Gaming

Journey and Flower

Trackmania, The Witness, and recently Age of Wonders 4

For me, for some strange reason, any resource management/city building game really soothes me. There is something about making thing ‘balanced’ and ‘streamlined’ that really puts my mind at ease and can distract me from just about anything.

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.

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!

Old school point and click adventures. They tend to be lighthearted, you can't really "lose" in the sense that would generate anger/stress, and the stories tend to be quite good. LucasArts adventures in particular are good for this

No one has said it yet, but I find Raft to be incredibly relaxing. Especially if you just ignore objectives and just sit there collecting debris. It can be so tranquil and a ton of fun

Sims 4 is my comfort game for sure

For me it's Final Fantasy VIII, the first game I bought with my own money. Gaming was hard back then, I had no allowance or any sort of income. I bought games with money I got from Christmas and birthday. My friends all loved final fantasy VII and bragged about it but I just could not afford it when it launched. I bought Final Fantasy VIII on launch after reading glowing reviews on a local gaming magazine and I loved the game. I know the junction mechanic is flawed, I know the draw system is bad, I know the story isn't the best. I still loved it and played it to 100% a ton of times. Bought it in pretty much all platforms I own (including twice on Steam, even tho it was a ripoff). The game really makes me realize how far I've come in life and how fortunate I am on how everything turned out.

Bloons TD 6. Just so incredibly addicting, and there's depth to the different monkeys and how they interact, especially when you think about all the upgrades.

XCOM 2 on the lowest difficulty. Sacrilege, I know, but there's just no better feeling than waltzing through some aliens with my whole squad intact at the end while feeling like a tactical genius. And even the weird Chimera Squad is just fun at times for a bit of a changeup.

At the moment I'd probably say: Minecraft, Celeste, Vampire Survivors, Hollow Knight, and the Valve single-player games like Half-Life 1/2 and Portal 2.

In addition to RimWorld, I would say Deep Rock Galactic has never even once left me in a worse mood after playing it. Every time I boot it up, I cannot stop admiring the love and care GSG has put into their game and almost all of it for free. The only monetisation in this game is purely cosmetic, but they make sure that the stuff you can get through gameplay alone doesn't look worse than the stuff you pay real money for. Add on top of that the awesome gameplay, atmosphere and community and you got a game that pretty much never fails to lift you up.

If shooting native lifeforms as an exploited space miner isn't quite your mood right now, you could also try Tchia. Super pretty and lovely game, although I suspect it doesn't offer too much replayability, once you completed it. But the same could be said for Okami and that is the game I first say when asked what my favorite game is.

Hardspace: Shipbreaker can be a super relaxing game. You sit back and slowly disassemble massive spaceships in a salvaging yard. I love playing it when I want something mindless but relaxing. It's nice sitting alone in the salvaging yard with the catchy music and slicing apart a bulkhead.

If I'm just relaxing, probably Arma 3. It's editor is like playing with toys for adults. I love making missions or armies that aren't balanced or made for other people. I do this little mini-game with myself where I build up an army starting with only pistols and a few guys. Then as you beat more competent opponents, like maybe it starts put with poorly equipped pirates and looters and goes up to fighting the United States or PLA, you get more and more equipment and fight on progressivly larger maps. It's very fun, and feels like being a child again. Plus, maybe it has a bit of Metal Gear Peacewalker inspiration.

super Mario galaxy for sure

When I was very young I had something wrong with my nose and I couldn’t breathe so I had to get surgery

When I left the hospital my parents said I could get a game to play while I couldn’t go to school for a week and I chose super Mario galaxy

I played the shit out of that game and it just has such a calming positive vibe, like everything is gonna be ok

That game is a part of me, I love it so much

… that or left 4 dead 2

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.

The Metroid series and Final Fantasy XIV

The Way of the Hunter and theHunter: Call of the Wild. Starting a podcast and then slowly walk through beautiful nature and taking in the ambience. Or free roam in Firewatch. Next best to actually going outside 🙃.

Then Sailwind (sailing around delivering cargo with navigation as challenge). Also, Call of the Wild: The Angler and Fishing: North Atlantic.

Lake is also a beautiful game — delivering packages and enjoying the story.

I think you get the theme 🙃.

The good old Flight Simulators (MSFS 2020, X-Plane, DCS World) — problem here is to first get use to the many keys again after a longer break.