I only purchase full price games under one of 2 conditions. Either it’s a series that I deeply love and know for certain will always put out quality games (Zelda, Mario, Monster Hunter) or it’s a game that is extremely well reviewed and doesn’t go on sale (factorio, other Nintendo games)
As for whether I believe a game I’ve purchased was worth it, I don’t equate hours invested to price worthiness, but rather my overall enjoyment. I’ve put too many hours into games I regret ever buying (Ark) and played some games that were far too short but I would’ve paid double for (Outer Wilds). Rather, I believe it’s how much the game affects you when you come out of it. Ark was a frustrating, grindy experience, but Outer Wilds literally changed who I am as a person. When I play something like Sonic Frontiers I come out in awe, and giddy with how much excitement that game gave me, but when I play something like Elder Scrolls Online, I don’t dislike it but I don’t feel anything special. Frontiers was absolutely a worthy purchase but ESO was not, because one really affected me and the other, even though I wouldn’t call it a bad game, just didn’t really do anything to me.
I’ve been a pc gamer all my life but controller has always easily been the superior choice. For first person shooters and strategy games I’ll go KBM sure, but for every other kind of game I’ll go controller when I can get away with it. It’s significantly more comfortable for me and I’m much more familiar with it.
3 just feels a little more polished than 4. The transition to 3D was very cool but I think the developer’s inexperience with working in 3D hurt the game a little. Plus 3 has a lot more user content than 4 due to being much older. They are both very good games regardless!
Creeper World is sort of like this. Basically the enemy is a self replicating liquid that destroys everything it touches and you have to fight it off and secure each map. It was originally a flash game so go with those expectations but it’s pretty fun regardless. I recommend CW3 as the best one.
Here’s one that most of you have probably not heard of. Monster Hunter Frontier.
MHF was a Monster Hunter MMO that ran from 2007 to 2019 and was exclusive to Asia. Recently, a dedicated team of community members have managed to revive it with community servers.
It is brutally difficult, only partially translated, and has some genuinely awful controls, BUT
It’s only around 6GB and completely free.
If for some reason you want to try it I highly recommend joining the rain server, as it is the most populated and stable one. They also have a setup guide for how to install on their discord server I recommend you use.