Favourite 'Blow off steam' game

[recurve6]

Dynasty Warriors, you are God amongst men leaving a swath of carnage in your wake.

Nuff said

Basically this.

Dynasty Warriors combines the most ridiculous music and characters with easy-to-learn-difficult-to-master gameplay and instant accessibility. Little thought is required, but DW can hold your attention way easier than you'd think, especially the faster-paced, newer titles.

 

[piinyouri]

Torchlight II can be very soothing with it's multitude of explosions and stacks upon stacks of numbers floating up when you wipe out a gaggle of enemies.

Probably the one I play the most though for this purpose is Orcs Must Die 2. Throw on some thrash music, sit back in my chair and just let loose with some carnage.

 

[Darth Rahu]

The Wonderful 101. It's such a cheery and upbeat superhero story with an addictive core gameplay. Team! Unite Up!!

 

[Zeh Don]

Grand Theft Auto V. Take a nice drive to Ammunation, become death destroyer of worlds, and then turn the streets into a War Zone.

 

[Tomany2]

I usually just pick up one of the stalker games if I'm bored.

 

[Vegosiux]

*takes a deep breath*

These orcs must DIE!!!

Nothing as cathartic as watching a bunch of orcs swept up and mangled by your cleverly placed killboxes as punishment for parking wrong.

 

[Tanis]

I'd agree with 'Just Cause 2' as well.
It's a great screw around game.

Dragon's Crown has also been a game I've enjoyed just messing around with for a while.

 

[Sumrex]

im gonna have to go with painkiller(the original that is) because, and I'm qouteing Yahtzee here "So that's Painkiller more proof that the best way to blow off steam is to blow of someones natches"

 

[ImmortalDrifter]

I like this thread. It's so... positive. Refreshing.

OT: DOOM, Dead Rising 2, Killing Floor, or any other game with copious amounts of violence and mayhem. A spot of MW2 also works quite well because I have transcended into godhood in that game. (About 1500 hours in it)

 

[RedDeadFred]

Saints Row 4. I just run around causing nukes and throwing cars at people. I will also occasionally stop to toss an ice blast at a group of people then smack them and watch the chain reaction of bits fly everywhere. Then there is simply running into someone at high speed and doing some insane high speed wrestling move on them. Never gets old. Being an unstoppable god is a good way to blow off steam. It helps that I run around in red and black knight armor while wearing a demonic looking horse head.

I also find that playing some Rock Band 2 helps a lot.

 

[Fireaxe]

Team Fortress 2. Rocket jumping into sniper nests is cathartic.

 

[TheJayke]

Am I the only one who plays Fifa? Each years Fifa is my go to game when I just want to burn half hour or so, either a couple games online or in my career mode there.

If I have a bit longer, then maybe a couple games in League of Legends, generally ARAM if I don't want to have to concentrate..

 

[putowtin]

Multiplayer: Mass Effect
Singleplayer: Fallout: New Vegas or the Sims 3

Can't get angry when building a house!

 

[Blitsie]

I generally switch between Dynasty Warriors and Prototype, as morbid as it sounds, just slaughtering hundreds upon hundreds of people as this absolutely godly being really soothes the mind.

 

[Marik Bentusi]

Prototype's got exactly the kind of aggressive, fast, fluid, varied gameplay I need for letting off Steam. You can fling fridges at tanks one moment, claw your way through mutants the next, and roleplay as Blackwatch to round things out.

 

[Foolery]

Halo Reach. Firefight mode. Pop on some tunes and blast away for long as I can. Halo is generally pretty good for just screwing around. My brother and I used to race warthogs on the last level of 3.

 

[Exhuminator]

http://www.gog.com/game/postal_2_complete

It's cathartic in ways you can't imagine until you play it.

 

[LaughingAtlas]

Most any particularly violence-based game will do, I find, such as Dead Rising 2 or Arkham City's violence-only riddler challenges, but of late I find myself using Burnout: Paradise to quickly vent frustrations. It's oddly soothing to hop in a magic, self-fixing car, plow recklessly through the streets until I get to the nearest Road Rage event, and wreck as many of my chums in bad driving as I can manage, swearing incoherently pretty much the whole time. It's probably worth noting that I do this solely in singleplayer, haven't bothered with the online features even once, as it's nice to have a whole city to yourself for that 'It's all mine, bwahahahahaha' feeling.
That last part alone is cathartic in it's own right, actually.

 

[Spider RedNight]

I'm gonna go in a different direction and say that MOST of the Harvest Moon games really soothe me, especially if I play how I feel and I simply don't save - that girl was a jerk to me, I'm gonna give her my weeds that I picked. ALL MY CHICKENS CAN DIE-- okay, not really but the music is peaceful enough to tell me to breathe and say "Shhhhh you had a bad day. It's cool, it happens to everyone. Just... go fishing and it'll all be okay."

Speaking of fishing, Animal Crossing does that to me, too. At least temporarily. Other honourable mentions include Silent Hill 2, Borderlands 2, and Portal 1/2.

 

[Evonisia]

I play Gears of War 3's multiplayer, I enjoy getting those easy kills in such gory ways (most guns tend to just tear limbs off) and after a while I start enjoying it more because I'm settled and ready for the challenge of other players.

Is doing nothing but charging people with the bayonet in GOW3 viable? I only played it at launch for a few months and it was everywhere, Retro Lancer and Sawn Off Shotgun. The rage that combo inspires is great

The Retro Lancer charge is still viable... assuming you know how to combine it with spraying somebody to death at close range. I use it and the Hammerburst all the time because the Lancer is boring. The Sawed Off Shotgun is still pretty balanced yet powerful but most people use Lancer + Gnasher Shotgun. The Retro charge is kinda ruined by Lancers but a good tactic is charge in then spray them before they can Gnasher you.