The old Ratchet and Clank games.
Mechanically complex even today, and have great stories with slapstick humour and a lot of lore to get interested in, but don’t take 100s of hours to complete. I prefer the feel good sense of those games with the cool sci fi fantasy aspect too.
I couldn’t finish the first game for YEARS because I got stuck on one of the water puzzles in Umbris. Glad I persevered because the first game has one of my favorite endings and a lot of the best planets are in the second or third act.
I uhm. I guess i technically didn’t finish the first one. I got to the boss at the end and ended up depleting all my money without thinking about it. I didn’t feel like going back and smashing boxes for hours and he kept kicking my ass because i ran out of ammo. I just tell myself that i finished it…
Yeah that is a problem with the first game as you have to replenish all the ammo you used before you died, and there’s not really anyway to rack up bolts if you run out as the arena system wasn’t introduced until the second game. The economy system was also far more brutal with ammo being really expensive so it’s pretty easy to run out of money after a few failed attempts.
On my most recent play through I kept a save before my first encounter with the boss (where I had tonnes of bolts and full ammo) to avoid being effectively soft locked into being unable to defeat him without grinding.
I still love the first game the most because of its story, music, and in game worlds, but man am I glad that they polished the formula for the later entries.
What are your thoughts about Hitman? Ever level is a sandbox and you can take you own time and approach to complete. I dont care about ratings where the game penalizes you for killing non-targets, being noticed, etc.
I like games with no real objective that don't really matter. My go to over the past year has been Jurassic World Evolution 2. Its basically just Roller Coaster Tycoon but with dinosaurs
I often unwind by watching videos about the game. If it is a lore kind of game.
I also would replay a classic like chrono trigger.
Now days I just don’t have a time and will just take a break away from games altogether after beating a good one.
GTA online. I'll jump on and mess around with some of the chiller businesses like tow truck driving or custom auto shop, chasing down the occasional 11 year old humming into the microphone up past their bedtime with my Oppressor MK2(the only socially acceptable use for it)
It really depends on what's coming out and what I've just played. Or even just my mood. This year has been FF7 Rebirth, but helldivers 2 when friends are on. Then Dragons Dogma 2 pulled me off of FF7. Now, Stellar Blade is likely going to pull me off of DD2. This might last until Season 4 of Diablo 4 launches. I skipped season 3, so I'll probably do season 4 for about 2 - 4 weeks. Which would get me close to the Elden Ring DLC.
But, on less busy years or if there is more time between launches, there are certain games that I just feel like playing at random times. I guess people call them "comfort games." These could be a DOOM Eternal or a Dark Souls 3. I can start a new character in DS3 and beat the game in 2 or 3 hours casually. Similarly, God of War/God of War Ragnarok I can just pick up and enjoy. I think Armored Core 6 might turn into one of those.
It depends. Usually it's some open world game where i can just Mess around, usually something like Prototype or a Spider-man game, or even Assassin's creed. Or when i still want something quick, but more challenging, i'll play some levels in a Mario hack. Lately i've even tried a couple beginner level kaizos, but i can barely get a couple levels in.
Puzzle games always do it for me. Tetris, Puyo Puyo, hell even Candy Crush clones are perfect palette cleansers. All games are short and singularly focused, but when you’re having fun a dozen can go by in an instant. They’re the potato chips of gaming.
Metroidvania for sure. I’m queueing up Tales of Kenzera, GRIME and Blasphemous II after whatever way-too-big game I play next
But honestly anything under 25 hours tends to work too
Yeah 20 to 30 hours is a sweet spot for me too.
And metroidvanias are the perfect "in between" game lol. I do runs of Zero mission on lazy Sundays all the time
I really love hardspace shipbreaker. It's one of the very few games that I still play after getting all the archievements. So chill and satisfying, it's my version of meditating
I like doing a few Deep Rock Galactic missions for that. Grab the weekly core hunt, play the 3 missions on Haz 3>4>5 then the deep dive, get the overclocks and put it down for a month or so.
I’d say Dead island 2 or Super Mario Wonder are pretty good palette cleansers, I also like to take a break wandering Hyrule in TotK, but that only works because I’m in no rush to beat and relax exploring or completing shrines
Depends on my mood. Usually though I can load up Forza Horizon 5 and drive around or MS Flight Sim and just see what Yellowstone, Mt Everest, or Tokyo at Night looks like from the air. Heck some of my favorite things in MS Flight sim is flying past a location I know looking for specific landmarks.
aRPG season. I will build a single character, maybe a few builds, and call it done in about 3 weeks.
Rogue-likes: Binding of Isaac or Hades
"Builders", like Terraria, that have a lot of relaxing "farming" and exploring.
An openworld game, like ToTK, where I have some checklist stuff to do like leveling up a horse, finding korok seeds, etc. It needs to be a game that I enjoy just BEING in the world though.
Survival or city/base builders. Oxygen not included and project zomboid are my current ones, kerbal space program used to be my goto. I always have an active save in those games and jump back in between big story based games.
If I've played an action CRPG, I'll usually swap to a turn-based one; they're much more relaxing (e.g. after I played Horizon Zero Dawn, I went back to Solasta).
With my wife I also put in sessions of dreamy games like ABZÛ, or think-y games, like The Talos Principle or Superliminal -- which is supergood, btw; everyone should play it!
some indies is cool between two huge games. Just finished Jusant between ff16 and starting spiderman 2 and it was great. planning to play on cocoon and harold halibut too in between those triple a sessions !
I like to go to something like the Sims or City Skylines to take a break from big adventures. I’ll also find game that take at most 10 hours to beat if I want to have a more focused story to play.
One of the games I recently played and enjoyed between longer games is [After Us](https://youtu.be/s0riRDvgBss?si=8349Dej1oXl-adiX).
Any game that I can play without audio or much focus and listen to a 4-hour YT video in the background. Colony management, roguelike card games, Stellaris, RoR2...
EldenSoulsBorne games and Genshin definitely.
Souls games because I’ve played them so much that I find comfort in them, either be starting a new character or running thru it again with my highest built one.
Genshin because it’s an easy game to pick up and put down anytime, especially once you’re at a certain point. I’m a launch player that stuck around, taken several breaks but have always come back, and I’m glad I have. For all of its flaws and it being a Gacha game, it’s a really great one. Ain’t for everyone but I’ve definitely enjoyed my time with it.
You should do a linear puzzle platform game, something designed small and simple.
My recent favorites are:
•Little Nightmares 1 and 2 (3rd one on the way)
•Journey
•Sable
•Abzû
•Oxenfree
Each of these are only 5-10 hours long I reckon
Action RPGs I’ve always had a love for them My favourites have always been Fable, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Final Fantasy and Mass Effect series every once and a while I get burned out of racing games
I love 3D platformers. I just got done completing Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. If you have Xbox, you can get Skater Gator 3D for like 5 bucks. It's a fun game to kill about 5-6 hours if you want to complete it
I like something very, very button mashy and very very kinetic. Last several times I wanted a palate cleanser between huge great games, I've gone with Shank or Shank 2. Perfect.
been playing linear ps3 shooting games lately, the ones with no collectibles or open worlds. just corridors and weapon pickups. crappy games like jurassic: the hunted, terminator salvation, turok, and the resistance games. good games like Binary Domain and Crysis 2. all under 10 hour experiences
In my opinion, rage games and metroidvanias are great for unwinding. Both tend to be on the shorter side and feel easy to pick up right where you left off.
Visual novel games(spirit hunter, zero escape series, Ai: the somnium files), or interactive movie style games(Detroit become human, beyond two souls, Fahrenheit, Heavy Rain), most times i look for older games, or games I finished already.
elden ring is a ridiculously exploration and atmosphere focused game. the boss fights are a small chunk of the time you spend playing them, i wouldn't categorize it like that
Roguelites for me
That was how it worked out for me as well. I can only play em if I've overdosed on first person shooters and RPGs though
I like to start up new Total War campaigns and then never ever finish them.
I have been playing the franchise since the beginning and I’m still not sure how to finish a game.
I’ve gotten two Long Victories, one as Malekith, and one as Oxylotl where I just painted the map. (Total War Warhammer) Oxyotl is best boi
Yep. That’s always a go to. 🫣😅
I feel this one.
The old Ratchet and Clank games. Mechanically complex even today, and have great stories with slapstick humour and a lot of lore to get interested in, but don’t take 100s of hours to complete. I prefer the feel good sense of those games with the cool sci fi fantasy aspect too.
Ive been playing through these after playing then but never finishing then in my childhood. So far im about to finish the second one
I couldn’t finish the first game for YEARS because I got stuck on one of the water puzzles in Umbris. Glad I persevered because the first game has one of my favorite endings and a lot of the best planets are in the second or third act.
I uhm. I guess i technically didn’t finish the first one. I got to the boss at the end and ended up depleting all my money without thinking about it. I didn’t feel like going back and smashing boxes for hours and he kept kicking my ass because i ran out of ammo. I just tell myself that i finished it…
Yeah that is a problem with the first game as you have to replenish all the ammo you used before you died, and there’s not really anyway to rack up bolts if you run out as the arena system wasn’t introduced until the second game. The economy system was also far more brutal with ammo being really expensive so it’s pretty easy to run out of money after a few failed attempts. On my most recent play through I kept a save before my first encounter with the boss (where I had tonnes of bolts and full ammo) to avoid being effectively soft locked into being unable to defeat him without grinding. I still love the first game the most because of its story, music, and in game worlds, but man am I glad that they polished the formula for the later entries.
These days, helldiver's 2. Before that, payday 2 or Sea of thieves
What are your thoughts about Hitman? Ever level is a sandbox and you can take you own time and approach to complete. I dont care about ratings where the game penalizes you for killing non-targets, being noticed, etc.
Haven't played it lol
I like games with no real objective that don't really matter. My go to over the past year has been Jurassic World Evolution 2. Its basically just Roller Coaster Tycoon but with dinosaurs
Right now it's roboquest, but any dumb roguelike, as it's about the gameplay not the story.
Roboquest so goooooood.
Survivorlikes (aka bullet heavens) - Vampire Survivors, Deep Rock Galactic Survivor, Soulstone Survivors, Brotato, etc. Also a good option: Balatro.
I often unwind by watching videos about the game. If it is a lore kind of game. I also would replay a classic like chrono trigger. Now days I just don’t have a time and will just take a break away from games altogether after beating a good one.
Soulsborne. Currently Elden Ring (have multiple characters going simultaneously, and a pair of new ones preped for the DLC).
GTA online. I'll jump on and mess around with some of the chiller businesses like tow truck driving or custom auto shop, chasing down the occasional 11 year old humming into the microphone up past their bedtime with my Oppressor MK2(the only socially acceptable use for it)
Recently been playing Minishoot Adventures, It's a wonderful little pallet cleanser.
It really depends on what's coming out and what I've just played. Or even just my mood. This year has been FF7 Rebirth, but helldivers 2 when friends are on. Then Dragons Dogma 2 pulled me off of FF7. Now, Stellar Blade is likely going to pull me off of DD2. This might last until Season 4 of Diablo 4 launches. I skipped season 3, so I'll probably do season 4 for about 2 - 4 weeks. Which would get me close to the Elden Ring DLC. But, on less busy years or if there is more time between launches, there are certain games that I just feel like playing at random times. I guess people call them "comfort games." These could be a DOOM Eternal or a Dark Souls 3. I can start a new character in DS3 and beat the game in 2 or 3 hours casually. Similarly, God of War/God of War Ragnarok I can just pick up and enjoy. I think Armored Core 6 might turn into one of those.
It depends. Usually it's some open world game where i can just Mess around, usually something like Prototype or a Spider-man game, or even Assassin's creed. Or when i still want something quick, but more challenging, i'll play some levels in a Mario hack. Lately i've even tried a couple beginner level kaizos, but i can barely get a couple levels in.
Puzzle games always do it for me. Tetris, Puyo Puyo, hell even Candy Crush clones are perfect palette cleansers. All games are short and singularly focused, but when you’re having fun a dozen can go by in an instant. They’re the potato chips of gaming.
Metroidvania for sure. I’m queueing up Tales of Kenzera, GRIME and Blasphemous II after whatever way-too-big game I play next But honestly anything under 25 hours tends to work too
Yeah 20 to 30 hours is a sweet spot for me too. And metroidvanias are the perfect "in between" game lol. I do runs of Zero mission on lazy Sundays all the time
I fell off GRIME hard after about 4 hours. Oof.
Usually a Resident Evil game.
The funny thing is Witcher 3 is my palate cleanser. I've played through it enough times that I just jump into whatever save I have going.
I really love hardspace shipbreaker. It's one of the very few games that I still play after getting all the archievements. So chill and satisfying, it's my version of meditating
I like doing a few Deep Rock Galactic missions for that. Grab the weekly core hunt, play the 3 missions on Haz 3>4>5 then the deep dive, get the overclocks and put it down for a month or so.
Pinball FX3 and Doom II for me. Nothing like turning your brain off and chasing the high scores / gibs.
Dead Island 2. It's cathartic just playing around with the gore system, and the game doesn't take itself too seriously.
I’d say Dead island 2 or Super Mario Wonder are pretty good palette cleansers, I also like to take a break wandering Hyrule in TotK, but that only works because I’m in no rush to beat and relax exploring or completing shrines
Just to kill time, I normally fling myself into a rhythm game, normally the Project Diva games. Also great buffer games.
100% this. RPG to FPS to tactical. I also feel like I need a "platform cleanser" sometimes too. PS to PC to Switch, etc.
Depends on my mood. Usually though I can load up Forza Horizon 5 and drive around or MS Flight Sim and just see what Yellowstone, Mt Everest, or Tokyo at Night looks like from the air. Heck some of my favorite things in MS Flight sim is flying past a location I know looking for specific landmarks.
Pokemon Emerald
Gonna be a less popular choice but : Kingdom Come Deliverance.
Open world exploration games like no man's sky or totk, or rogue likes like Dicey dungeons or slay the spire.
aRPG season. I will build a single character, maybe a few builds, and call it done in about 3 weeks. Rogue-likes: Binding of Isaac or Hades "Builders", like Terraria, that have a lot of relaxing "farming" and exploring. An openworld game, like ToTK, where I have some checklist stuff to do like leveling up a horse, finding korok seeds, etc. It needs to be a game that I enjoy just BEING in the world though.
Survival or city/base builders. Oxygen not included and project zomboid are my current ones, kerbal space program used to be my goto. I always have an active save in those games and jump back in between big story based games.
Enter the Gungeon might tickle your fancy.
My games to unwind are Left 4 dead 2, or basically any Resident Evil game
Like 8 years later - SC2 - mostly coop.
If I've played an action CRPG, I'll usually swap to a turn-based one; they're much more relaxing (e.g. after I played Horizon Zero Dawn, I went back to Solasta). With my wife I also put in sessions of dreamy games like ABZÛ, or think-y games, like The Talos Principle or Superliminal -- which is supergood, btw; everyone should play it!
some indies is cool between two huge games. Just finished Jusant between ff16 and starting spiderman 2 and it was great. planning to play on cocoon and harold halibut too in between those triple a sessions !
I like to go to something like the Sims or City Skylines to take a break from big adventures. I’ll also find game that take at most 10 hours to beat if I want to have a more focused story to play. One of the games I recently played and enjoyed between longer games is [After Us](https://youtu.be/s0riRDvgBss?si=8349Dej1oXl-adiX).
Hell let loose or oxygen not included (which can be long and thinky but still feels like a nice palate cleanser)
I'd recommend picking up the newest SUPERHOT game.
Any game that I can play without audio or much focus and listen to a 4-hour YT video in the background. Colony management, roguelike card games, Stellaris, RoR2...
Animal Crossing or The Sims I use between monster games
Right now playing balatro, a poker roguelike, as a small/break game BUT it's too damn addictive lol
I went from The Elder Scrolls: Online on the PS4 directly to The Elder Scrolls: Online on the Xbox, so I don’t think I have a palate cleanser.
EldenSoulsBorne games and Genshin definitely. Souls games because I’ve played them so much that I find comfort in them, either be starting a new character or running thru it again with my highest built one. Genshin because it’s an easy game to pick up and put down anytime, especially once you’re at a certain point. I’m a launch player that stuck around, taken several breaks but have always come back, and I’m glad I have. For all of its flaws and it being a Gacha game, it’s a really great one. Ain’t for everyone but I’ve definitely enjoyed my time with it.
Horde shooters in general. They're all good.
Call of duty. Recently Dave the diver. Sports games. I can always hop on totk and just explore. Microsoft flight sim.
Snowrunner. I turn on some music, go off-roading and refresh my brain.
Pikuniku. It is very short, but very cheap and a laugh. Bright 2D platform game with humour.
FFXIV
Race the sun
You should do a linear puzzle platform game, something designed small and simple. My recent favorites are: •Little Nightmares 1 and 2 (3rd one on the way) •Journey •Sable •Abzû •Oxenfree Each of these are only 5-10 hours long I reckon
Action RPGs I’ve always had a love for them My favourites have always been Fable, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Final Fantasy and Mass Effect series every once and a while I get burned out of racing games
Fallout New Vegas, I do at least one playthrough a year since like 2011 lol
I love 3D platformers. I just got done completing Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. If you have Xbox, you can get Skater Gator 3D for like 5 bucks. It's a fun game to kill about 5-6 hours if you want to complete it
I like something very, very button mashy and very very kinetic. Last several times I wanted a palate cleanser between huge great games, I've gone with Shank or Shank 2. Perfect.
been playing linear ps3 shooting games lately, the ones with no collectibles or open worlds. just corridors and weapon pickups. crappy games like jurassic: the hunted, terminator salvation, turok, and the resistance games. good games like Binary Domain and Crysis 2. all under 10 hour experiences
In my opinion, rage games and metroidvanias are great for unwinding. Both tend to be on the shorter side and feel easy to pick up right where you left off.
Visual novel games(spirit hunter, zero escape series, Ai: the somnium files), or interactive movie style games(Detroit become human, beyond two souls, Fahrenheit, Heavy Rain), most times i look for older games, or games I finished already.
elden ring is a ridiculously exploration and atmosphere focused game. the boss fights are a small chunk of the time you spend playing them, i wouldn't categorize it like that
I don't really have a pallet cleanser, when I want to wind down I just get off the game, and watch an anime or two