JoeKroganWhat is your game to de stress ?
VaggumonPlanet Crafter, Modded Minecraft, and Modded Stardew Valley.
all-knight-partyI like to wander around the environments in the Hitman reboot games. Not really trying to kill anyone or achieve anything, just enjoying the environment.
TrentBuilding in minetest or wandering around fishing and stuff in FC5. Pretty area, shame about all the cultists.
A fellow minetest player in the wild!
Indeed. I’ve been doing my best to spread the love. :)
Brotato
Who’s out there down voting brotato lol
Game is a gem and potato’s are objectively the best thing
SorteKaninHonestly I find Stardew Valley quite stressful, with it’s short daily time and so much to do.
I like anything turn based or pausable. FTL and Into the Breach are good. Slay the Spire is fun too. But I am kinda missing a chill game tbh
🇸🇵🇪🇨🇺🇱🇦🇹🇪🇷Slay the Spire is super chill and has a ton of replay value.
Stardiew Valley with mods
Honestly I find Stardew Valley quite stressful, with it’s short daily time and so much to do.
Sounds too much like real life to me :/
Lately, it’s been Factorio. It’s nice to set all my worries aside and pick up an entirely new set of worries regarding factories and the growth thereof.
I will not touch this game because I know myself too well
I told myself this for years before finally buying it, haha. It’s exactly as addicting as you think.
Oh, also, mid-pandemic I played A Short Hike, and while not a long game, it was an incredible escape for a while.
Superflight is fun. Simple wingsuit flying game. Mini Metro is great. So is Fez!
Superflight looks like my jam! And it's super cheap! Thanks for the recommendation!
I guess Stormworks, but it can also be frustrating at times when I got tough nuts to crack in my grand designs. Still haven’t found an engineering game of the same caliber.
Mining stars and talking nonsense on Old School RuneScape. It’s got an activity for any mood
Guilwars 2 - always something to and you find many hilarious moments both from NPCs and playGuilwars 2 - always something to and you find many hilarious moments both from NPCs and players. It’s a fantastic experience for casual and dedicated players alike.
Scio"Build making" roguelites like Hades etc. These days I've been playing far too much Magicraft while trying to keep sane.
Elite Dangerous was a good one. Just free, open space.
swab148No Man’s Sky, in the same vein
livusAge of Empires 2. Random real world map.
Skyrim, without a doubt. That ambiance…
I feel cold when I play it. Especially in the northern parts of the map.
Helix 🧬Which one?
Refunct. The perfect game for when your brain is fried after work imo. It’s super minimal so not something you can sink tens of hours necessarily into but it’s worth checking out for sure.
Idk. I’m broke in the brain. The games I play to unwind tend to have high performance demands. I became the top ranked player in project muse with what I thought was casual play. Turns out that obsession is second nature to me. What I like more than anything else is being able to have my fingers move as fast as I can think.
I don’t think I actually de-stress though. Anyone have any ideas for me?
BriictI de stress by engrossing and ignoring my problems so I tend towards whatever sucks me in. Started Osu! In 2012, other than that I like things like tarkov and am getting close to 4k hours in hunt: showdown. I get told it’s not as casual as I say it is, but it’s casual to me lol
I fuckin love Osu! I miss my computer.
Just Cause 3, but I'm honestly a bit tired of it now. I love just wingsuiting around the place and I've never found anything else that gives me that same level of catharsis.
I do switch to JC4 occasionally just for a change of scenery, but the wingsuit feels too... floaty? In that one. Idk, just doesn't feel the same.
I am desperately open to suggestions for something similar in terms of brain off flow state gaming.
BRINGit34Teardown is good if you are playing for the destruction aspect. If you’re a fan of nice open world movement than the spiderman games are good if you ignore the copganda. And honestly I really enjoy death stranding for a game to relax too. It gets action packed sometimes but not too often
On my wishlist! Might pull the trigger this weekend and try it out
Teardown is a really solid game under the technical gimmick. It plays more like a puzzle game, but way more open ended.
BlackmistYeah, I was surprised how much fun I had with that. Was on PSPlus a month or two back.
It’s a bit hit and miss in places, but overall it’s pretty solid.
I kinda liked the wingsuit in 4 tbh. I loved actually flying around with the jetpack. But it has nothing on the jetpack in 3, with the rocket launcher and all.
registeredusernameSkyrim and valheim
VCTRNI started Skyrim last month, for the first time ever, but already have it up there with Minecraft. No pressure, just exploration. Add a bowl, and I’m set.
squid_slimeKenshi
ampersandrewFactorio's a great one for this, as is RimWorld, but specifically on the modes where there's no combat in the former and "base builder" difficulty on the latter. Lately, Palworld has been filling this slot for me. Just build stuff, occasionally tackle enemies, and listen to podcasts while you do it.
Descenders. Just has a real nice flow state quality to it. Chill soundtrack. You can play as fast or slow as you want to. No pressure to do tricks or get high scores. Just making it to the finish line eventually is enough.
In a similar vein have you tried lonely mountain?
DeconceptualistIMO Mini Metro quickly becomes super stressful. I assume Motorways is the same.
Instead I would say Islanders is quite relaxing. Super minimal city building.
What I’d really like though is something for Steam Deck with a good flow state. Any suggestions? Lonely Mountains Downhill looks pretty good maybe. Someone else mentioned Superflight which is great but maybe too minimal.
Powerwashing simulator on quest vr, this is true zen, im getting lost for hours after a stressing work day
Old school FPS games. Doom, Quake, Unreal, etc. They’re just simple, cathartic stress relief.
Funkytom467In the same cathartic relief idea i also remember finishing both god of wars on ps2 as a kid. Worked great as anger management too. I feel like doom as a very similar energy in that regards.
Same. But I have found OpenArena (based on the Quake III code) to be an update with a decent amount of online players.
JustEnoughDucksI have not seen anyone mention these, which is surprising. They are the definition of relaxing lol
- Dorf Romantik
- Islanders
Relaxing base builders with a nice soundtrack and a “get as many points as you can. Failed? No problem, just start over and relax again” kind of vibe.
Then there is duck game if you have some friends to relax with. It is hilarious.
In that same vein: mini motorways and stacklands
Soviet Republic and Transport Fever 2.
StarCraft 2. I have too much to think about in real life so I need something that forces me to devote 100% of my attention to it. I don’t particularly care if I lose so I can just queue again and again and come out with my brain reset.
The only time starcraft calms me down is when im doing something brainless like coop or the campaign. At my level of play, it is honestly not very fun on the ladder because I dont really feel like I can still do fun stuff and still win. And being a competitive person doesnt lend itself to being ok losing a lot more because I wanted to do something stupid instead of what works.
I all use a lot of rational thinking daily, so i do like a game that take all of your focus but i’d rather have something brain dead. So in short, rocket league. (Also MHW can be like that sometimes)
Elite Dangerous. It’s so freeing to just hurl yourself out into the middle of nowhere and not come back.
I have never played this but I loved games like everspace and chorus, and a more sim-focused open-galaxy game seems sick. Is ED worth getting in to?
It’s the only MMO I still play regularly after three years. That said, I hesitate to outright recommend it. It’s fairly niche, and kinda still recovering from a disastrous DLC launch a couple years ago. It’s in a pretty good place now but confidence in the playerbase is still a little shaken. Mechanics-wise there’s a lot built up over the years that just aren’t explained at all in-game, so the learning curve is more of a sheer cliff face. OTOH, the community is honestly one of the most supportive I’ve ever experienced and even the griefers will chat with you after blowing you up and explain how to avoid it next time. And having the entire physically modelled milky way to explore is honestly an amazing experience. I’d suggest checking out a few streams to suss out if it’s for you, streamers are generally lovely and happy to chat with and help out new and prospective players.
Awesome, thank you!