Creatures Caves

There's... a lot of good games I could list. I'm going to assume you're more partial to simulations than other types of games, so I'll start with that.

My Tribe is a casual civilisation-management game. It's a really fun game with a lot of heart, but it's often overshadowed by Virtual Villagers, a similar game which has been turned into a soulless, money-sucking franchise. Your tribe is made up of born wanderers, and you choose the island to colonise. Each island has a random set of "mysteries", which will give your tribes perks when solved. When your technology has advanced enough, you can choose to set sail and settle another island with a crew of your choice. Each of your tribespeople have a name and face, and will pass down appearances and skills if they have children.

Startopia is a space station management game developed by veterans of the Dungeon Keeper team (both games also on GOG). It's very tongue-in-cheek, never taking itself seriously. There's a campaign and also a sandbox mode. Different alien races have different needs and wants, and in the "park" area of the station you're able to terraform and control the climate.

Space Colony HD is a space base management game. It has a sandbox mode and two sets of missions. The first set is mostly about tourists and patrons. The second set is more aggressive, settling a hostile frontier sort of thing, which I didn't touch much. What makes Space Colony different to other games is that you have a specific cast for your crew--not faceless NPCs, actual characters with actual preferences. Characters who don't get along well may start fights, so you'll have to assign their jobs carefully. They're cheesy and funny in that way.

Geneforge isn't a simulation game, but GOG has all five of them for $14.99 and they're all great games. Isometric, turn-based RPGs that put the R in role-playing. If you're sick of fantasy RPGs written by people who can't wrap their heads around the idea that "fantasy" can mean more than just "magical sexy treehuggers with pointy ears" and "short, loud hairy miners and smiths" then this'll be a breath of fresh air. You play as a Shaper, a secretive sect of magicians who can create life. The series spans the fall (or not!) of the Shapers, from a ship-wrecked apprentice's discovery of sentient life on a forgotten island, to the rebellion and revolution of the creations.

The Trouble with Robots is an RTS where you draw cards to summon units. It's Flash-based, so weak computers can handle it well. It's a funny game where you lead the denizens of Middle Turf against the robots who want to turn the land into commercial centres. There are a lot of cards to unlock. A few of the bonus challenge levels are perhaps overly difficult (I haven't been able to beat them yet), but I've never felt frustrated or cheated by the game.

The Strange and Somewhat Sinister Tale of the House at Desert Bridge (scroll down for download) is a quirky adventure game about the disappearance of a wizard, Old Man Bill. It's touching, well-written, and never lets the gravity of the situation suck out its humour and soul. It's a very human story, even though you may be the only human around for miles. It's free, and runs fine on Windows 8; just don't increase the font size via the Control Panel.