Gaming

Fallout 76. Nice community, and I really enjoy the open world game and the dark humor that's Fallout.

Every few months, I will do a randomizer run of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. I've played it so much that it's like taking a relaxing walk through a familiar neighborhood. It also has a great soundtrack.

Believe it or not, Warcraft 2. There are three scenarios I like to play through. They are pretty mindless, have varying degrees of challenge, and are very low stress.

Through the years the one game I keep going back to when I just need a place to lose time

Elder Scrolls Online

Man I wish I had better tastes

Oddly enough I go through phases where I just level up a character on WoW. It's mindless for me and I can just zone out and watch TV while playing.

Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, and puzzle games like Myst, Riven, or The Witness. I love these escape-type games.

I get the headspace thing. It's been really hard for me to devote my mental energy and time to playing games recently. I've picked up the new Zelda game and have barely touched it.

For Me, Minecraft and Diablo

Minecraft - creative mode is like so therapeutic, you just create and create and create, then also the adventure mode is so fun because you can just roam and roam and be surprised at what you find. there is no goal really aside from staying alive, so there is no stress whatsoever (if you disregard the endgame goal).

Diablo, - like Minecraft adventure mode. If you skip the campaign, there is literally no goal, you can just roam and roam and smash enemies, and you can even lower the difficulty so you can smash those enemies HARD!, It's just so satisfying, and then you get surprise loot as a side benefit.

I have had a rough week, so I bought poly bridge 3. In 2 days I have over 6 hours, which for me is a lot!
There is something about this chill guitar music in the background that just keeps me going, trying to build the most efficient bridge.

For me my comfort games are either Satisfactory or Forgotten Hope 2 (WW2 mod for Battlefield 2 which is still maintained)

Harvest Moon 64. Impossible to have negative feelings while playing it.

For me it's Tribes 2. I can spend hours bouncing around with bots on some old favorite maps, and there's something weirdly serene about being able to just leave the map on a grav cycle and keep going because the terrain repeats.

I‘m on PlayStation and enjoyed games like Knack, Diablo 3, Spider-Man and Ratchet & Clank in those cases, because they keep me busy at all times. All of them are loud and tiring though. Other games like Assassins Creed, Ghost of Tsushima and Red Dead Redemption 2 are calmer, but they give my mind time to wander and think about stuff. Sometimes this suits me better, sometimes that.

Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot on the Switch?

A great deal of SNES games do this for me. Super Mario RPG, Mega Man X, Donkey Kong Country 1 and 2, Chrono Trigger, even the Mario All-Star games to a point. It's all likely because it's such a great system and developers really hit their stride with what they could do with 16-bit gaming on that console.

baldurs gate: dark alliance

they recently remade it for pc. no online i think, but couch coop is included. Lots if fond memories playing that in early 00s

Gravity Rush 2 for me. I have save I've kept for years now to fly around and explore the city. I already have done everything, but it's still so fun and relaxing to find new landmarks or walk through the different districts. Feels like the kind of game world I'd love to live in (assuming a gravity girl didn't pull me into her orbit and launch me into space)

The Way of the Hunter and theHunter: Call of the Wild. Starting a podcast and then slowly walk through beautiful nature and taking in the ambience. Or free roam in Firewatch. Next best to actually going outside 🙃.

Then Sailwind (sailing around delivering cargo with navigation as challenge). Also, Call of the Wild: The Angler and Fishing: North Atlantic.

Lake is also a beautiful game — delivering packages and enjoying the story.

I think you get the theme 🙃.

The good old Flight Simulators (MSFS 2020, X-Plane, DCS World) — problem here is to first get use to the many keys again after a longer break.

When I’m bored and have a couple hours to fill, I often go back to Unpacking. It’s so cozy and satisfying.

Slay the spire and BTD6 are games I play when I don't know what to play.

Lately, Battle Brothers. It's god damn brutal but I love min maxing my bros and carefully playing essentially battle-chess with them before dying horribly and restarting my save.