With gaming often bringing me into a really depressive headspace sometimes with how the markets are developing, whats a game you can always go to and just be lost in, or just be happy with?
Personally i would go for advance wars 1 and 2 on the gba (there is no remake and never will be)
the artstyle, the music, the game-play is just simple, yet effective, a sublime experience of very fun times.
Whats yours?
I haven’t seen anyone mentioning this gem:
Vampire Survivors
It has been a while, but there was a time when, if I was feeling really anxious and almost panicky, a quick playthrough of Enter the Gungeon would chill me right out.
Chrono Trigger. Always feels like being home with old friends. A joy every time I playthrough
Unraveled (Unraveled 2 is great for 2 players, too), and Hue. Then there’s always Slayaway Camp. All good on Steam Deck as well.
But those are for the times when I’m not addicted to RL.
Minecraft. It’s just a nice game to get lost in.
I could (and have) spent hours in Valhiem just noodling around surviving as a Viking
I can always go for a game of Age of Empires 2. That game takes me back to my childhood.
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.
TES Oblivion and Sonic Adventure 2. SA2 was a childhood favorite I got very good at, and the extra mission, game modes, and pet sim aspects makes it fairly re-playable without having to start a new game file. Oblivion is just whacky and fun, and if you know how to exploit mechanics you can get up to some pretty crazy stuff in a matter a minutes after starting the game. While grinding skills could be seen as… Well a grind, it’s a grind I personally enjoy. Both games let me dive straight into what I’m feeling like doing, and reward mastery (even if one of them is cheese mastery).
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.
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.
Easily Path of Exile. There’s something so relaxing about blowing up the entire screen with one flick of my wrist, and it really gets my endorphins flowing to minmax my stats using third party tools like Path of Building and testing out items on the trade site / changes to my skill tree to see how they’d affect my build.
To some people it sounds like work, but for me it hits that sweet spot of minmaxing and complexity that no other game really can.
Edit: I should also mention that lately I’ve been mostly playing on Steam Deck which has been a revelation for me. Endgame “alch and go” mapping is so perfect for the pick up and play style, only enhanced by having access to it from the couch/toilet.
The map system is so good for this. If you manage to get the bewildering learning curve, it’s so nice to come home from work and spin a few maps to relax and pick up loot. PoE is so overwhelmingly easily my choice as well.
Honestly the learning curve isn’t that atrocious. I’ve always advocated for following a build guide then start looking at ways to personalize it at level ~70 (and with Exarch altars you can farm regrets to respec.)
Learning the skill tree is hard but it’s made much easier when you have a base to modify.
The learning curve gets really bad when you start trying to craft though. And expensive.
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
Morrowind and Mario Maker 2.