And the excitement I had has gone. Removed from wish list and added to ignore list.

Steam. Works on Linux.

I think there is a way technically with something like trueimage or clonezilla, but I’ve never used it. Always thought of my VM as a learning tool, and then used what I learnt to fresh install on real hardware

Don’t wait. Experiment now in a VM to learn the basics.

I would love Elden Ring, but so would many of the others…

Optional. What fills me with hope is knowing there are still people like the OP who are willing to giveaway to those of us who missed so many good games.

Merry xmas

I’m not 100% sure if this meets any of your requirements but I always enjoyed homeworld can’t remember if I’ve ever run it on Linux since switching tho.

As to the other requirements, I don’t think I found it that easy to get into as it took a while to get into the whole 3D map thing, and the graphics may have aged