Ask Lemmy

Train Sim World, currently 5 but TSW updates are like FIFA or Madden so its not that different from previous versions. At least it was a free update.

Just driving a train around, especially if its somewhere I know is really relaxing. Really looking forward to the first Japanese route dropping sometime this year (hopefully).

I do like that you can chose to enable safety systems or not depending on if you want to play on easy mode or very easy mode. It has even less pressure than your average relaxed building game if you ignore the clock.

Downsides, steam engines are pretty bad in the game, I just don't bother with them. Dovetail are pretty useless. Brand new routes are usually overpriced. Some of the routes are bad, really bad, or just plain boring. Very important to read reviews. Everything is DLC.

Upsides, there are frequent sales so if you stay away from the latest content it can be pretty cheap in comparison. If you get a route you like it has a fair amount of repeatability. Some of the DLC overlays nicely with other DLC.

Slay the Spire

The binding of isaac

It was Ark for awhile. Anything in the souls series hits for me. But LATELY, it's been wolfenstein 2.

Dwarf Fortress and Settler 2. It's quite comforting seeing everything working and the dwarfs/romans going forth and Back.

Also Kingdoms and Castles works here well too.

I like the "Wuselfaktor" like they say in german

Hearts of Iron III

League of Legends.

Factorio

Stardew valley, minecraft and sometimes mass effect 3 multiplayer. I'm still impressed I can regularly find matches in such an old game.

Satisfactory

Anything Zelda. Stardew Valley. Civ 6. RDR2.

City skylines and factorio.

Heavily modded Kerbal Space Program. It's so relaxing building rockets and going on complex interplanetary missions for science

OG Doom and some random WADs.

Super Mario World. It was the first one to really unlock gaming for me. I go back and play it fairly often.

Overwatch is the weird one. The game just clicks for me, and when I'm in the zone, doing call outs and nailing upcoming enemy ults or pushes just feels so good.

Rimworld. It's like having a fishtank, but with really sociopathic fish. Only game I can think of where the #1 enemy you struggle with, that which shapes your core strategy and approach to every problem, is its single threaded performance.

Super Metroid, especially on a dark and rainy day

For now it’s Oblivion Remastered.

Once that’s done I have no idea, probably back to Skyrim.

Project zomboid: walk around, bash heads in, gather stuff for a base you will never build.
I play with infection disabled though - so not to restart after one bite

Morrowind.

Og doom, Duke nukem 3d and Unreal tournament

I've played more Team Fortress 2 than anything else. I can always go back to community servers there.

Red Dead Redemption 2 story. Every time I go back and play through it provides a month+ of joy and comfort.

American Truck Sim is a good one too.

Noita.

I know that might seem like I'm being facetious but Noita is so difficult and so punishing I find it impossible to take it too seriously. Pretty much every time I've died I've just gone "haha that's what I get" and boom, back at the entrance to the mines.

I'm not particularly zen about things in general either, it's just that my objective is always "screw around until the inevitable happens" because anything else seems like pure hubris.

• Super Metroid
• A Hat in Time
• Portal

Binding of Issac

OR

Hades

It's buggy but it's mine, pillars of eternity 2 deadfire

I never really got into the one character party hardest mode min/maxing, but everything else about it is pretty much what I want from an RPG

Minecraft.

If I'm feeling particularly antisocial I'll play Angband or Umoria.

minecraft (playing around with mods is very fun, too)

• Minecraft

• Stardew Valley

• Rogue Legacy 2

One more vote for the original Doom, running in a modern engine with some of the colossal WADs released over the years.

It loads instantly, gets you fighting in no time. You know the rules, yet you still get surprised by one of these guys with a machine gun.

Compare that to a modern game, where you have to wait for it to update, compile shaders, the studio logo video, the proprietary launcher and the main menu before you are allowed to do anything.

Minecraft

Sudoku, Picross, and the solitaire from Shenzhen IO

Id say Long Drive. It's fun to drive and listen to the radio, find weird stuff, and laugh at the hilarious glitches

Any Fromsoft Soulsborne.

Unlike a Jedi, my anger doesn't lead to suffering and death. It leads to a zen-like flow state. Which I suppose does still lead to suffering and death for the enemies in the game... 🤔

Half-Life 2 and the Bungie era Halo games. I normally replay them all at least once a year. Steam workshop support for both of them has also been great.