Gaming

I haven't seen anyone mentioning this gem:

Vampire Survivors

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.

OpenTTD is my happy space. It's relaxing to just hop in and start building some railroads.

Bloons TD 6. Just so incredibly addicting, and there's depth to the different monkeys and how they interact, especially when you think about all the upgrades.

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.

Star Wars: Racer - I know every track by heart at this point, have it on my Switch and still play quite a bit. Amazing flow state game.

Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 - absolute classic and the nostalgia I get from playing is unmatched

Age of Empires 2 - the music is just muah

KotoR - Best Star Wars game ever made next to Dark Forces 2 and Jedi Outcast

Stardew Valley is my go-to. I found Firewatch really easy to get lost in too.

Stardew Valley is amazing for this. Minecraft was it for years and years, but Stardew is just like a nice hug. I adore it.

Hogwarts Legacy has also fallen into this category for me now.

Try not to have an overly rosy retrospection about this. There were plenty of crappy, cash-grabby games in decades past. We just don't remember them because they were crappy, cash-grabby, and not worth remembering. They hadn't invented microtransactions yet, but that's just one more flavor of crappiness.

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.

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.

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.

Power wash simulator. Feels good to clean.

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.

Stardew Valley or Borderlands.

For me that'll be Stardew Valley. I can just zone out to the really nice music. Also a few years ago I used to have Planetside 2 in that rotation. I was kinda bad but with the MMO aspect, I could always run somewhere for the objectives and have fun. Finally, I like Trackmania to discover new tracks and just chill.

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!

super Mario galaxy for sure

When I was very young I had something wrong with my nose and I couldn’t breathe so I had to get surgery

When I left the hospital my parents said I could get a game to play while I couldn’t go to school for a week and I chose super Mario galaxy

I played the shit out of that game and it just has such a calming positive vibe, like everything is gonna be ok

That game is a part of me, I love it so much

… that or left 4 dead 2

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

As others have already touched upon, I think the Zelda series is masterful (pun semi-intended) at this.

I can't count how many times I've replayed through Ocarina of Time just to relax and vibe. These games really excel at creating little moments of catharsis.

I used to spend hours in OOT just hanging around Kakariko or Lon Lon Ranch or soaking in the ambiance of the Forest Temple.

Or hanging outside the Stock Pot Inn in the morning, waiting for it to open in Majora's Mask.

Or floating around on the Great Sea in Wind Waker.

Or taking Marin down to the beach in Link's Awakening.

And so on, up through the BotW/TotK era.

XCOM 2 on the lowest difficulty. Sacrilege, I know, but there's just no better feeling than waltzing through some aliens with my whole squad intact at the end while feeling like a tactical genius. And even the weird Chimera Squad is just fun at times for a bit of a changeup.

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.

Old school point and click adventures. They tend to be lighthearted, you can't really "lose" in the sense that would generate anger/stress, and the stories tend to be quite good. LucasArts adventures in particular are good for this

I have a few, Skyrim is my biggest one. I basically maladaptive daydream Skyrim. If I'm feeling bad I play through it in my head. Some others are No Mans Sky, Vampire Survivors, and generally pixel games are always really comforting to me. I also like to go back and play dragon fable sometimes when I need some nostalgia.

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.

Factorio. The factory must grow.

Euro Truck Simulator/American Truck Simulator

It quickly just becomes a virtual road trip simulator, and as someone who generally enjoys driving and road trips its very chill

• Factorio

• Deep Rock Galactic (lower difficulties)

• Risk of Rain 2

• OSRS (stay tf away from the general community, skill n' chill)

Games I used to play more for that comfy feel

• Minecraft (discovering cool new things in overhaul mods is just neat, probably need to figure out how to get my account back after the Microsoft stuff)

• TF2 Community Servers of the hyper casual variety, running in circles all day shootin' dudes is just fun.

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.

Stardew Valley. Pretty much the community I wish I could live in.

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.

I have no game to contribute here, but wanted to say thanks for the thread and those who replied.

My go to game has ways been WoW (lately Wotlk classic). However last night I had to put my crying kid to bed who's about 1 week post surgery (he's ok and will be ok), logged on 20 min late to raid time, had no spot (I get it, I do, I was late with no comma), and just off the weight of the week was feeling a bit numb.

I opened Steam to see if I could play something else and just stared at my library of unplayed games for an hour and picked nothing.

Sorry that's all quite sad. I'm ok. My kid is ok. But my overall point is, this thread has given me some ideas of what to play instead of WoW. And for that, thanks!

Valheim's pretty great especially when you spend long hours just gathering resources. I like to put on long form video essays in the background while chopping down trees and mining ore.

Deep Rock Galactic and (believe it or not) Crusader Kings

Factorio, mostly. I can play it slowly and methodically with an audiobook when I want to, or throw my brain into it and build a beautiful large processing plant when I need to. Sometimes it's an exercise in fighting personal demons of paralyizing choice and breaking down overwhelming tasks.

Second is Rimworld. Getting lost in the drama of my colony is an effective escape from the world.

Stardew valley, Minecraft, and the Sims 3 are historically my go-to games when I'm looking to lose myself. But my most played game by the hours is prison architect, followed closely by dworfromantic.

I'll boot up Outer Wilds and go chill in space for a while sometimes.

Deep Rock Galactic is my comfort game. The fun nature of the dwarves and the constant funny quotes never fail to get a laugh put of me. Turning the mission difficulty down, and just spending a while mining gold and other minerals can be very relaxing.

Dragon Age Origins - love the world, love the story, love the soundtrack, love the companion interactions.

BOTW for sure. The expansive open world is just great to get lost in. Not to mention the soundtrack can be calming when you're out riding your horse in the fields.

My personal ones:

• Euro Truck Simulator 2, with some heavy country music blasting on the radio
• Gnome Mahjongg
• Dorfromantik
• On my arcade machine lately VS Dr Mario and Tapper

Definitely minecraft. It's a great game to relax

Nethack. I first bought it in a floppy in a mall in the 90s for my 486 and it's still the same today.

Stardew valley. Its not the type.of game I usually play, but for some reason whenever I feel down, just the sinple game play and music is very soothing.

Diablo games. It's nice being able to slay demons and not put much thought into it.

GTA, online friends mode, cruise on my motorcycle checking out scenery, ride the coasters.