Stardew Valley

There have been two games that I have played for 12 hours straight. One is Disco Elysium the other is Stardew Valley. The former is possibly the most engaging story I've ever experienced with more interesting characters and locations than you can fully experience in one playthrough. Stardew Valley on the other hand has nowhere near the depth, the titular town doesn't have the detailed history of Martinaise nor the mystery of who you are to hook you in. So why have I played them both for such an extended time and why have I given them both 5 stars? This is because Stardew Valley has possibly the most accessible and addictive gameplay loop in any video game I have ever played. There is always something to do, to strive for, another fish to catch, another dungeon to delve, another plant to water, another sewer-dwelling shadow monster to make your roommate. and most notably you can take it at your own pace. Because of these reasons mentioned Stardew Valley is one of the very few games I'd recommend to everyone and anyone even those weirdos who don't play games. I know people who played long enough to get to Skull Cavern then treated it like a roguelike, I have a friend who played like a combination fisherman and pokemon trainer trying to catch em all. I myself had two goals to kick out Amazon stand-in Joja and marry Harvey because apparently, I have a thing for nerdy brunette guys with glasses who had aspirations for aviation but were held back by their bad eyesight (see also Kim Kitsuragi from the aforementioned Disco Elysium) The queer romance cottage-core fantasy is what draws a lot of people to this game especially more recently. One thing not often discussed is Stardew Valley's timelessness since its Steam release in early 2016 Stardew Valley has only dropped below 10,000 concurrent users once in September 2016 and has maintained somewhere between 20,000 to 50,000 since with a massive peak of 95,000 on Christmas Eve 2020. 7 years on Stardew Valley is still going strong and I can see that continuing far into the future. This continued popularity and positivity has put developer Eric Barone (better known as Concerned Ape) in the pantheon of solo developers among the likes of Lucas Pope (Papers Please, Return of the Obra Dinn) and Toby Fox (Undertale and Deltarune)

TLDR:
Damn good game with an engaging loop and something for everyone, strong recommendation for anyone who has a computer with more processing power than a mobile phone. 5 Stars

The best fishing simulator i've ever played

This game kept my mental stability in check during the start of quarantine. super therapeutic and relaxing, fun characters, gorgeous art. concernedape is an amazing dev, one of the most caring and committed to his art out there. great OST. highly recommend to those looking for a calm, mostly mindless game that you can listen to podcasts while playing.
also, marry Harvey

It's basically a Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town clone but with ugly art.

Almost flunked college cause I was playing this in a depressive fugue instead of going to class. I did however catch every fish.

The game is fantastic, especially to play with your significant others. The soundtrack is great. The repetitiveness is welcomed because it makes the game cosy and relaxing. It teaches me how to play in a relaxed, not min-max way, which forces me to be laid back and take the game in slowly.
The only problem I have is that it's hard to play without the wiki. You could be fishing for something and only after realise you can fish them only during rain, so you basically wasted a week fishing for something you can't catch. And there are many instances of it sadly.