Games

Surviving Mars, taming an hostile environment always does the trick for me. Also some games from childhood (for example, I recently played Tomba! and Tomba! 2 again)

Battlefield 1. I hop on the same server every time and it's a nice way to calm myself down if I'm stressed about something in real life. It's much more fun to be stressed about staying alive and helping my team the best I can. The game sparked a strong interest in history for me aswell, so it's also a comfort zone in that sense too.

Diablo 2. I return to it about twice a year and have a good time starting a fresh playthrough farming gear for a few different builds. Especially with the QOL that resurrected has brought.

NieR Replicant and or Final Fantasy 7

HBS's Battletech (2018). One, it brings me back to some good high school memories playing tabletop with my friends, and two, you can never have too much big stompy robots shooting each other.

Tetris. Always down for a quick game

Super Metroid. I replay that every year and I've been doing that since I was 12, I'm now 29. Greatest game ever made. The rest of the metroid series gets replayed at least every other year, absolutely amazing games and there's not much else like em unfortunately.

Was thinking about this earlier today, but lately I've gotten burnt out on Final Fantasy XVI whether that be due to the tone, design or combat I am not too sure. Had a slow weekend for once and decided to pop in Atelier Ryza 2 as I recently picked up Ryza 3 due to it having a small print run. Spent most of the day playing it off and on, but the brighter and more positive tone was a boon compared to the drudgery of FFXVI.

Atelier isn't always my comfort food, but that was a nice change. That distinction would have to either go to rhythm games or to stuff like Trackmania or Minecraft where you can "shut off your brain" and just play. TM has a certain "flow" to the tracks that isn't like anything else out there and Minecraft just throws you into the world and lets you go. (Albeit on Peaceful.)

League of legends obviously I enjoy the toxicity

Don't Starve Together. I suck at it, but I love opening up the map and building up my base.

I have over 500 hours in Particle Fleet: Emergence. Very chill level-based game where you can slowly move forward and beat a map over an hour or so. All the Knuckle Cracker games have tons and tons of user content available so there's no shortage of maps to play.

Idle games or incremental games are my go-to for casual play. At the moment I'm playing through NGU Idle mainly because It's a super slow burn but unlocks lots of goofy features over time. I've been progressing for a couple years now.

It'll literally always be Minecraft. I think I'll revisit it every couple months till I'm dead.

Stardew Valley or MechWarrior Online.

Doom (1993) for me. The newer custom maps and mods too, ofc, but more often than not I'll spin up episode 1 or 2 just to play through it.

Actually, if I'm really stressed, sometimes I'll "play" Doom maps in my head - just walking around, trying to remember as much detail as I can. I find it strangely soothing. Damn, I guess Doom is my happy place

1. Rogue Legacy

I could play it endlessly. Death is expected and you constantly upgrade. And when you have a good run it really feels like you've earned it, as opposed to a lot of Rogues that make you feel like you got lucky with buffs.

2. Final Fantasy VIII

There's so many ways you can play it. And there are so many ways to grind beyond the typical RPG way of killing more monsters.

3. Morrowind

It's simply the most amazing world to get lost in. There's something to do or explore around every corner. And the game practically begs you to break it.

4. Final Fantasy XII

This one is my current game. They made an ATB turn based system somehow real time. And it's so cathartic to wonder around beautiful landscapes killing monsters in classic ATB style seamlessly.

Assassin's Creed 3. I know I'm probably the only one in the world but I love just getting lost parkouring through the forest and hunting animals

Borderlands 1

It's the perfect game. The story is tight. The builds and weapons are fun. It's not too grindy, but you can benefit from grinding if you want to. The post-apocalyptic trash planet setting has yet to be diluted and the characters have yet to be flanderized by later entries in the series.

It's a game that I can pick up anytime and just vibe. My favorite part is collecting all of Tannis' ECHO Logs throughout the game and getting to follow along with her trauma and descent into madness.

It helps that it has the second best DLC in the series to date. Secret Armoury of General Knox is chef's kiss. Assault on Dragon Keep is only better by a hair.

Stellaris and Fallout 4.

Stellaris was the game that got me into gaming. I remember talking to one of my friends back in high school, and he recommended it to me. I picked it up on sale, and I've played it regularly ever since. Not only is a good sci-fi grand strategy game, but the sheer amount of mods available means you can make it into whatever you want. Want to play in the Star Wars galaxy? There's mods for that. Star Trek? Same deal. Want to add weaponized moons, death-rays that monopolize the power of a star, and a bunch of robot cats that are hellbent on consuming all matter in the galaxy? There's a mod for that as well.

Fallout 4 was the first game I brought after I got my own dedicated gaming setup. I decided that since I had a proper setup now, I might as well buy something that'd take advantage of the new resources I had. Fallout 4 had been a game that had caught my eye since the first ads way back in 2015, so I figured I'd pick it up on sale. And what really made me fall in love with it was the settlement system. A bit strange, I know, but I just really love building things in games. Most of my mods for the game are related to the settlement system in some way or another, and I'll often find myself booting up the game and building a new shack in Sanctuary or expanding Vault 88 a bit more.

Sid Meier's Pirates

I have dozens of thousands of hours logged in that game, all because it's so easy to get in to and so hard to get out of. Just turn it on, do some pirate shit, then realize it's been hours and you probably should have eaten or slept at some point.

DOOM

So many mods

So many difficulties

Beyond that I'd say Half-Life because that's also a good classic.

Company of Heroes

When it came out in 2006, I played it with all the time with my brother against Bots only and planning out every move.

I recommended it to my friends a bit later and every few years we made a LAN party or an all nighter online session. Through the years all of us moved into different parts of the country, got older and building families.

But around this year's new years eve, we got into it again, play it every Friday since then. We spend more time together through the game and everybody is having fun, because every match turns out different since everybody got really good at it. Also, it has a surprising strategic depth once you're really in it and it runs on every shitty PC without any bigger issues.

I really love the game for enabling us this good time together.

Halo 3, any of the older guitar hero or rock band games. Or OSRS.

Dragon Quest!