Horizon Forbidden West was fun for action and story.
Dave the Diver was fun for quirky game that kept giving fun mini games as story elements, between satisfying fish stabbing and restauranting.
Citizen Sleeper was just an engaging story, that I was surprised to enjoy as much as I did.
Zelda Tears of the Kingdom was a nice new way to look at familiar terrain, and it's hilarious to see what odd machines my son and husband devise.

Huh, come to think of it, i haven't really played that recent games. Weird.

Wild hearts
Ive never played a Monster Hunter game, but from the looks of it. This game outdid it. Great game, mid story, Fantastic combat!

BG3 was amazing, but Act III was so overwhelming I never finished it. Taking a break to regain my strength before I get to finishing it.

Enjoying V Rising at the moment.

Dave the Diver and Valheim are both awesome.

Death Stranding, love those 2 hrs cinematic scenes towards the end. Never thought building and sharing structures would be this fun. I spent a lot of time planning and building zip-lines to minimize delivery time as much as possible.

If you want more obscure recommendations, look up your favorite games on IsThereAnyDeal, then scroll down to the "Similar games" section. That's how I found out about Super Beast Hunt: a free platformer with responsive controls and solid level design, but no marketing budget.

Cats love boxes (that's the name of the game)

I really enjoyed Prey (2017) this year. Very nice level and character design for a shooter game!

Civ 5. I won the complete edition and tried a civ game for the first time. Its definitely ruining my life now. Can't wait for Civ 7!

It's definitely the Shadow Tactics series. I don't know why I postponed them for so long, though.. Gotta do all the badges someday

Baldur's Gate 3 for me as well
Though I'm sinking my time currently in Sea of Thieves, got a bit addicted to this one, they added a bunch of quality of life stuff, so the game is very enjoyable rn (still buggy as hell but in a funny way)

Yakuza: like a dragon, but it was on Microsoft subscription play...so starting all over on steam seems だるい

From the past 2 years (not release, but playing): Horizon Zero Dawn, Control, Gears Tactics, Tokyo Xanadu eX+

Thanks for the game, mate! Sorry for not saying some form of 'thank you' the moment i marked it as received, i was at work lol.

Btw just noticed your question and after some serious (lol2) thinking i would say Hi-Fi Rush. Expected just a good game, but it was so colorful, so full of energy, mechanics simply very well done. Enjoyed it much more than i expected and it just makes no sense how they decided to end such a talented studio. Loved Ghostwire Tokyo too btw, their previous game if i'm not mistaken.