Gaming

Every few months, I will do a randomizer run of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. I've played it so much that it's like taking a relaxing walk through a familiar neighborhood. It also has a great soundtrack.

Factorio. The base must grow

Lately, mine has been Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour on the GameCube.

Believe it or not, Warcraft 2. There are three scenarios I like to play through. They are pretty mindless, have varying degrees of challenge, and are very low stress.

I found gaming exacerbated my feelings of loneliness after many years of gaming daily. I also found the FOMO nature of a lot of games I was playing really took the enjoyment out of gaming.

Took a break in April (To watch lots of Star Trek) and only recently have had a few urges.

Hunt: Showdown may get picked up again and there are a couple of games coming that could be fun but we shall see.

Pajama Sam! That was my introduction to gaming and I still run through them every once in a while. Pure nostalgia

Ace Combat 2 for me. It always makes me happy to pick it up again.

Knytt Underground

You play as a little Sprite with two fairy companions. You're left to explore 1000 rooms of a sprawling underground labyrinth, discovering all sorts of secrets that humanity left behind.

Mass Effect, Dragon Age:Origins, Fallout 4 and Skyrim are a must when I need to play something for a few days without being worried about not having enough time to finish the game, or missing something when playing while watching the kids.

I've played thousands of hours on them.

Used to be Destiny, lately it's been "No Man's Sky". I just get lost there.

Through the years the one game I keep going back to when I just need a place to lose time

Elder Scrolls Online

Man I wish I had better tastes

It's very short, but if you need a small (big) dosage of weirdness - try The Good Time Garden. It's an experience that I like to go back to from time to time, always gets some chuckles out of me!

Oddly enough I go through phases where I just level up a character on WoW. It's mindless for me and I can just zone out and watch TV while playing.

Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, and puzzle games like Myst, Riven, or The Witness. I love these escape-type games.

I get the headspace thing. It's been really hard for me to devote my mental energy and time to playing games recently. I've picked up the new Zelda game and have barely touched it.

Black Ops Zombies games.... at least until I found out every game has very well known hacks that allow for remote code execution of your PC. Yikes! Not touching those games anymore sadly

A great deal of SNES games do this for me. Super Mario RPG, Mega Man X, Donkey Kong Country 1 and 2, Chrono Trigger, even the Mario All-Star games to a point. It's all likely because it's such a great system and developers really hit their stride with what they could do with 16-bit gaming on that console.

MS Flight Simulator (Xbox Gamepass) - I often fire it up, pick a place in the world I've never been but would like to go and fly around. I never take off or land, just get low to the ground and buzz.

For me, it’s always Ocarina of Time. The music always improves my mood and there is something oddly comforting about the game.

I don't play this often enough lately but Jigsaw Puzzle Dreams is a super simple & cosy game. It's jigsaw puzzles, yes, but you also get to decorate the apartment where you're doing the puzzles. It is just a very chill, no-pressure time and often I will just mess around doing the decor side of it so I have a few different apartment vibes to choose from for when I finally decide to do a puzzle. When I get super sad & unmotivated I will do a really small easy puzzle on the bedroom desk and it helps me to get the feeling that I have completed a thing, which is sometimes enough to help get me moving on non-game things.

A Short Hike had that effect on me, the re-playability isn't really there though, but for a one-off burst of peace and quite it will do.

Picking some goofy off-role champ in a /muteall draft game of League can also work, but the experience is highly rng based.

Edit: I forgot Trackmania both the latest polished release with its whimsical environments and the historical custom madness that was/is Trackmania: nation. I genuinely hate grinding (be it mmorpgs or soullike) but once I start a track in those I'm hooked for a couple of hours mesmerized by the smooth effect of my growing skills.

I have several comfort games to put my mind at ease sometimes.

At least once a year it is Skyrim with mods to improve the scenery.

But I love playing the Atelier series too. Crafting and optimizing stuff in these games is great.

And then there are puzzle games like Baba is You where I often just close the game and think about solving the problems for a long time. Helps to keep your mind occupied.

Sims 4 is my comfort game for sure

Streets of Rogue.. I don't know what it is about that game, but I always find myself picking back up and getting lost in all the different ways you can play. I can't wait for the sequel, definitely, the game I am anticipating the most.

Portal (and 2). Replayed them so many times.

Slay the spire and BTD6 are games I play when I don't know what to play.