We all have that one game or genre that never gets old and we return to time and time again.
What is it for you and why is that the case?
Minecraft. I go through phases of not playing it, but once or twice a year I’ll start up a new world and just mindlessly build and mine while listening to a podcast or an audiobook, and will play every night for several weeks. I’ve started so many minecraft worlds over the years that I really don’t need to think about what to do next
I feel like Minecraft is one of those games that will always be there as an old favourite.
Civilization. There is nothing quite as cathartic as subjugating the world under my iron fist…
Morrowind! It’s such an amazing game and such a break from reality. There is tremendous depth there, if you go and look for it, but you can also just dungeon dive and smack monsters in the face with a sword if you want.
Check out OpenMW for a great, easy to use, source port of the game engine.
A bit different from the question but
Outer Wilds.
I’ve spent a lot of time in it and have 100% it, so it’s hard to find a reason get back in, but even just booting to the title screen just completely transports me.
Why? Outer Wilds was just an incredible experience, and the OST is astounding and the music completely soaked up the experience and can bring it all back just by listening.
I recently bough it at a steam sale but didn’t get into it at first. Maybe I’ll try again soon.
Same, because I can’t seem to make any progress at all. I don’t really know what the goal is. I keep taking off and go fool around on planets until the time resets, and it’s pleasant enough. But I haven’t wrapped my head around the mystery so far
I didn’t even get that far. Hopped on the ship, explored a bit of the starting planet, then the closest bodies and couldn’t figure out what I was supposed to be doing. I get that the idea is to research the mystery behind the ancient texts, but I wasn’t really feeling compelled to.
Yea it’s really not holding your hand,… but to the point where there’s hardly any motivation except for the pleasure of exploration itself
My teenage kids love Outer Wilds so much. They speed run it on the weekends when they’re bored.
To be honest, many games published by Annapurna Interactive are an incredible experience. So, if you want to experience some new things, check them out if you haven’t already! I can personally recommend Stray and What Remains of Edith Finch. Final note; if you play the latter for the first time, play it in a single sitting. It’s only 2 hours but man is it worth it!
Factorio for me. There is always some old megafactory to pick up again or a new mod nightmare to try out.
Hades is one that I’ll still fire up now and again if I’m not sure what to do. Currently losing my mind at the lack of Hades 2 news.
It’ll literally always be Minecraft. I think I’ll revisit it every couple months till I’m dead.
It has been updated significantly over the years, and there’s a lot of cool mods to try. If I had to pick a single game to play forever it would be Minecraft.
I always play a game of Stellaris every few months. The combination of roleplay and grand strategy massages my brain just right to make the happy chemicals.
Hollow Knight for sure. Just load up a couple of randomizers and explore hallownest for the millionth time
Randomizers? You mean you can rearrange the whole game or something?
It allows you to randomise which enemies/bosses spawn where, and it randomises items. The world stays the same but the game plays out differently because it often changes how you progress.
I go back to a few almost routinely.
- Mount and Blade: Warband (with and without mods)
- Rocket League
- Crash Bandicoot 2&3
- OpenTTD
- Pokemon (The mainline ones are all basically the same game lol)
For M&B and OpenTTD, being able to rely on my old knowledge of the game to succeed feels satisfying since they both have a steep learning curve.
For RL and Crash, muscle memory taking over the majority of play is relaxing.
For Pokemon I just have a crippling amount of nostalgia
Dynasty Warriors (and its many, many spinoffs). I know they’re not objectively good, but man does it feel great to kill 1,000 enemies just by mashing Square and Triangle.
The older entries also had endearingly bad English voice acting.
Definitely Stardew Valley. It’s not necessarily like I could play it endlessly forever but whenever all other alternatives seem boring or like they require more energy than I feel like spending, I always turn to Stardew exactly for comfort.
Animal crossing. Enough said
That is sure a comfy one
Mirrors edge 1.
The level design was just really good. There were many different ways to tackle various obstacles in the environment and the time trials had many routes you could take.
Now that I’m relatively good at the game I can beat the story levels in around 4 hours ish?
I like to revisit it from time to time.
What did you think of the second one? I liked how it was open world, though the story itself left a lot to be desired IMO
I thought the second was interesting. I didn’t like it as much as the first but for what it was it was pretty good.
The way they made the open world didn’t work very well in some ways. For example to get the player into new areas they had to funnel them through specific choke points. Additionally I wasn’t a fan of forced combat.
However I thought the main missions and the graphics were high points. I enjoyed finding various collectibles/exploring and some time trials were actually a pretty good time. I hope one day they decide to revisit the series but I have a feeling it might be shelved for quite a long time.
Monster Hunter. I must have spent over 1,800 hrs. on the two latest series. I can’t exactly turn my brain off with this game but nothing makes me more comfortable than having a Lance or Charge Blade in my hands.