Relaxing games recommendations

[Sno]

If there's not a simple way to prevent enemies from spawning, there's almost certainly at least a console command to prevent enemies from aggroing on you at sight.

Also, Morrowind is great for random wandering too. Skyrim and Morrowind both have really great, visually interesting worlds. (Oblivion's kind of bland imo.)

[Bjorn]

If there's not a simple way to prevent enemies from spawning, there's almost certainly at least a console command to prevent enemies from aggroing on you at sight.

Also, Morrowind is great for random wandering too. Skyrim and Morrowind both have really great, visually interesting worlds. (Oblivion's kind of bland imo.)

 

Yep, there is.  Open the console and type tdetect.  It disables enemy AI so they don't attack.

[TychoCelchuuu]

I haven't played Waking Mars but I hear it might be relaxing.

[dibs]

Electroplankton! The best. Just play with the spinny plankton for ever.

[CjEggett]

I usually play Spelunky or UnNethack.

 

While permadeath and fairly high difficulty shouldn't make for "relaxing" play I find that playing these games is more like a craft - you're playing to get better, and go further, but you accept that fundamentally you're not going to win "now".

 

So it's great for listening to a podcast and relaxing.

 

The only time it become in anyway stressful is if you somehow get further than you normally would.

 

It's a bit like that chess thing where "everyone" knows the majority of moves that can be made in the first few turns, but eventually a move which has never been seen before emerges. It's something that makes it a game you can play all your life I expect.

 

I don't actually know anything about it - I just heard it on Radiolab:

 

http://www.radiolab.org/story/153799-games/

 

Anyway - when you hit the part of the game which you get to rarely you tend to switch to a higher awareness of your actions (and promptly cock it up).

 

But when you don't ruin everything immediately and stupidly you're not relaxing any more, and you're entirely in the game. As far as I'm concerned that's the best way to play - relaxation suddenly spiked by deep emersion in the fresh(er) mechanics the game presents.

[kaputt]

Some great suggestions here. Didin't know it was possible to just walk in Skyrim. Maybe I can replicate a bit the experience I had with Miasmata, which was remarkable.

 

As for the other games, Long Live the Queen might really get a place in my library, it sounded pretty simple and interesting.

 

As for Spelunky being relaxing, maybe when you get Chris Remo's level of addiction it actually may start to be relaxing, but right I only feel frustration and despair with it (can't even pass the third world). 

[ihavefivehat]

I found inner peace.

 

Play Skyrim with tdetect on (thanks for that by the way, Bjorn) but turn off the music and listen to this instead:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-Vq4pmzMaE

 

edit: This works well too.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEzkhI5gWx4

[Sno]

Some great suggestions here. Didin't know it was possible to just walk in Skyrim.

 

I really like Morrowind for a chill game, even without "breaking" the game. Just adjust the difficulty slider to whatever you find appropriate, install some graphics mods if that appeals to you, and just wander around doing some quests.

The way Morrowind would give you actual road directions to go follow so you could find quest locations creates kind of a really great wandering experience that neither of the two newer games have with their all-seeing quest compasses.

[ihavefivehat]

If you like wandering around Morrowind, I highly recommend downloading the Tamriel rebuilt mod. It adds another landmass which is about the same size as the original game. The landscape is beautifully done and visually consistent with Bethesda's content. Plus it's actually populated with dungeons, NPCs and quests (although I believe the later aren't fully complete yet). It's great for wandering through.

 

Plus, they just released a massive batch of alpha content which includes another huge chunk of landscape, though it's not fully populated yet, and there seem to be some buildings you can't enter at the moment. But still worth getting for sure.

[miffy495]

I have kind of a similar question. I just beat ACIII finally so that I could play ACIV, but I don't want to jump right into it lest I burn out on the whole endeavor during the game that I was actually trying to work my way to. I need a palate cleanser. What is a good, low-commitment game I can use as a break between ACs?

[TychoCelchuuu]

Luxuria Superbia is relaxing.

[Rayiner]

The most relaxing game that I've ever played is Secrets of Raetikon. Amazing platformer with awesome art style and even better soundtrack. It also have its own editor which is super easy to use. However, this game is still in Alpha Access, which you may or may not like.

[prettyunsmart]

I have kind of a similar question. I just beat ACIII finally so that I could play ACIV, but I don't want to jump right into it lest I burn out on the whole endeavor during the game that I was actually trying to work my way to. I need a palate cleanser. What is a good, low-commitment game I can use as a break between ACs?

 

I picked up Octodad yesterday, and I think that might be the perfect palate cleanser. It's short, light in tone, pretty well written, and only frustrating in a comical way. Every time the controls get hard to handle, I always end up just laughing at the ridiculousness of the premise. 

[tomobedlam]

  i usually play proteus or dear esther, when i want something relaxing, just walking around those islands feels great, and i like some pinball, i play the zen one, while i listen to some podcast

[Dosed]

I get that CK2 is somewhat relaxing in the way that you kind of just leave it running for a bit while listening to the Thumbs, or any podcast of choice, but I find the game play actually quite stressful. I never seem to be able to get passed one generation of a family. It's actually incredibly frustrating for me. Just as I've got all my vassals on my current lieges side he'll just up and die and then it's back to square one, but none of my vassals like the new 6 year old king so I can't raise any armies to defend against civil wars and then I just get stomped to pieces.

 

I really have a huge problem with this specific aspect of the game. The randomness to some of the events really undermines a lot of my careful planning and I feel like all my hard work has just totally gone to waste. I end just resigning and trying with a different country/leader and then exactly the same thing happens and I just have to deal with a fuck load of armies all over my counties. I've also noticed that allies don't seem to cross generations, by which I mean if my liege is allies with Denmark (through marriage) I can call them into war, but as soon as my liege dies then his heir is unable to call them to arms. Surely if their alliance is through marriage then they should continue to be loyal to my family, right? 

 

So because I don't want it to seem like I was searching for somewhere appropriate to whinge about Crusader Kings (which I totally 100% was) my relaxing game of choice has been Rogue Legacy. I've had a week off from work and I've spent way too much time playing this instead of being outside. 

[Entriech]

I use Trackmania/Trackmania 2 for relaxation sometimes.  Not directly competing in races.  There's a subset of user created tracks called "Press Forward" tracks where through clever environmental object placement and track construction, the only thing you have to do is accelerate constantly to ping pong successfully through a level.  There's a nice mix to me of admiring the scenery rushing past without having to react, and delighting in the clever ways the designers manage to flip and tip you around.  Sort of like watching someone solve a really elegant math problem, or something.

 

By way of example:

 

[SGP]

"Press Forward" tracks

 

Sweet! What a fun idea.

[bkbroiler]

Definitely Journey. Also Chime is pretty darn relaxing, specifically the Brazil level. Such good music.

[TheLastBaron]

I missed the posts in this thread about Skyrim and just walking around. I really wish some company would make a Hiking Simulator 2014 game. When people complained about Dear Esther not having any "game" to it I remember thinking how I would have loved it it it was just the game without any sort of story and marketed for people who want to walk around in the Hebrides.

[Sno]

Kind of an above-water equivalent to the Endless Ocean games? Wandering around some kind of national park, noting the wild-life you come across and seeing the sights and taking in the history of the location?

That'd probably be fairly interesting.

Oh, i just remembered, there was that Afrika game on the PS3 a few years ago. That probably somewhat fits the requirements of this theoretical game, from what i can remember hearing about it.

[DaveC]

This is kinda the opposite thing, but I thought I'd mention how stressful I found Paper, Please. It may be that, when I played that game, I was at a particularly stressful time of my life, but I found that Papers, Please just stressed me the hell out. It literally gave me heart palpitations (I was getting them anyway, at the time, but I'm certain the game was making them reoccur).

 

So, yeah. I recommend avoiding that game if you're not in the mood for being put under immense pressure. 

[bkbroiler]

Kind of an above-water equivalent to the Endless Ocean games? Wandering around some kind of national park, noting the wild-life you come across and seeing the sights and taking in the history of the location?

That'd probably be fairly interesting.

Oh, i just remembered, there was that Afrika game on the PS3 a few years ago. That probably somewhat fits the requirements of this theoretical game, from what i can remember hearing about it.

What if there were some kind of insane hiking mechanics, though? Like make walking kind of challenging or something, or make it similar to Miasmata. That could be fun.

[Griddlelol]

I so want Stardew valley, but windows PC only just means I'll never play it.

[Cordeos]

Subnautica's Creative mode. Its such a pretty game when you don't have to worry about getting eaten.

[Cbirdsong]

I so want Stardew valley, but windows PC only just means I'll never play it.

 

For now! http://stardewvalley.net/post-launch-progress-update-version-1-1-and-more/

 

Mac/Linux ports are coming, along with unspecified console ports. I'd loooove a Vita port.