I've been playing a lot of alphas and betas over the last few months. I've enjoyed my time away from mainstream gaming more than I thought I would. Alphas are more aggravating so I'll leave them out of this and stick to mostly late betas.

Banished is a game I've lost quite a few hours to. It doesn't really offer anything new to city building sims aside from maybe its premise. 64bit is still extremely crashy but 32bit is quite stable even with most mods. Mods tend to stay with additional aspects that should or probably will end up in the game. (Things that should be canon or at least an available selection.) There are a few expansion type mods, that change game play significantly, but in all the game is a nice laid back experience without them. It's a bit of a one man show and I fear it will never reach its true potential, but still a lot of fun. 



Kerbal Space Program is another one on Steam I've enjoyed playing. Me and my son have ran joint missions to build space stations and explore. This one is a blast (pun intended) even if crashy.



Another I'm admittedly excited for is World of Warships.



Not much to offer on this except it looks awesome.

I haven't played anything in years, but city planning geeks locally tend to go ago for Cities: Skylines.

Nice. Sim City has been a disappointment for at least the last two versions. The trailer for that looks interesting.

Appears to be something the boy will like too. Any game is more fun when you have some healthy competition though.  

Well, I can barely find the time to play the non-beta games I own.

Yeah I know what you mean. When I do have time I'm bored of everything I have. Kinda fishing for something different here. Although if anyone knows of a good combat flight simulator I'd go with that too.

You might argue fun little browser games like this are in some sort of perpetual beta.

http://adarkroom.doublespeakgames.com/

Stupid huts burn down easy. I left the modest village to get eaten by one of the many large beasts that often destroy traps.