So with all the extra time at home I've been going through my games, just like everyone else I suppose.
Usual paralyzed-by-choice problem - if something is just kind of good, but doesn't really, fully grab my attention I always want to try something else to see if it's a better use of my time.
Hundreds of Steam games, a ton I've gotten included with Amazon Prime (via Twitch), a few on GoG, plus all my old console games too.
A couple I've found that are worthwhile;
Nuclear Throne - this one is a Rogue-like, top-down shooter. Very difficult. Like Rogue you're not intended to win on most runs, and you can get screwed by bad item drops, randomly generated level layouts that may or may not provide cover, and sometimes higher-level enemies show up in early levels. Reminds me of coming across a Troll in the original Rogue - never good, but really, really bad if you're only at level 4.
It reminds me somewhat of Hotline Miami - which was also a top-down shooter with a pixel art style. Downside of Nuclear Throne is that you always have to start at the beginning though; where Hotline Miami had levels so that tempered the difficulty a bit. Nuclear Throne also reminds me of Ghosts 'n Goblins (or Ghouls 'n Ghosts) a bit, particularly the progress map.
On the up side Nuclear Throne is very polished, it has been play-tested and revised many times. There are a ton of weapon types too, 50+ runs in and I'm still finding new ones, and sometimes you'll get a higher-level item early on, the opposite of a Troll at level 4.
It was on sale for $1. Not sure if it still is, but it's well worth the "full" price of $11 too.
Mr. Shifty - Haven't put a lot of time into this one yet, but it's even more similar to Hotline Miami. Top-down view again, but instead of a pixel-art style it's more like vector or Flash art. The difference between this one and Hotline is that it adds a teleport mechanic, like Nightcrawler from the X-Men. I'll definitely play this one more when I finish a couple others.
One that I've really wanted to play is Outer Worlds - a Sci-Fi RPG from Obsidian. It's not out on Steam yet (later this year, apparently) but it is out on the Microsoft Store. On sale for $39 - but it's also included with the "XBox Gamepass for Windows". That's normally $5 per month, which isn't bad, but right now it's on sale for $1 for the first month ($5 after that). So pretty easy choice, and an amazing deal if I can finish Outer Worlds in under a month.
Can't comment too much on Outer Worlds, just started it, looks good so far though.
Other games on the XBox Gamepass for Windows are the Halo series, Gears of War 4 & 5, Wasteland 1 & 2 (remastered/updated versions), Bard's Tale 1 through 4, Crackdown 3, Rage 2 and many others. The $1 trial seems well worth it.
