Okay let me start with two heavy hitters right from the get go and don't forget these are only personal oppinions and I absolute understand if you like those games. Good for you!
Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Not a bad game per se, but I don't get the hype behind it. Sure the dungeons are fun but the world is so lifeless, the story non existent, the combat pretty shallow, the tower climbing is very much like FarCry but for some reasons it's okay here while Ubisoft gets the blame...like I said I dont get why the game is so beloved. Never finished it after the 20 hour mark and probably never will.
Red Dead Redemption 2 - Just like Zelda not a bad game, but imho highly overrated. Graphics and and atmosphere are amazing but the controls are clunky and overloaded, nearly everybody is an unlikable douchebag who I would love to shoot myself at the first opportunity (maybe except Jack and Abigail) but I have to root and care for them. The game is just so long and feels very stretched, you already know that you won't get Dutch because it's a prequel and for an open world game you often get handholded in your weapon selection or things you can do because you have to wait for them to be unlocked by the game. I'm now nearly done with the game, playing the epilogue at the moment and I would say the last chapters are more entertaining than the rest of the game, but I still can't understand why this game was on so many game of the year lists and I really wanted to put the controller down a dozen times.
So there they are, two highly controversial oppinions by me and now I'm really curios what your takes are and how highly I get downvoted into oblivion ๐
It's funny...I bounced right off Minecraft but I like games like Satisfactory and Factorio.
A lot of people play Minecraft as an outlet for creativity; it has an end game with a final boss and a victory condition, but most people don't even try to "win" Minecraft, they want to build cool things. Well between my electronics bench, my wood shop, my 3D printer and my various creative, design and programming software suites, I already build a lot of cool stuff, so that itch is already scratched.
Those factory building games come with a clearly stated goal: "You've crash landed on an alien planet with a hammer and a pistol with 100 shots. Build a rocket." I'll spend months of my life building a gigantic complex of individual factories connected by an intricate rail network to accomplish that goal. I've heard this kind of thing described as "problem solving gameplay" rather than "puzzle solving gameplay."
As you say I don't hate Minecraft, I'm often awed and inspired at the things people have built in it, but it's not for me.
Have you played Mindustry? It's an open source game available on Linux. I've heard people describe it as an "open source Factorio".
I haven't, but I'll give it a look.