Minecraft and No Man’s Sky. Explore a little; build a little; shoot a few baddies; chill; repeat 😊

Fallout: NV

Morrowind and Mario Maker 2.

Elite Dangerous in VR. I can really disconnect from the real world and just enjoy being a space-pirate bounty hunter.

Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect, and the NHL/MLB games are always my go-to when I just want to chill out and be comfortable. There's lots of comfort in being "with" some of your favorite characters time and time again. There's a different comfort (more of a zen feeling) in booting up my favorite sports games, turning off my brain and just letting instinct and reflex take over. Most Friday nights at the end of a tough week, I play MLB with some beers until late in the night after my friends log off.

This may sound odd as a comforting game, but I fired up Fallout 3 a year or so ago, and it really made me feel good to be back in the Capitol Wasteland.

Zelda games are this for me (except Twilight princess, its environment and visuals were depressive to me). Particularly, botw is peak to get lost in.

Cozy Grove or Wingspan, both pretty chill games with nice music.

Definitely Minecraft. Old Pokemon games as well. Just something about the grind is therapeutic

I can always go for a game of Age of Empires 2. That game takes me back to my childhood.

It'll be an odd one compared to everyone else, but DiRT 3 with some good music playing in the background is awesome.

The physics are awesome, a bit arcady but reasonably realistic and manageable even on keyboard and the replay mode is amazing, makes even the shittiest driver look pro with its camera work.

And the rallycross modes and the montecarlo track are amazing.

Recent ones I come back to a lot are Sable and A Short Hike, both have great atmosphere and are nice to just amble around. Sable had a fishing update recently which I haven't tried yet, so that'll be nice when I need something chill.

Depends on my mood, Stardew Valley is high on my list if I need a calm game to relax. Hotline Miami 1 & 2 if I need to get all my anger out, and Racing Sims like Assetto Corsa and iRacing for if I want to clear my mind driving cool cars around.

Lego Batman, the first one. God, I love that game. I just feel so cozy when I play it.

Outer Wilds. But I already know everything that happens. So I prefer watching a stream/VOD of someone playing it for the first time.

Anything based on Kirby! The music, aesthetic, everything just makes me happy

Minecraft and Stardew Valley.

honestly any shoot em up or bullet heaven game. its nice and cathartic to blow up a fleet of spaceships in super galaxy squadron or mow down a thousand monsters in vampire survivors.

Skyrim for sure. I have an embarrassing number of hours thanks to the modding community.

Cruising around in BeamNG.drive is fun

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!

This is going to sound silly, but Clicker Heroes. There's nothing necessarily "comforting" about it in the classic sense, but I have ADD, depression, and anxiety. Putting that on and just mindlessly clicking and resource-managing allows me to focus just enough on that, without it needing my full attention, to be able to also sort through my otherwise incoherent strands of thoughts.

But going by art, music, experience, gameplay, etc, I guess I'd have to say Bastion from Supergiant Games. It's definitely up there as one of my favorite games of all time.

Tetris is an all time go to for getting out of my head.

It's not exactly cozy or anything but mine is probably Mini Metro. It's just a perfectly crafted puzzle game in every single way, I can play it on my laptop or my phone or my Steam Deck depending on the situation, it's always there and takes enough focus that there's no room to be worrying about life at the same time. Absolute masterclass in audio design which makes it very immersive considering you're just looking at lines and basic shapes.

Or or course as someone else already said, sometimes you just need to blast some bugs in Deep Rock Galactic. For rock and stone!

Big pro of both of these games is you can feel happy about supporting the devs as they're both genuinely awesome, which might help with the whole depressive headspace thing.

Depends, sometimes its a quiet peaceful game like Minecraft, as others have said. Sometimes its Civ, keeps my brain thinking the whole time usually. Sometimes its Postal 2 or a Saints Row or GTA. Depends ont he mood, do i want calm, do i want my brain to be forced to think, or do i just want to do awful things for a little bit to virtual people.

Tony Hawk's Underground 2. Been playing it since I was 2. 21 now

I used to zone out and blow shit up to music in Just Cause 2. Now I do the same thing in Deep Rock Galactic.

Harry Potter PC games. Particularly the first two - I played them a lot when I was younger so there's a nostalgia about them that I love. Fliiiipendo!

Civilization 2 on PC. Play on easy, small map, raging barbarians, and just stomp on the PC.

Mine was Diablo 2 for the longest time. I could get my summon necromancer out and play fairly mindlessly. He'd have so many minions that nothing ever really hit me. He wasn't super overpowered, so he didn't kill fast, but it was a nice, lazy walkthrough kind of build. He did better in big open areas rather than corridors, so I'd play him in those even if that meant a lower chance of finding good gear.

Elder Scrolls games, especially Oblivion. But for all of them counts that after thousands of hours I still find new things, walking around the world is just great, the music amazing, the quality issues and bugs feel more silly in a fun way than breaking, and the lore feels like it is never ending.

Otherwise there is also The Sims. Similar weird lore, funky cartoony animation, and otherwise just a do whatever you feel like.

Minecraft, oblivion, fable, shadow of the colossus, dkc trilogy on SNES, virtually any Zelda game, final fantasy tactics

Minecraft