Ask Lemmy

Rocket League. And then I'm not chilled.

Blast some bots in Quake 3.

Damn, was gonna say subnautica but you already put that

It might be more catharsis than unwinding, but dark souls/sekiro. I've been through them enough times that it's just comfortable.

Good ol' vanilla survival Minecraft. Very fun with friends.

Kerbal Space Program

American Truck Simulator or Euro Truck Simulator 2. Pick a long hual, throw on a podcast or some music, and just cruise.

Chrono Trigger. I have a save that I just load up, do some things on, and then turn off when I'm done. I've beaten the game dozens of times, and I know every aspect in and out, so it's like flipping on the TV and catching an episode of a sitcom, I just roll with it and mellow out.

The Talos Principle (+ DLC) and its just-released sequel really fit this niche for me. I'm fighting severe burnout and was specifically looking for a game without time pressure, reflex-based gameplay, or (because I keep bouncing off of turn-based strategy games even though I believe that I love them) complicated stats-based systems.

TTP is about first-person puzzles in the vein of Portal. While some of the puzzles can be difficult, you can work through them at your own pace. The level structure makes it easy to drop in and out of the game whenever, and the gorgeous environments and soundtrack make the world just a generally soothing and immersive place to walk around in.

I like to play any type of horde clearing game where I can shut my brain off and just swing/shoot my way through a bunch of enemies. Some examples of this are deep rock galactic and vermintide 2. One scratches the shooty itch and the other scratches the swingy itch

If I ain't shooting or swinging I like to play roguelites. Slay the spire and faster than light are classics I keep returning to. Interested in trying out cobalt core soon which looks like a mix of STS and FTL

Tetris Effect. The funny thing is I used to hate Tetris with passion, but somehow Tetris Effect has won me over. The music and sound effects are so ASMRish it's almost trance-inducing...

Minecraft, Doom (first two), Cities Skylines, and more recently, Unpacking.

OpenTTD

BeamNG. Logged hundreds of hours just mindlessly driving around crashing into stuff and fucking around with vehicle customisations.

I'm really in the same boat. Lately it's been these:

Dorfromantik

Mini Motorways

Halls of Torment

Vampire Survivors

Brotato

Firewatch was great but it's really a one or two sitting game. Same with Unpacking.

What I'm REALLY looking for but having trouble finding is something like a city builder or house builder that there is no money, nothing like that. Just creativity in building. Way back when I first tried the Sims, I loved the house building part more than anything.

I've been searching for something new though. I tried Satisfactory but really just wish it had a creative mode. I tried Terraria but I can't get the Minecraft allegory out of my head so this game infuriates me.

Outer Wilds

I will always shill for Outer Wilds, simply because it's such a niche that only 2 games have come out in its unnamed genre: Majora's Mask and Outer Wilds.

Yes, Outer Wilds is a spiritual successor to Majora's Mask.

And the worst part is that talking about the game would probably spoil half of it. All I can say that it's an adventure like Majora's Mask.

If you ever were to trust an internet stranger to buy a game blind, now is the time. If you loved MM, you'll at least like OW.

Happy adventuring, stranger ;)

openRCT2.

Animal Crossing New Leaf, Stardew Valley, Starfiled, Minecraft and Fortza Horazion 3,4 or 5.

Terraria

Celeste

Dwarf Fortress

cyberpunk is actually great for that. Sometimes if I don't wanna do anything in particular I'll just... fight the police, lol. Or just randomly do some open world stuff, like drive around the badlands. Then if I'm feeling like doing something more "meaningful" I'll jump into an actual story quest

Rimworld for me.

I play high intensity first person shooters, mostly Battlefield, to unwind.

The faster paced the better because it allows me to escape.

It used to be I’d get so worked up over competitive games. I had to be doing PvE to relax. Not so any more.

Weirdly, this happened after I had a completely horrible medical experience that left me with permanent (figurative) scars on my nervous system. Like, I still have stress problems four years after the event.

But at that moment, suddenly competitive games became refreshing to me.

Since everyone has already said more well known games, here are my Indie/small games

Islanders

Race the Sun

Skye

Superflight

Genshin impact on PC is a masterpiece. The colors on my 4k monitor are just out of this world. I don't even do hard missions, I just go around the wild collect foods and stuff. So relaxing.

Terraria. I started a new character/world probably 200 times. Music is also bang on.

Shattered Pixel Dungeon. Which is weird because it's actually quite frustrating, but super rewarding if you win.

Persona 5 Royal.

I love the social element, characters and such.

Potion craft is great for this, just running a little potion shop making potions to order.