I tend to find Dark Souls incredibly soothing. I don't know what it is, but it's one of those games I can just pick up and do something and enjoy doing it rather than it being a chore.
Favourite 'Blow off steam' game
- Thread starter Reed Spacer
- Start date
Recommended Videos
I've found when I'm stressed competitive games become far worse experiences. I perform waaaaaay worse, resulting in more anger and compounding the stress. For me, building and designing games provide relief. Sim City, Roller-coaster Tycoon, even my wifes Sims 3.
SRPG are also good. Slow, usually story based and more technical than skill based help relaxing. There's something cathartic about move, attack, move, attack, move, buff, move, heal...
SRPG are also good. Slow, usually story based and more technical than skill based help relaxing. There's something cathartic about move, attack, move, attack, move, buff, move, heal...
Red Faction Guerrilla. Taking a sledgehammer to all manner of buildings/vehicles/evil EDF people can be very relaxing.
More so once you have actually finished the game and unlocked all the cheats. Nothing says fun like smacking an APC sideways through an EDF barracks building and watching the lot explode and crumble.
More so once you have actually finished the game and unlocked all the cheats. Nothing says fun like smacking an APC sideways through an EDF barracks building and watching the lot explode and crumble.
Team Fortress 2 here. For some reason, Demoknight is catharsis personified for me. Maybe it's the knowledge that no matter what I do, I will have annoyed at least one person on either team simply by being a Demoknight.
Killing Floor is what I run to when I want to just shoot lots of enemies. Its the closest thing to the catharsis people used to get from FPS games like Doom and Duke 3D, and it doesn't require any puzzle solving or secret finding, the maps are just arenas and the enemies are coming to get you, not the other way around.
When I want to kill other players, I often load up a TDM match of Battlefield 3, usually on small maps I can get a good KDR going and switch to sniper if I get really frustrated by people using shotguns.
I like Just Cause 2 but the AI is too dumb to be any challenge, and Rico's inability to crouch and shoot gets really annoying when there are too many bad guys to take on in open combat. If someone made an AI mod to JC2 I would be all over it.
When I want to kill other players, I often load up a TDM match of Battlefield 3, usually on small maps I can get a good KDR going and switch to sniper if I get really frustrated by people using shotguns.
I like Just Cause 2 but the AI is too dumb to be any challenge, and Rico's inability to crouch and shoot gets really annoying when there are too many bad guys to take on in open combat. If someone made an AI mod to JC2 I would be all over it.
I second this. Also, there's nothing quite as soothing as playing 'Mr Blue Sky' while beating up people in Arkham Asylum (along with a multitude of ill-fitting songs).an874 said:
At the moment, I am really enjoying playing the Lego Harry Potter games, I just find them fun to play and they are quite relaxing. I can play it for hours just collecting things and not actually making that much progress in the story mode, which I find really quite nice. I am not really a fan of first person shooters in general, so I tend to avoid them.
I have several, actually. Which one I use depends on my mood, what's bothering me, and/or what's readily available at the time.
These would include, but aren't necessarily limited to:
Dota 2
Prototype
Crackdown
Super Smash Bros
Sven Coop
Doom 2
Quake 3
MechCommander 2
Left 4 Dead 2
Team Fortress 2
Half-Life
Torchlight 2
Diablo 2
All of these are, for me, easy to play. They almost never cause me any undue aggravation or annoyance. And their familiarity to me is comforting.
Helps too that they are included in my list of "favorite games ever". If I ever need to unwind, calm down, or relieve myself of any stress, these almost never fail.
These would include, but aren't necessarily limited to:
Dota 2
Prototype
Crackdown
Super Smash Bros
Sven Coop
Doom 2
Quake 3
MechCommander 2
Left 4 Dead 2
Team Fortress 2
Half-Life
Torchlight 2
Diablo 2
All of these are, for me, easy to play. They almost never cause me any undue aggravation or annoyance. And their familiarity to me is comforting.
Helps too that they are included in my list of "favorite games ever". If I ever need to unwind, calm down, or relieve myself of any stress, these almost never fail.
Just Cause 2 is a great one for exploring and causing random mayhem (and Mercenaries before it).
I find just skating around in Skate 2 really relaxing in a zen way.
I love Gun Game in Black Ops. Haven't bought a CoD game since, but I'll still fire up Gun Game every once in a while. Just silly, stupid, and challenging.
Binding of Isaac is a good one because each playthrough takes max one hour, so I'll often listen to a podcast or YouTube video while playing through it again and again.
I find just skating around in Skate 2 really relaxing in a zen way.
I love Gun Game in Black Ops. Haven't bought a CoD game since, but I'll still fire up Gun Game every once in a while. Just silly, stupid, and challenging.
Binding of Isaac is a good one because each playthrough takes max one hour, so I'll often listen to a podcast or YouTube video while playing through it again and again.
I find any game that isn't horribly designed to be cathartic, it really depends on my mood, it could be anything from a total war game, to borderlands, or maybe some oldschool commander keen action.
but then again, I'm one of those gamers who doesn't have a favoured genre, I just play a little of everything, always have.
but then again, I'm one of those gamers who doesn't have a favoured genre, I just play a little of everything, always have.
Rock Band (drums) was my go to for several years. I used that game to kill short bursts of time, to blow off steam or even just to warm up in the winter. Play a few quick songs and you'll work up sweat while having a blast 
These days it's mostly Diablo 3 though.
These days it's mostly Diablo 3 though.
Usually, Unreal Tournament 1999. Just sitting down for a few rounds of Lightning deathmatch (first to 15 kills wins) is enough to vent my frustration.
There are a few actually...
Dynasty Warriors (insert anime here). Preferably Ken's Rage but Gundam was also freaking awesome (haven't played the two sequel games). I haven't played the One Piece ones but I really want to if only to play as Sanji, who is awesome.
Just Cause 2...but only if I don't have Saint's Row 2 handy. JC2 to blow shit up and SR2 to douse things in semi-liquid feces.
Back in the past, I would play Assault on the Control Room in Halo. Ever since the original game, those vehicle sections have kept me going back to Halo.
Dynasty Warriors (insert anime here). Preferably Ken's Rage but Gundam was also freaking awesome (haven't played the two sequel games). I haven't played the One Piece ones but I really want to if only to play as Sanji, who is awesome.
Just Cause 2...but only if I don't have Saint's Row 2 handy. JC2 to blow shit up and SR2 to douse things in semi-liquid feces.
Back in the past, I would play Assault on the Control Room in Halo. Ever since the original game, those vehicle sections have kept me going back to Halo.
It used to be Saints Row 3, and now it's Saints Row 4.
There's just something about running up the tallest skyscraper in the city and then gliding over all the boroughs with smiling serenity that completely lifts the soul of its burdens. Also shooting people in the face. Can't forget that part.
There's a different kind of blowing off steam those games aren't as good for, though. There's anger and then there's tired, frizzled anxiety that I often get at the end of the day, too. For that it's absolutely Animal Crossing: New Leaf, which is just a sugar-sweet little game that demands very little of you and is just the thing after a day when I feel like everyone's been interrupting me with more stuff for me to do every five seconds. Also playing it can be nicely combined with snuggling a dog or two.
There's just something about running up the tallest skyscraper in the city and then gliding over all the boroughs with smiling serenity that completely lifts the soul of its burdens. Also shooting people in the face. Can't forget that part.
There's a different kind of blowing off steam those games aren't as good for, though. There's anger and then there's tired, frizzled anxiety that I often get at the end of the day, too. For that it's absolutely Animal Crossing: New Leaf, which is just a sugar-sweet little game that demands very little of you and is just the thing after a day when I feel like everyone's been interrupting me with more stuff for me to do every five seconds. Also playing it can be nicely combined with snuggling a dog or two.
Either Team Fortress 2 (fly, my gibs, fly) or, surprisingly enough, the XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Just put on a podcast in the background, and the constant failing becomes almost unnoticeable, and all that's left is a number-crunch. I actually managed to almost beat it on Classic Ironman without even noticing this way.
I tend to alternate between Just Cause 2 and The Saboteur- JC2 for out and out mayhem, and TS for more sneaky pissing off the Nazis and leaving them looking around scratching their heads as I leap away over the rooftops giggling like a schoolgirl, before causing the next explosion that sends them into another frenzy. As already mentioned, Mercenaries was excellent for this too.
Outside that, quick deathmatches, preferrably with Instagib in UT99 or UT2004, or Perfect Dark/Timesplitters/The World Is Not Enough always quench my thirst for shooty shooty death.
Outside that, quick deathmatches, preferrably with Instagib in UT99 or UT2004, or Perfect Dark/Timesplitters/The World Is Not Enough always quench my thirst for shooty shooty death.
Mirrors edge and Alice: madness returns, particularly the card level are good for stress. I think its the bright simple aesthetic and music. Even if I'm failing in those I don't get mad.
Alternatively if I'm feeling pissed off and violent I shoot people dicks off and wrap explosives around their heads in Bulletstorm or run people down while on horseback in M&B:Warband. It use to be FO:3 but I don't have that installed anymore.
My mother isn't much into gaming but she use to play Doom when stressed. She also has a model of a rat doing the finger that tended to appear on her desk.
Alternatively if I'm feeling pissed off and violent I shoot people dicks off and wrap explosives around their heads in Bulletstorm or run people down while on horseback in M&B:Warband. It use to be FO:3 but I don't have that installed anymore.
My mother isn't much into gaming but she use to play Doom when stressed. She also has a model of a rat doing the finger that tended to appear on her desk.
Viva Pinata.
Until Professor Pester comes along. But even then, he's too adorable to cause stress. Easy come easy go, oh well.
Until Professor Pester comes along. But even then, he's too adorable to cause stress. Easy come easy go, oh well.
One, the other, or both. Chill, or Bay it up.
Sims, Rune factory, Pokemon, hopefully Harvest Moon soon.
Of course there's Dynasty Warriors, Saints Row 2, 3, or 4, and GTAO, and Way of the Samurai 4. Or wwe 13. Might get 14 once I know how restricted the Divas are. rar.
Sometimes I want to faff about in the world... sometimes I want to watch it BURN!! WAAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAA!!!
Or just maul mofoz.
Sims, Rune factory, Pokemon, hopefully Harvest Moon soon.
Of course there's Dynasty Warriors, Saints Row 2, 3, or 4, and GTAO, and Way of the Samurai 4. Or wwe 13. Might get 14 once I know how restricted the Divas are. rar.
Sometimes I want to faff about in the world... sometimes I want to watch it BURN!! WAAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAA!!!
Or just maul mofoz.
Games really can be the perfect stress-reliver, though, can't they?
Pissed off? Blow something up. Nerve frazzled? Play something like Harvest Moon or Animal Crossing and just watch the world happen.
Pissed off? Blow something up. Nerve frazzled? Play something like Harvest Moon or Animal Crossing and just watch the world happen.