sense of efficiency. There's no true interplayer economy so you're still free to operate solo (except that one time people with fleet carriers kidnapped noobs to slave mine). I have 900+ hours in 3 years and still don't feel like I can do anything I want. I enjoy the sights, but they're really repetitive. I relax while mining, but the payout just isn't on the same level as some gaming methods. There's no campaign and the lore is just small journal entries, so progress is only measured by purchases. You're free to write your own story, but eventually you grow tired of the sandbox. The alien invasion events spiced things up about 9 years into the game's life, but even that has become a little stale. Build the meta ship, work the events methodically, go home. The real world time sunk into travel for necessary upgrades is tiring.

But then, every once in a while, I'll use my laptop on the big screen with great sound quality and I remember what makes this game so special.

Gex.

Mobile Legends Bang Bang, a mobile-based LoL ripoff thats very popular in South East Asia. It is very catered to newbie and low skilled players, most items sold as gatchas, and has severe skill-imbalance in matchmaking (many suspect they will pair you with low-skilled low-winrate players if you win too much, giving birth to many grievance from good solo players).
Alas, with my rl responsibilities, I can't play more serious moba like Dota2 anymore. The only way to satisfy my crave for moba is by playing MLBB as most matches only take 12 to 20 minutes to finish. I can cram it to my commute time or break time.

Dragon Ball: Legends

Good mobile game with awful gatcha mechanics. After multiple attempts to quit it's like a bad relationship. I just keep coming back. I love to hate this game sometimes lmao.

Recently, project zomboid. I feel like my ratio of exploring vs inventory management is super low. And then I have one misclick against a horde and have to spend the better part of an hour to get back to what I was doing with a buddy. Still get sucked into it though regardless.

RDR2, or "cowboy oblivion" is such a huge, fun, and enthralling play. I cannot recommend it enough

Madden or any sports game nowadays

Easily a game called Infra. It's an older source engine adventure game based on exploring crumbling ruins of public facilities and recording damage and things. I put over 50 hours into it (which is a lot for a first person walking simulator puzzle game) And it was just ....work. It felt so much like work. I have no idea why I forced myself through it. The environments were just so cool. But wow ...... Would not recommend.

Destiny 2.

Victoria 3. It's not even close to being in a finished state yet, but I just love watching that line go up. It's like the world's most complex Cookie Clicker game

When I was young, I spent a lot of time playing Extreme Paintbrawl. I only learned years later that it had achieved notoriety as one of the worst video games of all time. Looking back it's not hard to see why. But back when it was one of the very few games we had for PC, I got a lot of enjoyment out of it.

Marvel Strike Force. I've never played a mobile game before it and I don't think I ever will. But it took up brainspace and time during the COVID isolation, and I put in enough money that I feel I can't quit now.

But don't do it. It's a time suck, money suck, and it's repetitive.