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.
I haven’t seen anyone mentioning this gem:
Vampire Survivors
A lot of the derived games are pretty fun for a while, too!
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It is still Guild Wars 2 for me.
It is very chill to play and only explore and it also has more challenging content if i feel like it. Best MMO out there. At least for me personally.
If anyone can show me the way to a guild wars 2 community here i would be grateful btw.
i just might get back into it for it
I have the base game. I played for a couple hours but haven’t got the “hook”. It feels very… unfulfilling… “objective marker on map, done, next”. Maybe not for me or I’m playing it wrong?
Honestly I still come back to old school RuneScape every now and then for that comfy nostalgia. Even as I type I get that pang to go questing.
To me, the best approach for base game, has always been to tackle it similar to Zelda BOTW/TOTK - you should just wander around until you find something interesting and then hang around and see what events might pop up. It’s not a very quest-driven experience similar to other MMOs and requires a bit of a different mindset.
Yeah we do not quest like other mmos, except in the campaign maybe. Which i always found refreshing and way better. I dont like to run from one questgiver to the next and back and do fetch quests, just to access the rest of the game. Cannot play those games anymore.
It is a theme park where you decide where to go. You could go to pvp from the start since stats are the same for everyone, or boost to 80 and start the expansions or wvw right away.
Funny thing about the markers on the map is , that most of them got added after launch because people did not know where to go and many complained it felt to empty.
They wanted to make it feel more real, so you have to get used to dynamic events and meta trains.
No other game that i know of has those grand fights with hundred of people against giant bosses like guild wars. Or mounts that feel different to play and not just means to travel. Check youtube for griffon and rollerbeetle races. Amazing stuff.
The combat seems to be simple sometimes but that is mostly in the open world and beginner zones.
Depending on the class, endgame in group content can be quite difficult. But the nice thing is that almost everything is optional.
Gotta set your own goals.
The achievement panel is sometimes confusing but once you learn to navigate and stick them to your HUD they become your questlog and there are a lot of them.
It also has no subscription so you can take all the time you need, which also helps socializing.
The fee to get the whole game can maybe be steep and the starter story is a bit old fashioned, but at least you own everything and it is cheaper and has more things to do than most other games these days.
It is understandable if you are not into it tho. We all play games for different reasons and like or dislike certain mechanics.
Just wanted to give you a rundown why i like it so sorry for the wall of text. :)
I appreciate it! It helps me understand what turned me off. I’ll look into giving it another shot when I want a break from Deep Rock Galactic.
Portal. I’ve played through it enough times that I can complete it in a little under 20 minutes. I’m not very good at games but there are a lot of fun and easy tricks to run through it quickly. Playing it a bunch of times is relaxing and fun for me.
Anyone of my simulation/management games. Whether it’s running a hospital, creating an auto manufacturing assembly line or helping some brave adventurers find oxygen I’m always more at peace with a single player goal driven experience.
Cities: Skylines.
Have you ever tried Dwarf Fortress?
I have not. I looked at it when all the hype was going around towards its new release on Steam. I should probably pick it up at some point. I’ve been holding off on getting many new games since my kiddo was born. Not much time to play them anymore! Haha.
No Man’s Sky is a good mix of nice scenery, low stress, and engaging without requiring a lot of mental capacity that can be comforting.
Im gonna be “that guy” and say dark souls 1. Subsequent playthroughs of the game are surprisingly relaxing, when you know where everything is and you’re just putting together a build and steamrolling bosses.
Agreed. And when you do want the old intensity back, you can try a challenge run or fire up a randomizer for some chaos.
I’m actually just about to start my first SL1 playthrough! I’ve had a look at some guides and it looks like damage output isnt a problem if you get rhe master key and know where to go.
Was going to say the exact same thing! First playthrough is super stressful, but each time after it pretty much becomes casual.
I think that the bonfires are actually not that far apart when you really know where they are, with the exception of a few areas.
There is something about how casual the subsequent playthroughs are that is really cathartic. Like you’re just walking over challenges that seemed insurmountable the first time through.
Yep, knowing where things are is a relief from stress. This is also why the Fog Gate Randomizer mods are so fun.
Ah I haven’t heard of that one. Mods in ds1 are an avenue I haven’t explored yet, but the item and boss randomizers look really fun.
Oh man, [https://www.nexusmods.com/darksouls/mods/1305](Item Randomizer) and [https://www.nexusmods.com/darksoulsremastered/mods/165](Fog Gate Randomizer) together (they’re compatible!) is my jam. I was so mad the one time a key item was placed where the Blue Slab is in Crystal Caverns.
Edit: Doesn’t look like links are working very well yet!
Thanks! Any builds that work better in randomizers than others, or is it just about being flexible on what you find early on?
That’s kind of the thing, you won’t know what’ you’ll get until you play, so you can’t really plan. One time I had to jump between spear and pike until I got something good. Another run I got the Giant’s Blacksmith Hammer (not from him) during my first few areas.
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’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.
i tried the remake of the first one and personally, i didnt like it, it felt like they added minutes to the timers and generally feels off, but im glad you like the remakes
Interesting. I played the original ages ago (like, as a Japanese bootleg before it got localized for Western markets) and only played the remake last year… Can’t say I noticed a difference in difficulty, and hunting down 100% Achievements was QUITE the challenge.
“We Love Katamari” DOES feel off to me, though. Like, I get kind of frustrated at the density of objects, and it’s never a feel I’ve experienced with the original or its remaster.
i see, let me give you an example than, in the original, as we are surely both familiar with, one very early level has you transition from a room to a garden and than the outside of the house. In the ps2 version i have roughly, a minute between finishing the level and it actually ending most of the time. In the remaster, on my first try i sat there for several minutes before it actually ended, so idk what they did, but they changed something.
Over the past years I’ve played a lot of relaxing indie- and open source games. The ones that really stuck with me were Eqilinox (Steam), Endless Sky (homepage, open source) and Veloren (homepage, open source).
Bonus game which just came to my mind: Slime Rancher (Steam) was a really fun, too!
Slime Rancher is great. My 4 year old loves it, Slime Rancher 2 is out on early access and is just as great.
Ooh, I didn’t even know about Slime Rancher 2, thanks for the tip!
I’ve never tried Veloren, is it pretty enjoyable to play as it is now?
It has developed a LOT during the past 1 or 2 years, to the point that you can easily spend hundreds even thousands of hours in this game without it getting boring. Veloren is slowly becoming one of my favourite games of all time. So… yeah, it is. Be aware that it is still an alpha though and the learning courve is quite steep. But you can always get help on the Veloren Discord Server.
If it’s that far along I’ll definitely have to check it out then! Thanks for the info, and I’ll make sure to check the discord as well 👍
At the moment I’d probably say: Minecraft, Celeste, Vampire Survivors, Hollow Knight, and the Valve single-player games like Half-Life 1/2 and Portal 2.
Power wash simulator. Feels good to clean.
Satisfactory ! This game is an addiction for me, I can play for hours, for me it’s very relaxing to build factory with no timer and great graphics !
edit : missing word
Currently it’s Tears of the Kingdom. The music, the atmosphere, stable side quests etc. make it so chill and comforting. Some others are Ori and the will of the wisps, My time at Portia, Spiritfarer, Crosscode. Witcher 3 is also great to get lost in and forget about real life.
Yeah TotK is mad chill. I love it
