I've recently gotten back into Path of Exile and the next league starts on Friday, so I've been dusting off the cobwebs in anticipation. But Hitman 2 is definitely on my wishlist. I may pick up the version with the previous game if it goes on sale in the next month.

I saw a gameplay video, basically the player kept throwing coins on the ground and the idiot AI would follow a scripted path to "investigate" the same way every time while the player would walk right by their face.

Exciting.

And that's what you get from watching, not playing.
As the player, you'd have to be aware of your surroundings, whether any other NPCs have line of sight on you or your target, whether you should be in the area or not, whether you're wearing the right disguise to be in the area... lots of situational awareness that won't come across to people watching that haven't played the game before.
Most FPS games could be reduced to "I watched a guy move a cursor over another guy and click a button" if you bring it down to that, but as you are fully aware, that's facile in the exteme.

I'm also playing through all of Half-Life 2 again

Not yet

Assassins Creed Origins and Spiderman to play before I buy RDR2

I need a new game to play, but with no time to invest in immersing myself in one I just end up going back to old favourites for half an hour at a time.

My eldest on the other hand is getting into some PC games, he (7) likes pinball and Terraria at the moment. He was very impressed that my player visited his world one evening and helped decorate his castle (and left a fancy sword in his weapons chest).
Having to consider a second Steam account soon I think, for a bit of multiplayer action - particularly when he wants to get into Minecraft.. does anyone else do this with their young ones?
edit: so minecraft isn't even on Steam? Shows how much I know these days...

Meanwhile I gave Dead Cells a go, and I can't seem to put it down. The game is very punishing but the controls are so fluid and fast that you don't care that you have to start over *yet again*.
For those who don't know: Dead Cells is a selfproclaimed "Roguevania', ie a Metroidvania map layout but with Roguelike rules - permadeath, generated maps, exponentially harder each level of the dungeon you enter. The only thing thats retained between deaths are permanent upgrades/abilities (which you buy with collected 'cells' at a vendor between levels) and the increased chance of finding better items each playthrough. An excellent game

my oldest (of 8) casually plays minecraft from time to time, basically just creative mode. He has friends from school who are obsessed with the game and when they come over he just tags along. He just doesn't seem as interested in the game other than faffing about when he's bored.

We're smashing through Guacamelee in co-op together, he loves it. He has genuine lols over the corny jokes and animations, and the combat system is basically just button mashing.
I'll probably have to do the harder fights alone when we get there... at some point the combat system actually requires you to pay attention.

DENZ!!!!

Hey!! I thought about this place the other day and sure enough this place is still going strong. I am coming back. I have been gaming a lot but not quake until this morning. Having a blast playing Quake again.

not sure how I feel about this

Its a slow burn. Sat through all 35 minutes of credits enjoying the great soundtrack and watching the clips that...

Its a slow burn. Sat through all 35 minutes of credits enjoying the great soundtrack and watching the clips that tied up everything nicely right to the beginning of RDR1. I'm glad I refreshed my memory on the RDR1 story via youtube before starting this game. It made the epilogue much better.

I felt like I did a ton of exploring but looking at the compendium I only came across half of the 550 or so animals in the game.

I’ve not touched it in weeks. I don’t know how you guys find the time.

I guess you would know...lol?