FTL, Rimworld, MMORPGs (the grindier the better), grand strategy games (Victoria 2, Europa Universals 4, Stellaris, etc), Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing, Valheim, Binding of Isaac, Risk of Rain, Super Auto Pets, and Mount and Blade off the top of my head. Also sports management games.

A personal pick and perhaps controversial is that I like to play Souls games with a podcast on, specifically on reruns or NG+

Edit: Also nobody has mentioned the Civ games yet, they deserve a shout

Tetris

• Dave the Diver
• Most "bullet heaven" games (Vampire Survivors, Rogue Genesia, etc.)
• Returnal (once your lizard brain can take over playing completely)

I spent a lot of time in 2020 listening to Cum Town while playing Cities Skylines.

Minecraft, Mini Metro/Mini Motorways, an endless runner like Race the Sun, a tower defense game like Rogue Tower, or maybe something with a lot of busy work like Factorio

Brotato ($3), Satisfactory ($16), Dwarf Fortress ($25), Crystal Project ($10), Astlibra Revision ($20), Monster Sanctuary ($5). Prices in USD and from current Steam sale which will end 1/4/24.

I play Rimworld when I want to focus more on something else than the game.

I played a ton of Minecraft modpacks while listening to The Deprogram last year. This year I listened to a lot of TrueAnon and Blowback while playing Satisfactory.

You need something slow or brainless so that it doesn't interfere with properly understanding what is being said.

I'm gonna say Project Zomboid or driving games.

hoop rolling

Traditional roguelikes go well with podcasts since there's no music or sound effects, two of my faves are Angband and Nethack.

Mount and Blade Bannerlord is the platonic ideal of a podcast game

Rimworld, factorio, satisfactory, minecraft, build games in general

Umihara Kawase games. World Of Horror (after one learns how it works). Zachtronics games.

I've been playing Gregtech: New Horizons while binging podcasts. Probably not for most but I've been enjoying spending 2 in game weeks looking for tin while listening to Guerilla History

Quasimorph, Synthetik, Caves of Qud, Dwarf Fortress

Factorio

OSRS

🌰.........🐿️

Seiken Densetsu 3

Rimworld, easily

Russian roulette

celeste is a big one for me

I’ve been vibing with Diablo 2 Resurrected (single player) recently. I played a ton back in the day, but never really played through single player before. Having to find all your own gear and level yourself is super fun.

Minecraft, TES 2 Daggerfall

Factorio, Satisfactory, Dyson Sphere Program, Shapes, Techtonica.

Any of the logistics games will end up being good once you have some understanding of what you're doing because they start turning into scale games.

rugby

Death Stranding

I've been getting gud at F Zero X. That and GX on the GameCube are more like podracing than podracing. It's very difficult, the speed level is pretty nuts but the controls are very tight and precise. It's a play the tracks on time trial a few times and memorize them before even trying one easy kinda hard but the initial skill ceiling to do okay on novice isn't too high. I usually like twitchy stuff when listening to podcasts.

Coloring Pixels

WooLoop

Both are from the same dev and follow the same monetization model where they offer a fair number of free levels and sell 16 new levels for like 1 dollar or currently like 79 cents. They're both a pretty mindless thing to work on while listening to stuff

always liked playing pokemon while listening to slop in the background, esp. when I'm just replaying a game as nuzlocke challenge or what have you

Moonstone Island. Has elements of Stardew, Pokemon, and Slay the Spire. Very Ghibli vibe and once you get going, you can just do calm repetitive tasks.

Hardspace: Shipbreaker

F zero 99

Super Robot Wars 30 and Street Fighter 6s World Tour mode are my current go-to.

MS Flight Sim and Il-2 Sturmovik: Great Battles are regular podcast games for me, too.