Gaming

Journey and Flower

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!

For me, it's Dragon Quest XI S. That game has been like a best friend since the day I got it. I never thought I would love a turn-based RPG more than Dragon Quest VIII, but 11 did it.

For me that would be Stellaris - after so many hours, playing it just feels natural and it is a very relaxing exercise!

For me it's Tribes 2. I can spend hours bouncing around with bots on some old favorite maps, and there's something weirdly serene about being able to just leave the map on a grav cycle and keep going because the terrain repeats.

Haven't put any time into it for a little while, but TF2 (the one with the hats) has always been my go-to.

Vintage Story.

Its basically what minecraft survival mode could have been if they went in a slower paced and realism inspired direction.

Its very relaxing to hammer out some tools, make some clay pottery, liaten to your windmill grind away at some grain, etc.

I've got my fair share of games, kinda depends on the mood though. What I'm feeling, too. Sad, anger. Ect.

But to name a few, Doom 2 /Duke Nukem 3d, any of the driver games (except driv3r), Wwf No Mercy/WCW no revenge or any of the aki wrestling games or the mods for no mercy, The Long Dark, streets of rage 2.

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.

For me it’s definitely Pokémon. When I was a kid I used to spend so much time just going through a million sapphire playthroughs. Even now if I’m having a bad day I’ll boot it up and play it a little.

Also special shoutout to factorio and stardew valley. It’s so easy to just lose all sense of time with those games lol

Harvest Moon 64. Impossible to have negative feelings while playing it.

Tetris 99... somehow

Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot on the Switch?

It's a browser game, not a video game per se, but Flight Rising. I play it when I need to do something with my hands or distract myself.

Sims 4 is my comfort game for sure

For a long, long time it was Darkest Dungeons. Nothing so comforting as that gloomy, pessimistic narrator ...

I‘m on PlayStation and enjoyed games like Knack, Diablo 3, Spider-Man and Ratchet & Clank in those cases, because they keep me busy at all times. All of them are loud and tiring though. Other games like Assassins Creed, Ghost of Tsushima and Red Dead Redemption 2 are calmer, but they give my mind time to wander and think about stuff. Sometimes this suits me better, sometimes that.

Jump Ultimate Stars.

I mostly play World of Tanks Blitz haha to kill time. It's my go-to. I can always go there for mindless fun and zone out. Everyone else is probably doing the same considering how teams are these days haha

For me my comfort games are either Satisfactory or Forgotten Hope 2 (WW2 mod for Battlefield 2 which is still maintained)

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).

Fatale Exploring Salome.

It is such a beautiful meditative experience. I used to play it every couple months but haven't in awhile. Guess I know what I am playing next.

Honestly, everthing Tale of Tales makes is a comfort game for me.

Tiny and Big Grandpa's Leftovers is the most delightful game I have ever played. Soundtrack is awesome.

Warframe is a nice one, at least once you're past the initial learning curve. I'm at the point where I can just zone out and play casually, no need to farm much of anything. There's so much content, so many weapons and frames to unlock, that once you're in the endgame you can really just jump around and passively collect stuff. Plus making your character look cool is something I enjoy doing in games, I can just spend an hour messing with loadouts like that.

Old arcade are always fun too. And Kirby's Pinball Land on my GBC. There's definitely a charm to a lot of them, lots of unique choices being made before things got a little more standardized within each genre.