With gaming often bringing me into a really depressive headspace sometimes with how the markets are developing, whats a game you can always go to and just be lost in, or just be happy with?
Personally i would go for advance wars 1 and 2 on the gba (there is no remake and never will be)
the artstyle, the music, the game-play is just simple, yet effective, a sublime experience of very fun times.
Whats yours?
Minecraft. It’s just a nice game to get lost in.
Outer wilds. The music is so pretty, and going back to it after you’ve explored it all feels like being on your childhood playground again. Sometimes now I just go out into space and watch how the planets move.
Second this. Outer Wilds is amazing. If you do play, try not to look up anything as the satisfaction of exploring and figuring things out is so cool. The sound track is very good as is the DLC.
Ooo heavy second Outer Wilds. Very fantastic game and comforting.
Been meaning to play it after I bought it a while ago. I’ll have to get to it this weekend
How would you sell that game to someone? I keep hearing about it but know nothing about it? What makes you love it?
The outer wilds is an exploration game of the highest pedigree. You’re in an intricate solar system with lots to discover and puzzle out to solve the central mystery of the game. The atmosphere is quite fun and calming. The music is pretty catchy too. I appreciate the big revelations, the moments where you immediately feel big brained by putting 2 and 2 together. It’s genuinely a really good time if you want game about the wonder of discovery.
Thank you, sounds like it’d be up my alley.
There’s a reason you keep hearing how good the game is but still don’t know much about it. The community is great in letting everyone experience it themselves.
It’s best if you know nothing about Outer Wilds before playing it, trust me. I know this is a cliché way of recommending stuff, but in this case it can’t be overstated. Just give it an honest try for at least 1-2 hours.
It’s a game that gives you “2”, “plus”, and “two” separately, instead of telling you the answer is 4. Some people don’t like it and prefer handholding. Half of the game is done in your head when you’re not playing it.
So basically a game that’s heavy on exploration and puzzles? It’s not open world is it?
Not in the way BOTW is, it’s closer to Myst in that there’s a world (solar system) to explore with lots clues and lore but not a lot of irrelevant fluff.
Gotcha, I prefer a bit of structure (BOTW being one of few exception) so that works out for me.
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I haven’t seen anyone mentioning this gem:
Vampire Survivors
A lot of the derived games are pretty fun for a while, too!
Stardew Valley comes to mind right away, but I think it applies to all titles after you get the hang of it, with the exception of heavily RNG-based games like Risk of Rain 2, Hades, Dead Cells where you have to be alert almost all the time. Currently I’m enjoying playing Red Dead Redemption 2. Definitely a comfort game just riding your horse around.
I tried Stardew Valley one time, and it killed me. I would probably call myself a completionist and all the stuff I have to remember from the get go and dates and times I need to be somewhere to don’t miss out just made me stressed out. But I haven’t looked into it if you really miss out or you can do the stuff later, too. It was I while ago… perhaps I will give it another try.
Stardew Valley is as stressful as you wanna make it lol
I don’t think you can actually permanently fail anything. If you want to just farm and ignore socializing with people that’s totally fine, you can always raise your friendship with them later, once the farm is more established. Having sprinklers installed really cuts down on tedium.
Adventuring in the mines is another way to go, you can ignore farming for a while if you like, or just do it on rainy days.
Or you can just spend all your time socializing until you are maxed out and don’t need to anymore (stardew wiki required if you want to keep your sanity figuring out how to max socialize).
It’s all valid.
Don’t get me wrong, it can get stressful at times, but I’m on my fourth playthrough and this time, I suddenly stopped caring so much about the story, I just like doing the tasks. Fishing is trance-like, I love that mini game so much.
I see. I will probably try it again some day.
I’m surprised Katamari Damacy hasn’t been mentioned yet. Both that game and its sequel, “We Love Katamari,” have been remastered in recent years (in fact, the sequel just came out last week) and they’re a joy to play.
The game has all that OP mentions… Quirky art style, awesome music, simple tactile gameplay, and just overall a relaxing and fun time.
Slay the Spire for me. Got all the characters to A20 with multiple heart wins, 700+ hours in across phone and steam deck, still having a blast with every run. The awesome thing is that every run is so distinct, every card in the game can be good in the right scenario.
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I love playing Spire on my iPad! It’s such a fun and strategic game!! I love how every run is different and getting OP feels so fun!
And then you add mods…
Great game. My kid used to love doing fun runs. Making all the choices, consequences be damned.
Satisfactory ! This game is an addiction for, I can play for hours, for me it’s very relaxing to build factory with no timer and great graphics !
+1 for satisfactory Not hard to learn, but extremely hard to master ^^ Trying to create as effective factories as possible is time consuming but rewarding
Minecraft and Stardew Valley.
There are a lot of games I’ve spent a lot of time in, but none come close to Fallout New Vegas.
I left my heart in the Sierra Madre.
What are your feelings on the other fallout games?
The top-downs are classics.
The Bethesda games don’t really do a lot for me personally, mainly because I really like to get into the lore of games, and Bethesda games usually break the lore a lot. That, and I just haven’t found the world’s they made as interesting. That said, lots of people love them, so don’t let some grump on the internet talk you out of enjoying something.
Subnautica.
When I’m not running for my life from creatures trying to kill me then ambiance is actually very chill. Something about being in a giant ocean. Not to mention the soundtrack is pretty chill. And the environments are cool as heck!
Transport Tycoon, using OpenTTD. If you’ve never played it you can download OpenTTD and use their graphics, sounds, and music replacement sets to play it for free. However as I own the base game I like to keep the original music as it helps to drive the nostalgia.
I love Doom, and I’ve been playing it since I first got hold of the shareware episode, but when I really need a comfort game it’s almost always Transport Tycoon.
I was just thinking about Doom the other day, and how mind-blowing it was when it came out, and being able to play on the network with friends.
I’d really like someone to make a movie / documentary about it, I’d be fascinated to know how it was developed.
Pure comfort? Pokemon Crystal Clear - it’s like healing for the soul after a long day of marking.
Less pure comfort? Darkest Dungeon - because sometimes you need to feel pain to really relax!
Boy, time to relax from my incredibly stressful job! boots up exceedingly difficult game Why are we like this? lol
Me: boots up game to de-stress
Game: “My name is Malenia, blade of miquella”
Man the brutal rng in darkest just makes me never want to touch it again. I know that’s a huge part of those kinds of games but in that game in particular in just feels extra painful
It’s a hard game to play if you’re playing a story about the lives of your characters. What got me over the hump was a change in view - it’s not a story about a party of heroes that save the world, it’s a story about the price paid before people can become heroes (and at least try to save the world before having a heart attack because a tiny pig man squealed too loud).
As soon as I started thinking of it as a horror game rather than an rpg, things just clicked more.
Slay the Spire is a big one. Casually smacking out wacky runs during a lunch break is the bee knees.
Brotato is good for this too, even if the game can be a bit repetitive. I wish it would grow even bigger with more items, more deep mechanics, more everything. Thank goodness there’s modding.
As a kid, Alien versus Predator co-op survival maps were a big one. Mindless mayhem clears the mind like nothing else.
My two most frequented games would be Stardew valley or Animal crossing. Specifically the GameCube version (emulation if you don’t have one) or New Horizons (been surprisingly refreshing)
Nothing against the other versions I just haven’t tried them.
I still remember Square Enix having a whole Nintendo conference where every single game had farming aspects to it. Now I wonder how many of those games people would actually find enjoyable.
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Power wash simulator. Feels good to clean.
This game, and a podcast or some music, is the perfect way to unwind.
