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 as well.

The Ur-Quan Masters; open source remake of Star Control II
Starsector; a great Star Control like game with great mods (less story driven, more open-world)
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
UnReal World; low-fantasy late iron-age roguelike
Drox Operative 2; wild mix of Diablo, 4x in space (Soldak games are worth checking out btw !)
Tales of Maj'Eyal; Angband roguelike derivative with lots of content (play profile)
Shores of Hazeron; VERY ROUGH wild mix of FPS / 4x, once was multiplayer, now solo on Steam
OpenTTD; an open source remake of Transport Tycoon Deluxe
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
Curious Expedition; turn-based exploration, the second is also good
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 as it 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.
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 overall 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 !), 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 quite a blast, very immersive... the gameplay was okay

"Retro"

Close Combat series; best WW2 real-time wargame to me (and modded Steel Panthers for turn based)... always 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
Zeus: Master of Olympus; played to death as a kid... and still awesome, Caesar III also (and Pharaoh) but less so. Nebuchadnezzar did also a good job recently to replicate the fun i had with Zeus
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 !
Uplink; Hollywood themed 80s / 90s hack game done right. (not deep nor realistic but moody and inspired by WarGames and the likes, 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
Super Metroid; Childhood game... incredible design, spacey, everything was done with great care... same for Secret of Mana or Donkey Kong Country
Neo Turf Masters; arcade golf done right ? YES ! (incredible tech as well)
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
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), also published many great games !
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.