Games

Spyro the Dragon - the first game specifically, I find it more of an immersive treasure-hunting experience than the next two games, which are more obviously... I dunno, video game-y. I like all three but I always 100% the first game at least once a year.

For me, I always come back to multiplayer survival games.

I just love the building up from nothing with friends.

Tunic for me, simply going, walking around, revisiting a place know well

And "A Short Hike" for my SO, they where feeling bad one day and came to see me. I got Ice Craem, some Blankets, and gave them the controler next while I was against them. Now everytime they felt sad they go on a walk to this mountain. I surprised them preparing their laptop by putting A Short Hike Wallpaper, and made their day like that

NBA 2K

I've been an avid fan of NBA 2K since the early 2000's. I absolutely hate how money hungry the game has gotten; that being said, the core offline gameplay is still extremely strong. I'll pop in and play a few offline games just to decompress. It's gotten to the point where I'll put on music or a podcast and find myself idly playing through four quarters of basketball.

Borderlands 2, there’s just something about it. I’ve put so many hours into it on various platforms, and it never gets old. The story is so good and I just love the play style. It’s super easy to restart the campaign or there’s always some farming / grinding to do, depending on the vibe for the day

Walking simulators and story/emotion heavy games like Life is Strange. Sometimes a good feels helps.

And Skyrim is my comfort game. Helps with panic attacks.

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.

League of legends obviously I enjoy the toxicity

Any SoulsBorne, Doom (mostly Brutal Doom), PSX Resi's or SOTN. Mostly the total comfort of playing what I know so well for a wile.

Basically anything single-player from BioWare and Bethesda that's not Mass Effect Andromeda.

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.

NieR Replicant and or Final Fantasy 7

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.)

Tetris. Always down for a quick game

Super Mario Bros and Wolfenstein 3D

Remembering simple times, no complexities, pure fun. While chugging coffee and oreo.

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.

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.

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.

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