Patient Gamers

FIFA, a lot of the time. Lately it's been Rocket League.

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/

Civilization V.

I'll play a multiplayer shooter or civilization 6

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 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.

Guild Wars 2 and Dear Esther

When I'm too tired or depressed to dive deep into something it's always something really simple like Ring of Pain, Vampire Survivors, or other slow paced stuff.

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.

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.

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

FTL.

Balatro

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

Deep Rock Galactic is good even in singleplayer.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.