Out of Pod Experience

Have you looked at The Witcher (I prefer 1 to 2) for single player.

For MMO, I recommend The Secret World, although I am not a fan of the MMO part of it, it is well worth playing the story through.

Shut your face.

Scary..i was about to suggest these two games my self

Like with Rhivre i also prefer The Witcher 1, great game, a lot of fun, interesting story and nice for that "break" when you dont want to play with others.

The Secret World is well worth giving a try. The story is really interesting, the quests can make you either laugh your head off, or want to throw the computer out the window. The game it self is very dark, not "everyone is happy and everything is great",and because of the skill wheel you dont have to start a new character if you want to try a different combat style. Being a former WOW player im fed up with instances and raids my self, but i play it for the story and quests.You will also find quite a few EVE players there

Two more i will add, but they are both older games.

Heroes of Might and Magic 3 (yes, the third one, not 4-6 ).
This is a game that has kept me returning to it for..gah..10 years or so. Its nice when you just want to kill a couple of hours, and not looking for something that really occupies your time. Turn based strategy game but you cant be picky about the old graphics

The Thief series.
Good story, and the gameplay really..draws you in. To the point that if someone talks to you, you whisper a response without thinking about it, and leaning around corners you lean over in real life
And of course, its also refreshing to be "the bad guy" for once instead of the "hero" which you are in most games

Edit.
If you have a taste for the more..unusual kind of games that makes you go "wtf.." Alice, madness returns is puurrrrfect

Keep going, Sin Pew. you are on a journey and I cannot follow.

I was always a sucker for strategy games. Especially Command & Conquer. I've replayed and beaten them games so many times, even years on I'm still addicted! If you've got a similar taste, maybe Civilization V is for you. I've not played it yet, but it's been suggested to me. I played the original Civilization many years ago but I've no idea what the more recent ones are like.

Besides that, I'm pretty out-of-touch with the "latest and greatest" too, if I'm honest. Sorry I can't offer any more input than that.

Good luck on your endeavour! :)

Zombies!!!!!!

Project Zomboid - A Zombie sandbox where you just run around and try to make it through the day. It's very cheap and addicting. Still has a few bugs and lacking in certain features, but the developers are doing everything they can do fix it. Can only be bought on Desura so far, but when you've purchased it you get the option to get a key for activation on Steam.
7 Days To Die - Day Z (look below) mixed with Minecraft. Got kickstarted. Haven't played it myself but it looks interesting.
Day Z - For most this doesn't need an introduction. It's a modification for Arma 2 (stand-alone in production) where players are dropped in a large world and just try to scavange and survive against zombies and other players. From my experience the game has quite a few hackers, but it's a year or so since I played it.
State of Decay - Haven't played it myself but from the Let's Play-videos I've seen it looks quite fun.

Others

Europa Universalis 4 - Play as any country in the world from the 1400's to the early 1800's and do whatever you wish. Conquer Europe, colonize the Americas, become the Shogun in Japan... It's a series that I've been playing since Europa Universalis 2 and this release is easily the best one yet.
Dwarf Fortress - Develop a Dwarven colony somewhere in a randomly generated world. It's like Dungeon Keeper that has gotten steroids since it was just a small sperm. And it's free. It also has an adventure mode where you can do anything you please. Personally I've entered a familys house, killed the daughter, tore her arm off and beated the rest of the family to death with it. Good times.
Brutal Doom - A modification to Doom 2 that lives up to its name.
Arma 3 - As close to a military simulation as you can get. Worth mentioning that the campaign hasn't arrived yet, but it's still worth it. Highly recommended

Edit: Hope you find my post helps. I can recommend way more games when I get home from work if you wish.

The combat system takes a bit to get used too
Might remember wrong here but pretty sure its accurate. When you fight something you click on the target once, and you will keep attacking the target even if you dont click on them again, but when the "attack symbol" turns into a flaming sword you click again and you will then get a stronger more advanced attack. So it takes a bit of timing but it works out ok.
You will also find that you need to switch between 3 combat styles (fast, hard and group). Hard is slow, thus you will miss faster creatures/people. Again takes some time to get used too.

You can also change the controls so its easier to move around on the first one. Playing on a laptop without a mouse means i have to use the touch pad which can cause difficulties in some games but thanks to the control options in Witcher this dident create any problems when i got used to it