eskimo

I'd recommend only using a hint system when you really get stuck. Well designed adventure games generally have one or more clues somewhere in the environment, so it pays to just wander round talking to people and clicking on things if you get stuck. The fun of these games is the satisfaction you get from solving a puzzle on your own, and it's more satisfying when you solve the harder puzzles and move forward again.

Day of the Tentacle and Monkey Island 2 - LucasArts was the best developer of point and clicks back in the day, and these two are probably the best examples of their craft. The puzzles (mostly) make sense, and especially in the case of DotT, there are several story/puzzle threads you can alternate between if you're getting stuck on one.

Thimbleweed Park - a throwback to the good old days of LucasArts, while building in a lot of modern sensibilities that we've grown accustomed to in the intervening period. Even though it's a recent entry this is maybe the best example of the classic point and click genre, and is developed by the creators of Maniac Mansion. Great story and puzzles, without ever getting to obscure.

Season 3! It's pretty much the point at which modern simpsons was formed

1. Download and install gzdoom

2. Copy the doom wad files (doom.wad, doom2.wad, etc) into your gzdoom folder

3. Download brutal doom and copy the pk3 file into your gzdoom folder

4. Create a file called brutal.bat in your gzdoom folder and put the following into it "start gzdoom.exe -file brutalv21.pk3". You won't need the quotes, and you should change brutalv21.pk3 to whatever your brutal doom pk3 file is called.

5. Run the .bat file and enjoy!

My Sekiro save got corrupted after getting about 2/3 through the game. I was upset, but on some level relieved that I didn't have to go on. It was too far in and I knew that I wasn't going to start again.

In the end though, I couldn't leave it alone and found some fix that involved replacing the checksum in the save slot. After a bit of Hex editing I got it working again, and now I'm stuck on the final boss, probably never to finish it. Yaaaaaaaaay!

Keep talking and nobody explodes is pretty fun if you can find someone keen to play it with you.

electroplankton

If you're not averse to spending $20 then I'd recommend Mothergunship for category 1. Its kinetic, fast paced, has a good loop, and isnt too taxing.

Subnautica and Prey:Mooncrash both hooked me.

I also spent a fair bit of time with Into the Breach.

Apart from that, I'm not really feeling it so far this year...