This might be a slightly unusual attempt at a prompt, but might draw some appealing unusual options.
The way it goes: Suggest games, ideally the kind that you believe would have relatively broad appeal. Don’t feel bad about downvotes, but do downvote any game that’s suggested if you have heard of it before (Perhaps, give some special treatment if it was literally your game of the year). This rule is meant to encourage people to post the indie darlings that took some unusual attention and discovery to be aware of and appreciate.
If possible, link to the Steam pages for the games in question, so that anyone interested can quickly take a look at screenshots and reviews. And, as a general tip, anything with over 1000 steam reviews probably doesn’t belong here. While I’d recommend that you only suggest one game per post, at the very most limit it to three.
If I am incorrect about downvotes being inconsequential account-wide, say so and it might be possible to work out a different system.
The controls in GTA IV were realistic! Your car tyre would blip the curb and it would affect the stability of the car. Denting the car from every angle resulted in a uniquely deformed mesh that my god would still drive. Pedestrians would bounce off your bumper in unique and interesting ways. It was a simulation paradise.
In GTA V they changed all that, made it more midnight club and arcade-y as you said. You could literally decimate a crowd of people and they’d all die with the same canned animation. Cars would at most lose a door before considering deforming the whole mesh. It just felt dumbed down.
Saints Row is fun, but you play it once and then forget about it because there’s nothing to do once you reach godhood. Mercenaries was great fun, and Just Cause was a physics funbox, I’ll give you that