Video Games

What sort of driving style you looking for?

Assetto Corsa is awesome but definitely better with a wheel (I played it for quite a while with just a controller though). GT Legends and Race07 are also both great sim-like games which still hold up to this day.
On the complete arcade side, I love the Trackmania games, Trackmania United Forever is a classic and is half price at the moment (it's comprised of 7 different environments, 1 of which is available as a free standalone 'Trackmania Nations Forever'), there's also a newer bunch which are basically the same environments with richer graphics and slightly updated handling models.
Driver San Fransisco is a damn good driving game, excellent soundtrack too (I realise that's not high praise coming from me, but trust me it's good).
MX vs. ATV Reflex is a good off-road racer with fancy realistic mud physics.
I've recommended it quite recently but Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed is a great kart racer.
Goes without saying that Crazy Taxi is worth picking up, and along the same lines, OutRun 2006 is one of my favourite games but is not for sale digitally anymore due to Ferrari licence expiration.
Absolute Drift is a nice relaxing driving game with a sort of 3D/isometric view, the developer is currently working on a very cool Group B era rally game in the same vein. There's a demo available here: https://funselektor.itch.io/art-of-rally

I really like the gameplay of the Burnout series, so something similar-ish. I like the pick up and play aspect, nothing too technical, no need to manage upgrades/tweaks to cars.

Trackmania and Absolute Drift look interesting although Driver San Fran is not on Steam for some reason. Your musical tastes are fine - we even went to see Steel Panther this year.

Thanks for the recommendations!

Need for speed Heat is pretty fun

What's the deal with xbox on pc gamepass and converting xbox gold or something? Is there some convoluted way to get it cheap?

Driver San Fran is not on Steam for some reason

That's a damn shame, looks like another licensing expiry issue relating to the cars and music. If you can get your hands on it, it's one of the most fun driving games on PC. Also, while they may be damn old, the FlatOut series is pretty good fun.

Forza Horizons 3 & 4 are both worth a look. Not as arcadey as Burnout, but generally great.

Looking for recommendations for an adventure, or strategy game that can be played on a fairly basic laptop or chromebook. Something fairly retro, or a remastered version of old classic. I played Thimbleweed Park a couple of years ago which was kind of what I'm looking for now, i.e. something in an old school format.

@Aroogah

This. Forza Horizons are incredibly good driving games.

3 & 4 available on PC

Looking for recommendations for an adventure, or strategy game that can be played on a fairly basic laptop or chromebook. Something fairly retro, or a remastered version of old classic

I've got the perfect

I played Thimbleweed Park a couple of years ago

Oh...

I know Day of the Tentacle was recently remastered, not sure if that's of any interest to you?

Not sure on OS compatibility but
Chris sawyers locomotion
OpenRA (opensource version of red alert)
Red Alert Remastered (looks like a decent official reboot)

are a few that popped to mind for me

I am really enjoying Cloudpunk but man the voxel graphics beat the hell out of the computer. Beautiful world, story is so/so, it's like a stripped down Death Stranding game play. Get parcel, fly here, deliver parcel. However, weirdly, I cannot stop playing it

It's Indie, so it's not amazingly optimized but I still get ~120 fps at 1440p (2080 rtx)

Machinarium

great game.

Another recco for Horizon 3 and 4. Great to pick up and play

If you can find it for cheap (I think I picked it up during a free offer?) The Crew is actually a pretty fun time waster imo. Not sure about the sequel.

Or just get euro truck simulator 2 and live your best life.

Forza games are not on Steam but the Need for Speed series is and made by the same studio as Burnout so that may be the next best option.

euro truck simulator

Yeah. Wow. Truck/bus/train driving simulators are a deep rabbit hole of WTF-ery for me. I just don't get the appeal.

It’s on the Microsoft store which you should have...

Yeah. Wow. Truck/bus/train driving simulators are a deep rabbit hole of WTF-ery for me. I just don't get the appeal.

I agree, but ets2 is different.

It may be a Canadian thing. https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/ppmjk9/crosscountry-canada-is-now-free-to-play-online-384

@Aroogah NfS most wanted 2012 is similar to BuPa.
Same style open world, loads of cars, less variety of races though, Cars are modifiable (unlock via races, upgraded by using enough)

@Sumo how is FF7 remake btw?

Really good. A nice balance of straight remake and new stuff. I'm at the final boss just now. I'm so excited for the next installments

I’d say yellow Switch Lite

This.
I'm totally immersed in botw. It is as people on here said aeons ago totally sublime.
No issues with control (well one minor issue - crouching in the midst of battle.)
What an adventure
#late2theparty

And this
https://youtu.be/3_GftBaCbeY

how quickly did you get the hang of the combat? does managing the different skills of each character in real time start to click soon enough?

I'm totally immersed in botw.

Then what are you doing here?

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

:)