Games related links

A few of my "favorite" games, a good chunk of them are free (or old) and don't require much hardware power, see reviews and short reviews as well.

The Ur-Quan Masters; open source remake of Star Control II, the ultimate experience ;)
Starsector; a Star Control like game with great mods (less story driven, more open-world)
Starcom: Nexus (and Starcom: Unknown Space); same as above, a bit more linear though
Endless Sky; similar to Escape Velocity, same as above, more like a 2D Elite, a bit rough
Star Valor; same as above, a 2D Elite with fleet and base building
Prospector; an exploration roguelike in space which i used to play a lot, similar to Starflight
Cogmind; science-fiction roguelike, great lore, style and gameplay (same for Caves of Qud)
UnReal World; low-fantasy late iron-age roguelike
Drox Operative 2; wild mix of Diablo, 4x in space (Soldak games are worth checking out !)
Tales of Maj'Eyal; amazing Angband roguelike derivative with lots of content (play profile)
Shores of Hazeron; ROUGH wild mix of FPS / 4x, once multiplayer but now solo on Steam
OpenTTD; an open source remake of Transport Tycoon Deluxe
Widelands; open source remake of The Settlers II
The Battle for Wesnoth; turn-based fantasy strategy game with a lot of great mods !
Creeper World; uncompromising to the point tower defense with fluid-like automata
Vampire Survivors; Gauntlet gameplay distilled to its core elements with late 80s / early 90s graphics, also liked Halls of Torment which is the same with late 90s graphics, Boneraiser Minions is also pretty great with early 80s graphics
Curious Expedition; turn-based exploration, the second is also good
Subnautica; survival action-adventure game in an alien underwater world, beautiful underwater experience for me, second is okay but i prefer the first one
Factorio; incredible management simulation but... way too time consuming.
FreeCol; same as FreeCiv but always preferred Sid Meier's Colonization (or Alpha Centauri) although there might be accuracy / ethics issues, Old World is also great, has a smaller scale
Total War series; most fun i had with a "grand strategy" type of game was Shogun 2 due to being constrained on an island (fairly short, great balance etc) then Rome 2 and Medieval 2 which are a bit of a mess (and require way too much time to play !) but the historical period and all the things you can do was fun. Although not in the series Crusader Kings II was fun also. Special mention to Hegemony series with the earliest one set in ancient Greece.
No Man's Sky; "expedition" mode and turning off PVP was a great immersive experience (then normal mode with adjusted difficulty settings to make it interesting), kinda arcade game with heavy exploration focus, player aid in this game is constant, cover most things and is unobtrusive, a similar game is Elite Dangerous although more hardcore and has repetitive gameplay but the sound design of Elite and the ambience is incredible though...
Generation Zero; open world coop FPS with late 80s mood and reminiscent of Simon Stålenhag style, may be seen as repetitive and not without issues but i quite like the unique Sweden rural settings and cold ambience with overwhelming big mechs around, also like the technical side of it (the engine was a perfect match for this !) plus sound design by Skaven, played a good chunk of Ark as well as far as open world survival goes, kinda fun to try to live with huge dinos around, The Long Dark is also a great frigid (Canadian wilderness) survival game
Assassin's Creed Origins; the only Assassin's Creed game i finished entirely, the freedom and beautiful depiction of ancient Egypt was a blast, very immersive... gameplay was okay
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup; a polished roguelike adventure, quite difficult... and also very random (on purpose; nicely designed random)
Cube 2: Sauerbraten (2004); a very fast Quake like shooter with an interesting rendering engine, i used to play this a lot along with Teeworlds (2D shooter with rope physics), still dig its metal music a lot (by Marc A. Pullen)
Myst (1993); not my usual jam but listed here anyway due to the ambience of the early games with simple but nicely executed ideas (D'ni Numerals and some world building stuff) and aesthetics, also played Myst IV: Revelation which was great as well
Dwarf Fortress; never got into the ASCII graphics (tried a few times), now has graphical tiles and adventure mode, had some fun with this ! (same for RimWorld)
Mount & Blade; medieval strategy action RPG, quite awesome due to large amount of mods, didn't play the sequel as much but it seems good as well
Empires of the Undergrowth; unique STR with ants, plenty content, bugs and variations, well researched / designed, see also SimAnt, quite liked survival action adventure versions as well such as Grounded and Smalland...
Amanita Design has some unique point-and-click adventure game with incredible design, favorite is Machinarium, Samorost (and sequels)
Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection

PBeM games... (can we bring this back ?)

Horizontal game design are great as well. (Banished, Guild Wars 2)

"Retro"

Close Combat series; best WW2 real-time wargame to me (and modded Steel Panthers for turn based)... always one installed although i don't play much anymore due to ethical issues, also liked the Great Battles series for the ancient history part and Combat Mission
Pirates! Gold (1993); played this a lot on a Sega Genesis emu (GP2X), 2004 remake is ok but i prefer 2D
Hardwar (1998); fly a VTOL craft around a crater-city colony doing jobs, fighting, trading etc. it is like a small scale (ground based) Elite ! this game is driven by its ambience + scope and unique settings, i like the tech as well
Zeus: Master of Olympus; played to death as a kid... and still awesome, Caesar III also (and Pharaoh) but less so although they may be on par with mods such as Augustus that adds roadblock etc. Nebuchadnezzar did a good job recently to replicate the fun i had with Zeus
Nexus: The Jupiter Incident; small scope tactical game in space, has a solar system scale, The Expanse TV series reminded me of this game at times as the settings is pretty close
Starflight; influential space exploration game, i prefer the Genesis version, first time i played this was when i randomly played games from a full Genesis library on GP2X, it immediately reminded me of Star Control 2 and similar games although much older ! turns out that the game is made in Forth as well ! sequel may be better but never played it.
Modded Homeworld 2; with mod like Complex, hugely satisfying...
Sim City 2000; the 90s feel of this one with the MIDI tracks is lovely, SNES Sim City is also special to me, others (and the wild ones especially such as SimAnt, SimEarth or SimGolf) are also great ! also enjoyed modern ones such as Cities: Skylines for the sheer amount of content, special mention to Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic (a challenging deep city builder), A-Train also (isometric ones, A IV Network$ and A-Train III, kinda minimalist and slow paced)
Uplink; Hollywood themed 80s / 90s hack game done right. (not deep nor realistic but moody and inspired by WarGames and the likes, also DEFCON), Midnight Protocol is also great in the genre but turn based and more like a puzzle game
Patrician 3; Hanseatic League trade simulation game with mix of politics, city development and piracy, chill minimalist but not shallow with lovely town rendition and map, best with widescreen patch, Port Royale is the equivalent in the Caribbean although i prefer Patrician, Anno series is also fairly similar and great but some of them are too grindy / time consuming
Super Metroid; Childhood game... incredible design, spacey, everything was done with great care... same for Secret of Mana or Donkey Kong Country
XCOM; can't go wrong with this turn-based tactics masterpiece, most of the sequels are also worth checking out
The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall; with Quest Pack 1 and Unity remaster (also many other mods !), quite liked Skyrim as well (dislike the lengthy intro though !)
Neo Turf Masters; arcade golf done right ? YES ! (incredible tech as well)
Psycho Pinball; Pinball Dreams may be a classic but Psycho Pinball is my jam, has 4 tables of which one serve as a gate to the 3 others (a great idea !), also has cool themes (abyss) and style and has plenty mini-games (platforms etc.), it is very smooth, played it on Sega Genesis emu (GP2X), as for modern pinball i quite like Pinball FX 3 or Pinball Arcade for excellent digital recreation of real tables
Aerobiz Supersonic; airline management, most liked element is all the planes available and period, i prefer the MD version, Koei games are worth checking out
E.V.O.: Search for Eden; bit rough now but i remember being impressed by the concept when i first played it
Heroes of Might and Magic; really liked the 3 but the earlier ones and 4 are great as well, has some great fantasy art & feels, King's Bounty was also cool in its own way albeit much simpler
Virtual Pool 3; 3D cue sports simulation game, Minnesota Fats: Pool Legend was also quite awesome on Sega Genesis emu (GP2X)
Richard Burns Rally; always liked racing games, started with Road Fighter then Gran Turismo / Sega Rally and some other games of that era (Daytona USA, Driver, WipEout, Out Run, Midtown Madness, some good F1 game on PC that i don't remember the name etc.) then Rally Championship 2000, all these were great, i discovered RBR later on and it was special to me, technically (physics / visuals) a masterpiece especially with mods
Sierra games; huge part of my childhood, especially early adventure games such as King's Quest or Space Quest (see Sarien for instant browser play of these classics), they also published many great games ! I discovered Gamebook (e.g. Fighting Fantasy) much later and had a blast with them, they somehow reminded me of Sierra early adventure games in the way they played only in a purely text-based format with restrictions on movement and space. (some of them are playable in computerized form on stores such as Steam likes Fighting Fantasy Classics)
LucasArts games; same as Sierra, can't go wrong with these games with one of my favorite being Day of the Tentacle (also see fan spinoff), Loom, Maniac Mansion, Full Throttle etc.