Honestly, I fire up the Xbox and play the original Halo on easy difficulty. It's like hanging out with an old friend.
Same, either Halo and the Silent Cartographer or Halo 2 and Metropolis. Those two levels are my video game comfort food.
You should check out Stardew Valley. Super chill game that evolves at your own pace.
Don't like to fish on the game? Don't fish.
Don't like to go in the mines and fight stuff? Don't go in the caves.
Play on a PC and want to spend hours just modding the hell out of the game? Go for it.
I couldn't get into it. Felt very stressful to me. Like I had to do something productive every day before night. It's probably more my fault than the game's fault though.
I love these types of games, and I've tried to get into it multiple times... But everything feels like it's on such a strict timer. I just want to chill and farm/explore/talk to people without worrying if I spent too much time enjoying myself doing any one particular thing. If it had some kind of sandbox mode or if you could slow down the time, I'd give it another go.
I get like this in any sort of "real time passes" games, with some exceptions. If you have a limited amount of time to do a limited amount of things in game, my mind starts min/maxing what I should be doing every moment in game. In Outer Wilds the passage of time matters less cause you always start back at zero, what you gain each run is just knowledge, you don't lose out and fall behind on any resources, points or whatever cause you didn't do certain things that day.
Stardew valley is way too stressful to me, I have to make the most of each day and if I'm not I'm wasting it
Don't overthink it. Minecraft. Vanilla survival world. Don't try to optimize and automate everything (unless you find that relaxing). Make your farm look like a farm. Mine until until your inventory is full. Build towards an Ender Dragon or Wither fight if you have time. Go mining or fishing or do base chores or a beautification project if you don't.
I tried Minecraft way back, so maybe it's changed, but I don't do to well in setting my own goals in a game. I liked Subnautica because there was an interesting story element and mystery that kept you engaged as you moved towards your goal of getting off planet. In the process of reaching the goal, yeah, I wanna make my base look nice, wanna build some cool things, but my overall actions were still being compelled by the storytelling and world-building of the game. I don't see those elements in Minecraft but again, it's been a long time since I played.
Solitaire oddly enough. Just sit there, throw up a YouTube playlist on my second monitor, open up the game on my main, and just unwind.
RimWorld. It's so fun watching your colonists at work, peacefully farming, and suddenly one of them gets hit by a chunk of steel followed by a hundred bear raid.
Very relaxing.
Especially in the winter,I like to fire up The Long Dark. I put on the exploration setting where the wildlife doesn't attack. You still have to deal with the need for food and warmth, so there are still stakes. Just not the anxiety inducing animal attacks. There's a sort of bleak beauty to the game.
No Man's Sky has a very chill vibe. I don't play it super often, but it's probably the chillest game I play semi-regularly.
And by its very nature, it's forgiving of long absences. It's so easy to just pick it back up, probably take some time to admire the 10 new updates Hello Games has released since you last played, and then settle in for some chill gameplay.
I'll never finish No Man's Sky, and I wouldn't even say I play it, exactly. But it's one of my very favorite places to visit, and I will probably continue to visit for years and years to come.
Personally, i just need a game that lets me do something pretty. Satisfactory was mentioned, or City Skylines. Or something that is highly nostalgic and familiar, like Skyrim, Halo or Minecraft. I don't intrinsically need to think in these cases, which is my goal. I'm a programmer, so anything that lets me shut my brain off and just exist is great. Sometimes BloonsTD is also a great game for this, but it's situational.
Counter intuitively, most "casual" games like Stardew don't really fit this vibe for me because of the daily time limit. I need to pick and choose what tasks to do in a day, and I always fall into a min-max schedule, which requires effort. Much as I love them, I also avoid story driven games like Baldur's Gate when I need to unwind, because I really need to pay attention to progress, and there kinda isn't any mindless grinding. Multiplayer games with randos is also strictly out. No League, COD, Battlefield, Fortnite etc... Just in general. Don't like 'em, never did, hate that they are so prolific. They're just stressful.
Skyrim. Meme mods aside, the vibe and soundtrack are just...chef's kiss
Oblivion for me
Burnout Paradise
There are few games where winning and losing are equally fun, but Burnout Paradise pulls it off flawlessly.
You hit that turn with the perfect drift? Hell yeah. Oh shit, there was a car waiting for you at that intersection and now you have to watch your car and their car get smashed, crumpled, and tossed like a bag of moldy tangerines in slow motion? Hell yeah.
Breath of the Wild. I mean, yes, there are quests, bosses, temples, shrines, minigames and whatnot, but it is also completely fine to just fetch your favorite horse from the stable and ride across Hyrule, hunting wildlife, watching the sunset, cooking food for your character, maybe have Wolf Link accompany you on a hunt, just taking in the scenery, foarge for mushrooms, looking for shooting stars at night ... a little bit of reality escape helps to unwind after a long, hectic day. And this game is unreasonably beautiful as well, despite the simplyfied graphics.
Stardew Valley. It's chill if you let it be. There aren't really hard time limits and you can always farm things and complete challenges on your own time
The latest Zelda games for me, I just wander around aimlessly and it helps me relax.
No Man's Sky.
After the mildly stressful intro (which isn't bad, just uses more sticks than carrots in the tutorial section), you basically just pick a direction and go.
If you wanna quest, there are quests available in (almost) every system.
If you wanna farm, pick a nice planet and get to building.
If you wanna fight, go find a planet with hostile Sentinel presence.
There's always something interesting to do, but you can also just find a nice view on some planet, build a couch and just watch the iridescent grass blow in the wind for a bit.
FTL, Stardew valley, No mans sky, Minecraft, Old rpgs like Chrono Trigger
I have a few.
Zelda on the switch. (BotW and TotK)
Terraria and Stardew Valley are pretty fun to play for relaxing.
Valheim with console options enabled so I have unlimited resources and can kill any enemies if I'm feeling lazy. I mostly like to just build and I'm slowly building an entire island with buildings, and other features.
I got deeply into this (genre?) when I burned out on a combination of playing big/tough games and the stresses of life. I also enjoyed the pace of Outer Wilds and Subnautica. Some other favourites:
There are tons more, I deal with a lot of anxiety!
Some games I was recommended for this purpose that didn't land for me:
Finally, I'd suggest trying a solo board game. More tactile and relaxing alternative to screen time.
Factorio, Minecraft, and... Counter Strike. I exclusively play with a full squad of friends and even if we have a bad game, at least I'm spending time with my friends. Keeping contact with your friends is super important and getting harder every year. So it's quality time.
It's my bike, I ride my bike.
Indoors, I've got Zwift, which looks a bit like a game.
Outdoors the resolution is better, but the NPCs can be belligerent.
Rim world on low difficulty
Low difficulty rimworld is underrated. Animal crossing with cannibalism.
Skyrim. I played vanilla a bunch and now I'm working through the Living Skyrim 4 mod. I had to tweak a bunch of the settings, but I really enjoy it. I also love the Witcher 3, both actively playing quests and just wandering across the map listening to the howling wind and the soundtrack. I've loaded into that game after a long day with every intention of playing and just sat there with my headphones on and stared into space while the trees crackle together in the wind and the music plays.
Witcher 3, I love riding roach around and exploring and listening to the music. I like cruising in cyberpunk 2077 listening to the radio stations. There's also spiritifarer.
Weirdly, Satisfactory, a game about thanklessly building a factory for a faceless corporation to exploit an alien wilderness.
But you get a coffee mug and there are lizard doggos.
Animal Crossing. I still play NH for 15 minutes a day just to go round my island and see what’s happening. My island is pretty much how I want it and I have collected nearly everything I want, but to take 20 minutes out the day just to walk around catch a bug or two and talk to an islander is a great way to relax.
Lately I have been playing Crypt of the Necrodancer. It was quite chill until I reached zone 4. It doesn't get me worked up or anything, but the last level of zone 4 does get me a bit tense with the speed.
In general, Deep Rock Galactic is pretty chill. If I really just want to take it easy I can pick up a mission on Hazard 3 or 4.
Roguelikes.
I played Rogue Legacy 1 and 2 for the longest time. Some dead cells. Enter the gungeon, and currently testing the humble roguelikes bundle, really digging Wall World.
Farming simulator 22 or Euro truck simulator 2, just driving my tractor around plowing some fields, or driving my truck through Europe to drop off something relaxes me well.
Civilization. While it CAN be a stressful game if you crank up the difficulty to Deity, at prince or king, it's just so much fun.
With the advanced setup options, you can set up a game for however you are feeling at the time, explore a large world (however full or empty you want it), expand and watch your empire cover the map, learn and find all the new stuff in the world, conquer everybody, be a neutral power broker, launch into space.
It just feels nice.
slay the spire
Forza Horizon 5. I like to just drive around the map for a while, and maybe do a race or two, until I inevitably get bored after an hour or so. Repeat every week.
(until I bought a real life motorcycle to scratch that itch, and no, I'm not racing or being dangerous on my motorcycle)
Noita is a good chill game. You will lose, and you will die a horrible death in the process, but if you can accept that, the journey to death is a fun one.
I play Trackmania at least once a day. The community is so nice and friendly and the racing at high speed is so calming for me.
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