What game do you play to just chill?

Nowadays I find a lot of games feel like too much work and/or anxiety when I just want to relax for like, 30 minutes to an hour after a long day. On the other hand, the games specifically designed to help you unwind just feel boring imo.

In the past I’ve felt like Outer Wilds scratched this itch, cause the whole experience was engaging but generally relaxed. There was a mystery that kept me hooked and the exploration and movement was fun in and of itself. I also felt like Subnautica filled this role since it was very much at my own pace, with anxiety producing portions which could for the most part be avoided or minimized, and also there was a clear objective to fulfill, get off the planet.

So what games do you play when you just wanna relax?

Chetzemoka,

Sometimes I feel like I’m the only person on here who plays Hollow Knight. When I want to chill, I like to start a new game and just go through the early-mid game exploration phase. No pressure, skip bosses if I feel like it. Just run around and enjoy the atmosphere and music. Love it.

Rootiest,
@Rootiest@lemmy.world avatar

Terraria

Celeste

Dwarf Fortress

ohlaph,

I have a few.

Zelda on the switch. (BotW and TotK)

Terraria and Stardew Valley are pretty fun to play for relaxing.

Valheim with console options enabled so I have unlimited resources and can kill any enemies if I’m feeling lazy. I mostly like to just build and I’m slowly building an entire island with buildings, and other features.

littlecolt,

Weirdly, Satisfactory, a game about thanklessly building a factory for a faceless corporation to exploit an alien wilderness.

But you get a coffee mug and there are lizard doggos.

SheDiceToday,

Lol, you sold me. That’s been on my backburner for a while. Now I just need to download it.

FontMasterFlex,

I just tried this game. While i ‘get’ it now, i really wish there was just a ‘creative mode’.

JakenVeina,

There is. Just released last week.

FontMasterFlex,

really? i’ll have to dig into it then.

littlecolt,

Yep! There’s a box you click for advanced options or something like that when creating your world, and you can enable the use of various cheat toggles such as flying, God mode, all tech unlocked, zero cost everything

SuperSpruce,

Forza Horizon 5. I like to just drive around the map for a while, and maybe do a race or two, until I inevitably get bored after an hour or so. Repeat every week.

(until I bought a real life motorcycle to scratch that itch, and no, I’m not racing or being dangerous on my motorcycle)

SheDiceToday,

Ah, but which one do you have? Because you know, there’s this other motorcycle that can do X…

Slightly kidding, but “the correct amount of motorcycles is N+1, where N is your current amount” mentality is a real thing.

SuperSpruce,

I currently have a '06 Suzuki GZ250. I got it 3 months ago and already have put 1600 miles on it.

I’m already getting the itch for a faster motorcycle, though. I first test rode a Harley Davidson Sportster 48, which was fun and tourquey but kind of heavy and not as comfortable as I expected (Harley = cruiser = comfortable so I thought). I then made the decision (mistake?) of test riding a Triumph Trident 660, and holy crap that was so much fun, I need it in my life lol even though I can’t afford it.

I also had an unexpected “adventure” getting stuck in the mud recently when trying to go off the beaten path. Dual sports have way too high seat heights for me but maybe I should get an ADV bike?

God help me the day I try a supersport bike. Make sure I don’t submit to squid-dom…

SheDiceToday,

Lol, fast is nice, but my favorite bikes are smaller. My 125 scooter is my current favorite if I don’t need to go above 50mph, and I sorely miss my ninja400. As for the comfortable issue with cruisers, it’s supposedly an issue because of the leaned back, pressure-on-tailbone seating position. Neutral (upright) seems to be the most comfortable for the majority, and you know what’s king of those right now? ADVs ;) They’re basically the luxury bikes right now, with all the fancy electronics on the newer models, lots of suspension, and fast enough to do anything highway/street. Your goldwing types might technically be plushier, but ADVs are popular for a reason.

I have a supersport-lite: an older sport tourer with waaaay too big of an engine for what I want to do with it, but unless you find yourself acting silly now, you won’t have much to worry about. The occasional urge to catch that stupid muscle car blowing past with an exhaust tuned to sound loud passes you by just as quickly as you pass them by…

SuperSpruce,

The uncomfortable part about the Sportster was actually how unexpectedly aggressive the riding position was. I expected laid-back similar to my GZ250 which is also a cruiser.

I am starting to think of ADVs as the SUVs of motorcycles. Usually, big, tall, off-road capable, comfortable, not particularly sporty, expensive, and trendy.

At the moment I am extremely budget-conscious so I’ll be sticking with my 250 unless I find a smoking deal for another motorcycle. Currently I’m a college student that doesn’t really need a motorcycle, but I really wanted one. Where I will be able to get a nice motorcycle is if I can spend my future car budget on a motorcycle instead…

Abnorc,

Lately I have been playing Crypt of the Necrodancer. It was quite chill until I reached zone 4. It doesn’t get me worked up or anything, but the last level of zone 4 does get me a bit tense with the speed.

In general, Deep Rock Galactic is pretty chill. If I really just want to take it easy I can pick up a mission on Hazard 3 or 4.

pixeltree,

I second deep rock

mycatiskai,

Third. Just go in play a quick mission or two with a friend on the weekend then have some crazy beers.

SheDiceToday,

Completely agree. The first few zones are so fun because you’re just engaging with the game. Then it gets nutso.

intensely_human,

I play high intensity first person shooters, mostly Battlefield, to unwind.

The faster paced the better because it allows me to escape.

It used to be I’d get so worked up over competitive games. I had to be doing PvE to relax. Not so any more.

Weirdly, this happened after I had a completely horrible medical experience that left me with permanent (figurative) scars on my nervous system. Like, I still have stress problems four years after the event.

But at that moment, suddenly competitive games became refreshing to me.

ohlaph,

Same here. I played COD up until the recent release. Looking for a better FPS to play now.

sealhaslupus,

reckon XDefiant will be good?

ohlaph,

I’ll check that one out!

teichflamme,

Try CS2

ohlaph,

I just downloaded it actually, still need to try it.

weew,

cyberpunk is actually great for that. Sometimes if I don’t wanna do anything in particular I’ll just… fight the police, lol. Or just randomly do some open world stuff, like drive around the badlands. Then if I’m feeling like doing something more “meaningful” I’ll jump into an actual story quest

dm_me_your_boobs,

The spiderman games are great for this as well. Yeah, I’ll go swing around aimlessly for 20 minutes. No problem.

oneiros,
@oneiros@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

The Talos Principle (+ DLC) and its just-released sequel really fit this niche for me. I’m fighting severe burnout and was specifically looking for a game without time pressure, reflex-based gameplay, or (because I keep bouncing off of turn-based strategy games even though I believe that I love them) complicated stats-based systems.

TTP is about first-person puzzles in the vein of Portal. While some of the puzzles can be difficult, you can work through them at your own pace. The level structure makes it easy to drop in and out of the game whenever, and the gorgeous environments and soundtrack make the world just a generally soothing and immersive place to walk around in.

Baizey,

Baba is you, is also great in this category

Fun puzzles that are turn based so you can sit and ponder however long you feel like

dm_me_your_boobs,

Try Noita by the same company who did Baba then. It’s one of those games that leaves you with “oh holy shit what the fuck just happened… Oh, that was my fault. Oops.” in an endless loop. I’m up to like 400 hours and have never gotten anywhere near that many hours out of another game. Not even FF7 (the OG, of course)

wildcardology,

Elder Scrolls Online for me.

pomodoro_longbreak,
@pomodoro_longbreak@sh.itjust.works avatar

Oh interesting. I’ve eyed it over the years, but I think this is the one and only instance of positive word-of-mouth I’ve heard for it.

I heard it has Elsweyr, which I’ve always wanted to see portrayed.

wildcardology,

I like it, it’s open world so you can grind or play as casually as you can. I like to explore the maps and kill enemies on my way. Some days I grind somedays I just chill.

Edit: I believe North and south Elsweyr are not in The base game. It’s available as a subscription to ESO+

TheGiantKorean,
@TheGiantKorean@lemmy.world avatar

Shattered Pixel Dungeon. Which is weird because it’s actually quite frustrating, but super rewarding if you win.

DashboTreeFrog,

I played this a bit on mobile and really enjoyed it, not sure why I stopped in retrospect, I was never able to beat it even once. Another one where dying isn’t a big deal cause replaying is part of the fun. Been thinking of checking it out on PC but just never got around to it

TheGiantKorean,
@TheGiantKorean@lemmy.world avatar

Hit me up if you ever need any tips. I’m not the best out there, but I’ve won with all 5 classes. Currently working on winning with all 9 challenges on.

gac11,

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup has a similar feel to it. It’s a lot more involved if you want way more variables to play with. There’s and Android port from PC that takes some getting used to, but is pretty fun to play over and over.

TheGiantKorean,
@TheGiantKorean@lemmy.world avatar

I need to check this one out again. A friend of mine highly recommended it.

zabadoh,

I find the boss battles in Pixel Dingeon too difficult when I am forced into them before my character is ready.

Pathos Nethack is a better mobile dungeon crawler with no time pressure for the fixed encounters.

TheGiantKorean,
@TheGiantKorean@lemmy.world avatar

I’m check it out!

Salix,

For me, it is Nova Drift. It has been the game I go to when I just want to relax and chill.

b0gl,

I play Tibia. It’s an old 2d MMORPG with endless grinding. Loads of quests and a playerbase where the average age is like 28.

swordsmanluke,

No Man’s Sky.

After the mildly stressful intro (which isn’t bad, just uses more sticks than carrots in the tutorial section), you basically just pick a direction and go.

If you wanna quest, there are quests available in (almost) every system.

If you wanna farm, pick a nice planet and get to building.

If you wanna fight, go find a planet with hostile Sentinel presence.

There’s always something interesting to do, but you can also just find a nice view on some planet, build a couch and just watch the iridescent grass blow in the wind for a bit.

DashboTreeFrog,

The more I hear about No Man’s Sky now the more I’m thinking that perhaps this will be one of the games I can chill out to. I generally love space games, and the idea of just kinda flying around doing random stuff is already appealing.

GenesisJones,

Its a vastly game than it was at launch. It’s on my list to play.

ICastFist,
@ICastFist@programming.dev avatar

As someone with almost 500h in NMS, get in fully aware that things get repetitive fast. Once you get off planet and can visit other stars the first time, it’ll likely take 2 hours to see all different kinds of planets.

Unlocking (“learning”) the 3 aliens’ languages is the absolute worst slog in the whole game.

Another ultra tedious chore is doing the daily missions for Quicksilver (special currency) to unlock some nifty cosmetics.

Also, combat sucks. It just plain sucks. The most annoying thing to me is: if you don’t fire your weapon for 1 or 2 seconds, your dude will put it down, which will create a small time window where you’ll have a significant delay between pressing the fire button and actually firing, because of the animation.

ShitOnABrick,
@ShitOnABrick@lemmy.world avatar

Love to sit down and smash shit up in beamng also play around in beamng mutitplayer mod kissmp acrynom for keep it simple stupid I would love to give beammp a proper go my but beammp is woefully unoptmised and I’ve got some already pretty low end hardware

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