Deadlock

Factorio. When it first came out, I played about 30 mins and I couldn't really get into it. Few months later I tried again, and now have over 3000 hours logged into it!

Outer wilds

Barotrauma, but moreso the Submarine Editor side. I've sunk over twenty hours making only two subs and I love it

Valheim.

The first time I tried it, I got a really terrible seed, which turned me off pretty quickly. I also went in solo and blind.

My second time around, I got a pretty decent seed.

One where the Swamps actually gave me iron for once, and the Plains and Mistlands weren't surrounding my tiny ass meadows spawning area...

I also watched a few tutorials and played with friends.

By the end, I had 1800 hours in the game and had built entire towns in vanilla mode.

I spent about twice as much time in creative/debug mode just building away.

I haven't played in a year but I can't wait to dive back in with the new North location once it releases.

balatro

Baldur's Gate 2.

It was the game that took my CRPG virginity. However, I finished the escape from the dungeon (basically the intro) and stopped playing it for a couple of years.

Then I randomly tried it again one weekend in university while drunk and marathoned it.

Skyrim was this for me. Took me a bunch of tries to get into it but its one of my most played games now

Monster Hunter.

There's a community saying: everyone loves Monster Hunter, they just haven't played it enough yet. It's an incredibly common experience for new Monhun players to hate it on their first or even second go around, but then eventually fall in love! It happened for me twice in fact. I played Tri on the Wii back when I was a kid, and then World on release in college, but did not get far either time. Then I tried it again a few years later and now I have played at least one monster hunter game from every generation as well as most of the spinoffs and it is my favourite series ever!

Arma 3 was a big reason why I built my first PC. Purchased it in alpha and fucking hated every second of it. Tried it again here and here but it just never clicked, everything was so confusing and it got worse as more dlc and mods were released...I just figured full simulations weren't my thing but was still happy to support the game. In 2022 some friends had me join them for some KotH and I finally learned the basics. Then I joined an Antistasi group, told them I was new and they taught me everything. Now I own the entire series and routinely play A2, A3, and Reforger...I literally have a 2tb ssd just for Arma because I have so many mods, like I am full blown addicted to this shit now.

Dwarf Fortress back in the day (I think it's more user friendly now). I just couldn't figure out how to do most things.

Then I just decided to like job it: watched some videos, took some notes -- basically did my homework, then was able to build a base and last long enough to starve. And again. Then the next time ran out of booze. Then was doing great but eventually had too many dwarfs and starved again. Then goblins. Then a big monster. And it goes on like that and that's the fun!

Disco Elysium for me! Didn't understand it and thought it was weird. On the third try, it was amazing. I finally understood what it was trying to do. It was an art piece and I don't think I'll ever have that same journey again for a long while.

Sekiro

Space Engineers. It was a bit hard to get at first, but then it clicked like crazy

Hollow Knight

Monster Hunter for me.

Slay The Spire. You never seemed to get powerful enough and the fights always whittled away my health. Much later I played Balatro and this sonehow inspired me to give it another go.

I do think some of the boss design is anti-fun though, or at least punishing you for not following the build the developers want you to. The sequel already seems to be better for letting you play it your way.

Path of Exile. My friend introduced me to the game but he was a hardcore player so I started playing hardcore with him. A few years later I decided to try the game on my own in softcore and got addicted.

I have close to 5000h despite only playing like 8 leagues. (And who knows how many hours on PoB)

Mass Effect. I didn’t get far in the original. Played the Legendary Edition trilogy all the way through. Went back to the original. It’s the tank (Mako). It dies in like 2-3 hits and you get less XP for kills in it. It’s just not fun and they never fixed it in the original. Legendary fixes it. At the very least, it’s balanced to the game’s difficulty setting. Where in the original it’s stuck on the hardest setting, but only for the Mako missions.

Original came out in like 2007, Legendary came out in like 2016. Might be off by a year or two with one or both.

TF2

Both Project Zomboid and Old School Runescape. Dropped both of them quick the first time around and now they are the only two games I play