Your ye ol' faithful games that are always there for you no matter what, buddy!

[hudson]

We get the latest games, we plough into big triple A open worlds, we grind the absolute fudge out of some poor baddy who is just trying to have his tea, but he has a %1 chance to drop a tin of mush peas you want to go with your pie tonight. Ahem.

But we can get burnt out. The nerves of playing some ranked mode just won't settle.... you need a break from said game. You turn to your desktop, console OS and reach for ye ol' trusty faithful game of chill and magnificence.

What are these games that are always installed, ready and waiting for you to come back to chill with?

For me, at the moment, I have a few games that are always installed and ready to be played in between games.

Balatro - a roguelike poker type game with the aim of using Jokers and upgrades to get silly scores.

EA PGA Tour Golf - Has had some decent updates and is in a decent place. I even hoping for a new game this year... right EA? EA?

Dariusburst CS/AC EX+ - Playing Chronicle mode is chill. I don't mind dying. I love the visuals and music.

Simulators - I'm current slowly playing through Alaskan Road Truckers and Supermarket Sim. Building my trucking/store empires!

Castlevania SOTN - This sits on my PS5 and is always waiting for me to carry with the

->Open Spoiler<-

upside down castle

How about you?

[Golgo]

Recently I tend to snack on the following:

Akka Arrh - which is Minter's mental latest.
Tempest 4000 - which is Minter's mental previous-est.
Slay the Spire - which is the original roguelike deck builder.
Demon's Tilt - which is pinball-of-the-devil.
Streets of Rage 4 - which is Streets of Rage 4.

All tastily baked into my Switch.

[hudson]

Slay the Spire was my go to Roguelike before Balatro. Balatro ruined it all.

[Golgo]

Get thee behind me, Satan, and tempt me not.

[fuse]

I feel like roguelikes and arcade games are uniquely positioned to scratch these specific 'comfort gaming' itches. On the roguelike front, Spelunky and Curse of the Necrodancer are my two big vices; I could absolutely see me going that way with Dead Cells but I stopped after one clear and before it got its hooks too deep into me. On the arcade side of things, I feel like OutRun 2 (and any iteration of) is infinitely replayable and just good, cheery fun in its most perfectly condensed form. Also Third Strike - at any time, any place, given the opportunity I will play this, even if it's just beating up a CPU opponent for a bit.

Symphony of the Night is one of mine too - any time that game gets re-released I will be there, and even when it's not I tend to play it through every couple of years. Feels good to just stomp about in it, love listening to the music, and generally it's an absolute all-timer.

[Brad]

Fallout 3, NV or 4
Dragon Age Origins. There's always a new build I can do.
Demon's Souls
Morrowind

[endo]

OutRun 2 is never far away when I just want to switch off for a bit and enjoy the sunshine and the music. Similarly to Fuse, I also love a bit of Third Strike when I just fancy a bit of arcade goodness. It's amazing how muscle memory from over 20 years ago is still there. Otherwise, of more modern stuff, I find myself dipping into Astro's Playroom a lot just to mess around, mainly with the kids. Rinsed it thoroughly a long time ago, but it's still hugely fun. Really looking forward to the new game! I don't play them as much now for some reason, but golf games - mainly the old Tiger Woods editions - were always a staple Sunday morning chillout game. The Skate series too.

[Finsbury Girl]

Fallout 3, NV or 4
Dragon Age Origins. There's always a new build I can do.
Demon's Souls
Morrowind

I installed and tried to run from Steam the other week, no bueno even after downloading all sorts of ****e to get it working. It was too hard

[phillv85]

I think the only everpresent on my modern systems is Odin Sphere Leifthrasir. I don't play it often because I've hammered it in the past but I like to know its always there.

I tend to go further back for my comfort games though. Streets of Rage 2 is the game I go back to all time, I must have run through it hundreds and hundreds of times since I got it in the early 90's. The Terminator on Mega Drive is another I play often, mainly because it takes me about 10 minutes to complete. Other stuff I often play are Street Fighter and vs. Street Fighter games, mainly on Saturn.

[fishbowlhead]

Helldivers2 at the moment.
Pokemon, any of them as comfort food.

[wheelaa]

Gunstar Heroes.
Streets of Rage 2.
Bubble Bobble (Marty).
Splatterhouse (arcade / Marty / PCE).

I must be at / close to 4 figure clears for at least 2 of them.

And one that I don't play so much, barely touch compared to those 4, but it's a game I am so happy exists / that I can play whenever I want

Flashback (MD / Marty)

[hudson]

Are you an FM Towns Marty fan? Tell me more.

EDIT: Just watched a video. Looks like it had the best ports of arcade games that were on the previous generation (MD/PCE/SNES etc). Just on the cusp of PS1/Saturn times. I would have loved almost arcade perfect ports of SF, Splatterhouse etc

[Brad]

I installed and tried to run from Steam the other week, no bueno even after downloading all sorts of ****e to get it working. It was too hard

I have the EA Origins version, works fine although I do have a mod that makes it so I can plug in more "AI" so that I don't need to interact in fights whatsoever. I can set up enough rules/actions that my party do everything themselves. Amazing way to play it.

[Tobal]

old faithful's

Final Fantasy XI
No Mans Sky
Stellaris
Snowrunner
Seamless co-op mod - Elden Ring
Genshin Impact
Fire Pro Wrestling World

Not so chill faithful's so spoilers for not being on theme

->Open Spoiler<-

Helldivers 2
Dead by Daylight

until 2 months ago Apex Legends, 5 years solid, didn't like the direction the game moved into, daily challenges and the season pass became to much of chore, freebies stopped being handed out in events years ago, the art design got worse, specially the expensive (£15 on average) player costumes, latest new character is terrible and matchmaking felt like 90% of time i had to face off again super hardcore pre-made teams, where you always went up against super mobile Horizons, Octanes and Valkyries that run off after tiny bit of damage, gave me flashbacks to fortnite players super building anytime they are shot.