Patient Gamers

Rogue-lites are basically made to be infinitely re-playable and if I find one I like then I keep going back to it. Enter the Gungeon is a game I've played for years. Then there was a while this spot was taken by Slay the Spire and Balatro in turn. Now I'm back to Enter the Gungeon.

this is a smartass answer but if no video game is catching your attention, don't play a video game. do anything else. pick up a new hobby or revisit an old one.

Slay the spire. Quick 30-45 minute run is just enough to kill time.

Factorio, Minecraft, Stardew Valley. Also solitaire on my phone (PySolFC).

Burnout 3

Crypt of the Necrodancer.

Really fun roguelike game where you and enemies have to move to the beat of that floor's song. I think part of the reason I still play it a lot is that it's amenable to very short sessions. I've played enough that runs go fast and I either clear or die within 10 minutes.

Over 1200 hours now almost a decade after release, and a huge chunk of that is probably sessions of under 30 mins in length.

Crawl: Stone Soup. Classic rogue like. You can play it in the browser so it's very fast to get going. Minotaur Berserker is a nice semi brainless flow.

https://crawl.develz.org/

Balatro

Rimworld

I just keep coming back.

For years that game was Warframe for me. Just turn of my brain and run missions I know inside and out while watching twitch from the corner of eye on a second monitor. At some point I wanted to have more time to play other games so I stopped and didn't find a new cozy game

StarCraft. The original. My brain and body is hardwired to play that game. "SCV ready" triggers something. I have a fantasy of retiring in an old folks home and me and a few of my fellow geriatrics fire that shit up and play LAN games until the DNR kicks in.

Skate 3

I'll just load it up, find a new spot and make some clips.

The Long Dark. Something about wandering an icy wasteland scavenging, hunting, fishing, works for me.

FTL.

Dark Souls. If there's nothing else I want to play, I'm always up for another run through Lordran with a build I've never tried before.

For me it is loading up Xonotic to strafe jump around and blast bots. The movement in Xonotic is hypnotic, and while I usually play in short bursts I don't think I will ever get bored of returning over and over again to learn the nuances and creative opportunities of combat and movement in Xonotic. All it takes is the first strafe jump to put a stupid smile on my face.

https://xonotic.org/

Also I love open world driving games and Motortown is my jam. I do urgent taxi jobs and just let my mind relax as I drive like a complete madman. The tire grip and burnout mechanics along with the vehicle handling in general is the best I have tried in any game.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1369670/Motor_Town_Behind_The_Wheel/

I'll play a multiplayer shooter or civilization 6

Europa Universalis IV. There are tons of countries to play, lots of variation each time, and so many options for self challenges (e.g. accomplish goal by year).

The only thing that would get me to stop playing is if EUV is good, and then only a few years and DLC in. Even then, I could see myself coming back to it.

For me that's rocket league.

HL2, Portal 2, Far Cry (1), Commander Keen, Supreme Commander, Raptor: Call of the Shadows. Halo MCC but particularly 2.

My main ones are: Minecraft, age of empires 2, postal 2.

Civilization V.

I love hunting for achievements and there’s always one unfinished game that’s a fallback to push a bit further in these cases where I stare at my Steam library for five minutes without starting anything, right now it‘s „if in doubt, play Metal Gear Solid V“

Runs 60 FPS all high on the Deck as well, which is crazy to me

Caves of Qud

Mount and Blade Warband. Or maybe EU4.

Deep Rock Galactic is good even in singleplayer.

I have no idea why, but Wurm Online always manages to draw me back. Guess it's a Zen and the Art of Imping addiction.

Space Engineers. I can just build and build and build, and the community seems to always have a few new interesting mods whenever I'm looking to start a new world.

I did that a lot with Subnautica but I think I've worn it out. I would make up challenge runs for myself to spice it up and I've run out of those. It was my "I want to play a video game right now" game. I kinda wish I had fewer objections to Subnautica 2, because there's things I like about that game and things I don't and the don'ts slightly outweigh the things that do.

Mass Effect. Always new choices waiting for you

I’ll load up Spider-man a couple times a month just to go on patrol, and stop random crimes.

Been doing this since Spider-man 2 came out on the original Xbox. Glad the new one came out, and I don’t have to chase that kid’s damn balloon anymore.

Zen pinball

Recently, some doom mod

I'm late but: Fights In Tight Spaces. I thoroughly enjoy their daily challenges, and save my replays when I have a spectacular run with no damage.

Civilization 6

Project Zomboid, or one of the Arkham games.

Phigros

It's a mobile rhythm game without ads and in-app purchases. It's also completely offline so I don't need an internet connection to play.

Modded Minecraft for sure. But there are a handful of games I keep going back to and common theme for those games that I can listen to a podcast or audiobook while I'm playing them, like Rimworld, No Man's Sky, Stardew Valley, Skyrim.