Gaming Comfort Food

For me its Bioware games, but not like late 90s, early aughts stuff, the mass effect, dragon age stuff. I can play them over and over again forever. I never get bored despite knowing everything. Well wait I kinda had problems with Andromeda but I may go back to that one too.

So despite living through the 80s, 90s, my drug of choice is a very specific era of Bioware.

For me it's the Elder Scrolls games, specifically Oblivion and Skyrim. I've played them both for hundreds of hours each and can still pop in to just wander around for a while.

For me it has been open world games with tons of achievements and things on the map. Got platinum trophies in Days Gone and Mad Max in the past month and just started Assassin's Creed Origins.

Hitman

The trial-and-error murder puzzles really puts me in a zen place. I love picking apart and figuring out how the levels tick, how the designers constructed the clockwork spaces. I also love walking around contemporary settings outside of military environments in games, especially with civilians going about their business.

There is also a nostalgia factor. I remember scraping together enough money to buy Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, one of those times I realized I was freaking obsessed w/ video games. It introduced me to a different kind of stealth game, one that appeared as serious as any other but quickly revealed itself as black comedy.

I've been playing Hitman 2016 and at first, I was really overwhelmed with the size of the levels compared to the previous ones but the Opportunities help immensely in getting a handle on the locales.

Heroes of the Storm. It's the only moba you can load up, hop into a queue with whatever hero you want to play and just have a good time. Don't have to think too hard, match length is a quarter of other mobas, and the controls are so tight and intuitive compared to League and Dota that it just feels good to play. Quick match and Brawl isn't ranked, so if you want to just turn off chat and pings, you can.

JRPGs generally for me. There are few other genres I can get so lost in completely as a good JRPG.

Ironically I was literally just thinking about this, as my copy of Xenoblade DE is arriving tomorrow, and I suspect it will be exactly that kind of gaming comfort food I need right now.

A good, addictive puzzle game like lumines or picross/picross3d. Something I can play while half paying attention to some random YouTube videos or podcasts.

Civ, Kerbal, things with not-too-serious-driving, Farming RPGs and a recent return to Minecraft/digital building games all give me the same warm hug comfort food does.

Over the last few weeks JRPGs have definitely been the answer for me. I don't need challenging or super engaging right now, I just need another world and another story to escape into and JRPGs can provide that pretty well.

I've been playing Xenogears and I think that it's very much gaming comfort food. Especially since it definitely shows its age as a game, which isn't always a great thing but in this case helps pull you out of the current moment and in to a kind of timeless state.

Euro Truck Simulator 2, is my goto game traditionally. No stress, just chill immersive driving while listening to podcasts, music or radio. I've added American Truck Sim as well.

Simulation games in general, where my other favourites are: SnowRunner, Farming Simulator 19, Train Sim World, The Hunter Call of the Wild, Bus Simulator 18, Ultimate Fishing Simulator, Fishing Barents Sea, and Sailaway.

I just really like the experience of taking my time doing my stuff.

I also like using my wheel-set with a fun and good racing sim, usually RaceRoomExperience, I have a very long history with those developers and their games (formerly known as Simbin studios).

Spelunky, it's a great way to zone out for a half hour or so. Either that or some action game from the Genesis era.

I find that investing in a giant game just causes me stress about going back to it, whereas games I can pick up and play are like a quick sedative.

Roguelikes such as The Binding of Isaac and Spelunky are wonderful for something when I have an hour to kill. Survival/farming games like Minecraft, Terraria and Stardew Valley are also favorites of mine for chill comfort food. The legend of Zelda games might be favorite series because of nostagia and just how charming they are. They just fill me with a childlike sense of wonder that few other things can accomplish.

Dota, Spelunky and Football Manager are always games i keep coming back to if i don't want to go into something new. Adventure games are also extremely relaxing and there are so many lesser-known ones that are still very enjoyable to either play or watch. Lately i've also been on somewhat of a 90's RPG kick. Vagrant Story, Parasite Eve, Breath of Fire, There's a lot of cool stuff out there and especially the presentation of these games hold up quite well i find. Parasite Eve is just such a good vibe that it overshadows the somewhat weak story.

For better and for worse.

The Yakuza series has been my go to for a long time. I play through them all once a year without fail and every time it feels like returning to my hometown after a long time away, something about them just warms my soul.

I just start another playthrough of The Witcher 3.

Comfort games for me usually mean something I can half pay attention to. For a long time that meant games like Diablo2, but lately I've found beat em ups(or any score based game really) to be great for that.

Stardew Valley

Sports games, Rocket League. Know the rules and nuances enough to be competent while zoned out. Don't get frustrated when I do poorly because fuck it, its just a game that has to end in a win or loss. Unlike story games which I can get pretty frustrated at when I am stuck or if the story drags.

There are a million complaints to be leveled at Skyrim, but even vanilla Skyrim can draw me in for a solid month at the drop of a hat. Same thing for all three Dark Souls games.

Fantasy Life is just pure joy with a fast but satisfying loop and lovely visuals.