Suggest-a-game

[Havan_IronOak]

For my money Sid Meiers is a gaming genius. Several people have mentioned the Civ Games and I'm a huge fan. Civilization V is one of my faves of all time. But there's a game called Railroad Tycoon III that is amazing. I got my copy at Walmart for $9.99 but I've spent hundred of hours playing it. The campaign takes you through scenarios where you construct and run railroads. The scenarios are, for the most part, historically based.  The game also has elements of finance and stock trading, a very elaborate cargo handling system (if you elect to explore it)

There is a problem running this game on any computers since Windows XP but there is a fix (I now play it in Windows8.1). I'd recommend that you try the game. I believe that it's available on Steam for under $10

[Havefun]

Banished is very good, but as someone else suggested, play for a few hours without mods first.

[JimmyAgnt007]

My vote is with Kerbal Space Program.  new 1.0 release is out monday and its a perfect time to start.  dont wait for a sale, just buy it, its worth every penny.

[MarSmith]

Buzz Aldrin's Space Program Manager is always fun, if you want a really, ahem fun game, read the history of it, and go grab Race into Space.

Railroad Tycoon 2 is always fun. I tend to play it on long train rides.

Europa Universalis 3 was a really good time sink, as is Hearts of Iron 3, especially with the Black Ice mod, that's my go to, airplane time sink for travel.

As a lot of people said, Fallout. Fallout is good, especially New Vegas......

[BetaSpectre]

Solarmax 2 (flash game) you control blue dots of dust (representing starships) and go about taking over planets. One by one in a linear spot by spot basis.

Warlight it plays like Risk but its online and flash.

Sins of a Solar Empire, The game is like many modern RTS games where you have a hero unit built (Capital Ships) at a special hero making building, and normal units built elsewhere (Frigate factories) The game is about colonizing planets to sack them for their resources to build ships to sack other planets until your fleets can dominate the enemy either through destruction or brainwashing (Propaganda reduces enemy planet allegiance if low enough they rebel letting you take them).

[cultist]

It's not really anything like Rimworld, but I was pleasantly surprised by Thief (the new one), which I picked up cheaply some time ago.
The story and voice acting are both kind of hammy, but there is a LOT of free-roaming and exploring you can do at your own pace - great for completionists, voyeurs and kleptomaniacs alike. It even has some decent horror bits.