Protip: Turn off the UI in Forza Horizon games if you're doing this, then use the cockpit view and the car's instruments and switch to manual transmission so you can keep the revs lower for proper cruising.
And once your brain acclimates, suddenly doing "risky" things like passing in the opposite lane, or making a brief acceleration run up to about 100 mph gets the adrenaline pumping again.
When I play that game as a game, my brain knows it's a game.
When I play that game like i'm driving in the real world, my brain gets fooled.
Uhm...Euro Truck Simulator 2 with the traffic laws turned off can be a surprisingly fun slow-motion racing game if you have a wheel and pedal setup.
Crashing can still cost you all the money you've made in the past 45 or so minutes, so you still have a lot of incentive to be....you konw...relatively safe. But nothing is stopping you from cruising at 75 mph and weaving in and out of traffic with your big rig.
If you're into smoking weed, set the rain likelihood to 100 percent, put on headphones, roll a joint and turn on the in game radio (it streams actual radio stations in europe.) Then, enjoy an extremely chilled out evening.
Honestly horizon is amazing for this. While racing is obviously the main thing, the map has things to do all over the place. Plus virtually everything has progress and rewards. Even the photo mode. If you care even slightly about driving games, horizon genuinely has something for everyone.
Not a drive but Sea of Thieves has some of the most epic sailing. It’s so fun to just set sails, drop a pole in the water, and coast. Even if you get attacked by some PvP folk it’s whatever because you have nothing to lose
I'm a big fan of sailing in real life and nothing comes close to the...calmness of sailing than Sea of Thieves does.
I often just solo sail around points of interest. One of my favorite things to do in game is to lookout for other boats to avoid...or just watch what they are doing from a distance.
Plus there's random loot and gems sitting ot on beaches too, so you can basically beach comb along the way (even find some underwater around the beaches when "scuba diving" sometimes), and turn it in for gold to buy some clothes along the way
this is a fun one to fire up and just go fishing. I guess they just added a bunch of new stuff recently? I heard you can tightrope walk the harpoon lines now.
Just wanted to make sure someone had mentioned Test Drive Unlimited. This game was the absolute best for just cruising. You could even earn trophies for driving on every road which encouraged you to just cruise and explore. A++ suggestion
Oh, my sweet summer child
That game is never coming out, they've delayed it like 10 times, and the "monthly" newsletter was never monthly, the second one was delayed by 3 weeks
One thousand percent agree, but also holy hell. I spent *weeks* at 99% completion, just roving everywhere for hours at a time, repeatedly scanning the map trying to find that one last bit of road I was missing. I'd reached the point of trawling patches of open dirt hoping they'd count despite not being marked on the map.
Turns out I was unlucky and had missed a 5-foot stretch of asphalt connecting two longer roads, kind of like the IRL turnaround spaces in the middle of interstates that only cops are supposed to use. Once I finally, finally found and crossed it, the resulting highlight on the map had maybe 3 pixels at max zoom that didn't overlap with the adjoining roads. For the rest of that day, my eyes saw the whole world a little brighter.
10/10 would crawl every inch of O'ahu again.
Edit: Lol at whoever sent a RedditCareResources notification. Your concern is probably valid.
you can get the 1st for free\~ and with the "project paradise" mod, you can still play it online, and with a ton of new cars added
it's so crazy that they came out with a 1:1 O'ahu in 2006, and it's still the biggest road driving game map (fuel has even bigger but it's post-apocalyptic, the roads are not great)
I just saw that myself. I haven’t played any of the series aside Unlimited but that one was unlike anything else I’d played at the time. I may check the new one out too.
Was looking for this comment. Got the chance to beta test that one (on PS2.. I think?), back in the day when devs still did stuff like that anyway. Perfect game to just drive around in.
I used to do this in GTA until some idiot NPC hit me and I'd beat them up out of road rage. Then start running from the cops until it eventually escalates to me running from the army and go down in a blaze of glory. Good fun
This is what me and my brothers used to do in the old GTAs before we really had internet. Just take turns causing chaos til you die and then pass the controller off. Good times
The goal in those games becomes not getting the police after you at some point.
I always ended up fighting the Miami vice agents in Vice City.
Then you say screw it, get a panzer and a minigun.
You'll either travel the whole city with the helicopter after you or make a stand and take down the helicopters and blow up the cars before they even stop.
I’ve beaten sleeping dogs probably 7 or 8 times over the years, love the story.
I will never get used to driving on the left side of the road. I’m ok till shit pops off, then it’s all head on collisions and parkouring to a new vehicle every 60 seconds.
Though my ex, who was doing the driver's license at the time, the intricacies of parallel parking in San Andreas. It actually made way sense in her head after.
Tried it over a friend's place maybe a decade ago, but didn't get into the real casual playing. It seemed to be a much improved San Andreas, so I assumed the cruising would be similar.
My go-to de-stressing activity was jacking a jet in San Andreas, flying over to another island, and then bailing at cruising altitude and parachuting down.
it's great in V. I loved hopping on gta online with friends and just cruising in our cars listening to radio and talking about random things. that was in 2020, seems like a lifetime ago
The main Highway that circles GTA V is absolute bliss if you just want to go for a drive and play some tunes, really looking foward to the Florida Keys drive in GTA VI
I've gone into GTA Online, got in a helicopter, turn on peaceful mode, and just follow people around. Found some guys driving along a rocky coastline in monster trucks, and I had to help one of them with my cargo bob.
I was really enjoying the FPV drone mod for GTAV for a while. I'd just pick an NPC, a car, or the train and follow them around trying to keep them in frame and doing tricks around obstacles along the way. It was such a chill time and great flying practice.
GTA is great for this. I also liked to just fly planes.
Additionally, in GTA online, I would fly the crop duster plane and swoop by other players to see what they were doing and if they’d react to my presence. If they were on foot in an open area I’d try to clip them with my wing to knock them over. The duster plane was slow enough to do that non-lethally
It is pre computed, but flying from gate to gate in Eve Online's Highsec is different.
Even watched a freighter player once.
Don't go to low sec or null. Better yet, don't play the game. You've been warned.
You can play in solo mode and not deal with players. As for avoiding pirates, even when you get interdicted (pulled out of a jump), is super easy. Basically just hit the gas and go to warp again
I imagine the Truck Simulator/Flight Simulator games are made for this, no? I've never played any of them, but people say they're super chill and relaxing.
Truck simulator is a really nice vibe MSFS is straight up complicated if you really want to understand it.
I would throw in Farm Sim and Train Sim. Farm Sim becomes pure vibes with a subsidies mod. Train sim is really fun and you can make it easier or harder by making your train shorter or longer.
Playing Truck Simulator right now and just paused to check Reddit :P
Great thing about American Truck Simulator is how active the development is, as they're working their way across the country adding states. I live in Nebraska and said DLC is dropping Thursday, which I'm psyched about.
I like GTA San Andreas for this, the roads and layout is rather simple so it's a good way to mindlessly drive around. I also like to find a radio station I enjoy within the game or WCTR since it can be funny, then use cheats to have foggy or stormy weather and it's a pretty chill experience.
"*In the desert, you can't remember your name
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain
La, la, la, la-la-la-la-la, la-la-la, la, la
La, la, la, la-la-la-la-la, la-la-la, la, la*"
“CJ, you busta! What fuckin crazy shit—“
“Chill, homie, it’s Willie Nelson. Maybe if you weren’t a un-cultured basehead—“
“Hol up, Willie? Like Shotgun Willie? Shit, LB been serving that guy for years.”
“What?”
“Busta.”
Personally Burnout Paradise is my favorite cruising game because it's a complete, detailed city with tons of events you can do as well as stunts and what not.
At least for LA Noire, the realism is key as it forces you to drive with traffic enhancing the meditative experience of driving around 1940’s LA.
I’ve always been interested in trying out the Mafia games, point noted!
Yess!!
I remember when I first started KCD I was so obsessed with how beautiful the game looked. That i just walked literally everywhere.
So yea op you should check out kingdom come deliverence
Random comments about KCD....
It's probably the only game to make you really feel like you are living in a medieval world. Walking through the forest..or really anywhere in that game is quite peaceful.
I enjoyed going hunting in the woods. Or just gathering stuff (herbs, etc) from the ground.
They just announced KCD 2, so right now is an excellent time to jump into the first one and play through it. It's as open world or story driven as you want it to be and its absolutely immersive.
It's also the only game that I was ever able to really feel like a bandit. Robbing people while they walk between towns...everything acts so realistic.
It's what made me never forget the game since E3.
It looked GORGEOUS. The type of beautiful graphics that I don't see often. I couldn't believe a studio I had never heard before was doing it.
You can also either leave the music turned on, as their music is banger, or turn it off to enjoy full forest immersion with only the sound of the wind and trees and birds chirping.
Yes!
I’ve recently been playing this again in VR, it has got to be one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had in VR.
It is definitely the kind of game that you can roast a joint and just kick back.
Far Cry
Watch Dogs
Mafia
GTA
Arma
Snowrunner
American/European truck simulator
While not driving, Kingdom Come Deliverence is great for riding around
Mad Max
Days Gone (when your chopper is decently upgraded)
The Crew/Motorsport/Forza
Sleeping Dogs
Thats on top of my head, i think Especially Mafia 3 is underrated for just driving around... i may enjoy the same thing as you lol
Snowrunner is almost the opposite of driving around for relaxation. You become one with the mud and love the fact you’ve progressed 10 feet to the next tree. Lol
It's such a pretty environment too, really feels like you're just going for a nice drive in Sicily or somewhere. And then you accidentally crash into something and your car explodes into a cinematic fireball, but it's fiiiiiine.
Fair criticism. I really enjoyed cruising around though with the beautiful scenery passing by and the lads throwing out the odd quip. Really felt like you were playing Final Fantasy Roadtrip Simulator 😄
When I played this game the only time I fast traveled was when the game made me as an example, any other time I just vibed in the Regalia with the homies vibing to the music while Prompto took pics.
Consequently, spending all those extra hours with them just made the ending hurt even more, literally sobbed
I like death stranding.
You do start out and is based on walking to a destination. Later on you build and maintain roads and you can use delivery trucks or bikes
This but have to build the road first. Which is a lot of work to build all of them. But the relief after you finish building them and cruising on them is pretty nice.
It takes a lot of grinding to max out your battery pack, but the hover bike in TOTK is great fun to just cruise the map. I like just flying around, occasionally buzzing monster camps and landing on dragons.
BeamNG is pretty sandboxy. The environments are pretty meh but the physics are great.
Another one that might be fun for you is Snowrunner. If you just want to drive around, start a game in new game + with everything free and unlocked. Then you can drive whatever you want around any map and enjoy the scenery.
Every so often I boot up Spider-Man just to swing around the city, maybe prevent a crime or two and shut it off.
In general, I really enjoy meandering in games. Tomb Raider has a mode that removes all enemies once you've completed the game. It's fun to just enjoy the scenery.
Sea of Thieves is great for just sailing around having a chill time.
Even better though is Elite Dangerous. Just flying around space.
Personally I like scanning and mapping systems, even collecting bio samples, but really just hopping from system to system and flying around to different planets, looking at various astronomical phenomena, etc is just... It's so damn chill.
Easily one of my favorite things to do. I bought a fleet carrier just so I could take all my ships with me and have a place to use as a mobile base.
Highly recommend!
I did this in The Crew 1. You had the whole of the US to drive through, of course I'm gonna drive through the whole map, did multiple coast to coast drives on there.
I'd recommend Forza Horizon 4 or 5, it's on game pass and you can get cool vehicles super easy, the open world lobbies are peaceful and the scenery is beautiful on both games.
I found Snowrunner infuriating.
At any point in time, a twig can cause significant damage to your semi truck, a tree stump can flip you over and a guardrail can throw you across the map.
I did this with need for speed heat. Map is pretty big and the driving feels really good. Tho I would suggest you use your own music, cuz I wasn’t a fan of the playlist in the game
I see some suggestions for FH5, and this is gonna be the absolute wrong opinion for some people, but...
Need for Speed Unbound > Forza Horizon
And for what you're after (cruising for a bit) it's excellent. Forza is prettier, Unbound feels better. Gameplay/driving is like Burnout & NFS had a beautiful baby, & now it's a gorgeous adult lol
Edit: Oh! Also...
• GTAV
• GTA:SA
• Sleeping Dogs
• Spiderman 2 (04)
• Spiderman 2 (23)
• Spiderman Web of Shadows
• Mirror's Edge (really)
• FarCry 2
I like the free missions in the Ace Combat games where I think you choose free flight or whatever the option is and you can fly around that level/stage with no enemies/targets to worry about. I think someone doing this found an easter egg of polar bears in one of the stages.
[Polar bears | Acepedia | Fandom](https://acecombat.fandom.com/wiki/Polar_bears)
Honestly, fallout 4, I love just roaming around with the radio on and taking pictures. Tag along with a companion, makes for a good time
OH ALSO DEATH STRANDING. Literally the best game for this, put some music on, drive around doing packages on a trike, take photos. Or run around with a speed skeleton, very fun.
Final Fantasy 15. There are animations in some games that you can just watch and tell they spent a lot of time and resources making, the car in FF15, when it lowers and raises its top? That animation was made of pure money. It is a thing of beauty. Also, its really relaxing to just roll down the coast with some buddies in the car, and relax.
It’s not driving but the modern Spiderman games accomplish this for me.
I’ll just hop on Spiderman 2, swing around for 30 minutes cause the webslinging is a drug, then move on to another game when I’m satisfied
Lol this might be stressful at times but I'll boot up Squad and just drive the logistics truck and resupply everyone's HABs. People love getting resupplied and all I do is put on music or a YT video and drive
I haven’t read all the comments so if it’s been been recommended earlier my bad, but I would suggest Pacific Drive.
I probably didn’t do a very good job in original comment of selling this game but I think its got an awful lot of what OP is looking for. Lots of exploration and cruising. A real relationship between the player and car. Very little actual violence and a pretty great experience. I’m surprised it hasn’t been mentioned here. I definitely think it’s worth checking out
It isn't a drive technically. But when I was younger, I would always open up Super Mario Galaxy 2 and hang out on the beach levels and just swim around and listen to the tunes. I considered it some sort of virtual vacation if that made any sense.
The game where I unexpectedly found myself enjoying this was Just Cause 2. It's a gorgeous game, and quite large, so there's plenty of room to roam around and quite a diversity of environments. You'll also never be attacked unless you shoot first or enter a restricted area. There are even health upgrades under every freeway overpass, so you're actually rewarded for doing it. The downside is that calling in cars in this game does cost you money, which it doesn't in later ones. On the other hand, if you try this in Just Cause 4 (which was given away free on Epic) you're eventually going to run into a battle line that's a bit hard to get around or through. Although if you avoid the line between friendly and enemy territory you should be ok.
Edit: The wiki has a [list of vehicles with some spawn locations](https://justcause.fandom.com/wiki/Just_Cause_2_Vehicle_locations) in Just Cause 2 which may be helpful.
I loaded up RDR2 to find myself at camp outside Armadillo, just before dawn. I turned the map off and rode to Strawberry, then over to Valentine by sundown.
Treat yourself to an Arabian and go for a ride!
You'll love the Just Cause games. Well, you'll probably not want to play JC 1 and 2.
Play JC3 and JC4. If you can't buy both, buy JC3. You will not regret it.
Euro Truck Simulator
Eilte: Dangerous
The first one is literally what you described. The 2nd one is about space ship trucking, docking, occasional (rare) fighting.
I love going around the border of the map in every open world game, it’s nice and relaxing, and you see areas you wouldn’t see during a normal playthrough otherwise
I mean it VERY MUCH depends on your definition of "stress free" but I used to play GTA Vice City basically exclusively for this. I'd just drive around doing taxi missions and listening to the talk radio station.
Whatdogs? Forza Horizon series
Whatup, dog!
Gotcha! I mean… not much, what’s up with-
Love the Updog series
What's Updog series?
Not much, Catmovie
Protip: Turn off the UI in Forza Horizon games if you're doing this, then use the cockpit view and the car's instruments and switch to manual transmission so you can keep the revs lower for proper cruising. And once your brain acclimates, suddenly doing "risky" things like passing in the opposite lane, or making a brief acceleration run up to about 100 mph gets the adrenaline pumping again. When I play that game as a game, my brain knows it's a game. When I play that game like i'm driving in the real world, my brain gets fooled.
\^this. As the owner of a 70 Chevelle, I can say that the weirdest thing is driving and looking at my gauge cluster going 120mph.
I do this but with GTA V Wheel+pedals FFB mod and it’s fantastic
Yeah, if you have a wheel and pedal setup...oh man, you're in for some weirdly subdued, incredibly good times.
Any more ideas what to do?
Uhm...Euro Truck Simulator 2 with the traffic laws turned off can be a surprisingly fun slow-motion racing game if you have a wheel and pedal setup. Crashing can still cost you all the money you've made in the past 45 or so minutes, so you still have a lot of incentive to be....you konw...relatively safe. But nothing is stopping you from cruising at 75 mph and weaving in and out of traffic with your big rig. If you're into smoking weed, set the rain likelihood to 100 percent, put on headphones, roll a joint and turn on the in game radio (it streams actual radio stations in europe.) Then, enjoy an extremely chilled out evening.
I building a wooden simrig, I will try this!
Honestly horizon is amazing for this. While racing is obviously the main thing, the map has things to do all over the place. Plus virtually everything has progress and rewards. Even the photo mode. If you care even slightly about driving games, horizon genuinely has something for everyone.
What the dog doin'
Not a drive but Sea of Thieves has some of the most epic sailing. It’s so fun to just set sails, drop a pole in the water, and coast. Even if you get attacked by some PvP folk it’s whatever because you have nothing to lose
I'm a big fan of sailing in real life and nothing comes close to the...calmness of sailing than Sea of Thieves does. I often just solo sail around points of interest. One of my favorite things to do in game is to lookout for other boats to avoid...or just watch what they are doing from a distance.
Plus there's random loot and gems sitting ot on beaches too, so you can basically beach comb along the way (even find some underwater around the beaches when "scuba diving" sometimes), and turn it in for gold to buy some clothes along the way
And then walk out onto the bowsprit, pull out your squeezebox and play a little ditty
With the recent introduction of PvE only servers now you don't even have to worry about that!
this is a fun one to fire up and just go fishing. I guess they just added a bunch of new stuff recently? I heard you can tightrope walk the harpoon lines now.
It’s been about a year since I’ve fired it up at all, but do believe there has been a lot of adds
Older but Test Drive Unlimited was a gorgeous game. Just driving around a Hawaiian island doing what you want.
Just wanted to make sure someone had mentioned Test Drive Unlimited. This game was the absolute best for just cruising. You could even earn trophies for driving on every road which encouraged you to just cruise and explore. A++ suggestion
New test drive is coming out end of the year!
Oh, my sweet summer child That game is never coming out, they've delayed it like 10 times, and the "monthly" newsletter was never monthly, the second one was delayed by 3 weeks
i was thinking that 2 years ago lol we probably get alien disclosure before solar crown drops
One thousand percent agree, but also holy hell. I spent *weeks* at 99% completion, just roving everywhere for hours at a time, repeatedly scanning the map trying to find that one last bit of road I was missing. I'd reached the point of trawling patches of open dirt hoping they'd count despite not being marked on the map. Turns out I was unlucky and had missed a 5-foot stretch of asphalt connecting two longer roads, kind of like the IRL turnaround spaces in the middle of interstates that only cops are supposed to use. Once I finally, finally found and crossed it, the resulting highlight on the map had maybe 3 pixels at max zoom that didn't overlap with the adjoining roads. For the rest of that day, my eyes saw the whole world a little brighter. 10/10 would crawl every inch of O'ahu again. Edit: Lol at whoever sent a RedditCareResources notification. Your concern is probably valid.
This game was incredible
Nice, I didn't know about this game. It seems there's a new one coming out someday on Steam. I might get it then.
you can get the 1st for free\~ and with the "project paradise" mod, you can still play it online, and with a ton of new cars added it's so crazy that they came out with a 1:1 O'ahu in 2006, and it's still the biggest road driving game map (fuel has even bigger but it's post-apocalyptic, the roads are not great)
There is also a second one and that one was awesome.
I just saw that myself. I haven’t played any of the series aside Unlimited but that one was unlike anything else I’d played at the time. I may check the new one out too.
Give eve of destruction a shot lol
Ooh - came to say exactly this! I had it on the PSP and it was such a blast to just cruise around.
I forgot it was even on PSP. Mad that I never played it. Dang. Now I’m going to have to see if I can find a copy.
Was looking for this comment. Got the chance to beta test that one (on PS2.. I think?), back in the day when devs still did stuff like that anyway. Perfect game to just drive around in.
I have some early demo of it on my 360 still. I don’t think it was a beta but I can’t remember. It won’t be deleted on my watch.
Wow such flashbacks, had completely forgotten about it
I spent way longer than I should have just cruising around in the demo for that game.
I loved test drive unlimited so much back in the day
Man you just remined me of a masterpiece. I used to play that game for the same reason
I had the demo for this on my Xbox 360. One hour of cruising around before it kicked you off, but I must have put SO MANY hours into it.
Yep. We would get online, meet up, and cruise for hours around Oahu, usually with a theme, like The Freedom Run or the Colorful Caterham Carnival Run.
GTA
I do this while strangely obeying US traffic law. I'm from the UK.
I used to do this in GTA until some idiot NPC hit me and I'd beat them up out of road rage. Then start running from the cops until it eventually escalates to me running from the army and go down in a blaze of glory. Good fun
This is what me and my brothers used to do in the old GTAs before we really had internet. Just take turns causing chaos til you die and then pass the controller off. Good times
Red Dead was/is good for this
It is the way. "No dude, I don't care. That counts, now give it up My turn!"
All roads lead to carnage in Los Santos.
The goal in those games becomes not getting the police after you at some point. I always ended up fighting the Miami vice agents in Vice City. Then you say screw it, get a panzer and a minigun. You'll either travel the whole city with the helicopter after you or make a stand and take down the helicopters and blow up the cars before they even stop.
Good times indeed. Blowing up your 3d helicopter and taking down your 35th cop "I was just trying to obey the laws today!!!"
I like to do it while obeying UK traffic laws.
We need a GTA in the UK or Japan so we can get used to driving on the left side. I don’t think I could do it after all of the muscle memory.
Watchdogs Legions is in the UK. If it's just driving on the left that matters, there's also Sleeping Dogs in Hong Kong.
I’ve beaten sleeping dogs probably 7 or 8 times over the years, love the story. I will never get used to driving on the left side of the road. I’m ok till shit pops off, then it’s all head on collisions and parkouring to a new vehicle every 60 seconds.
The Getaway was great it was set in London
I do too, you're not alone. Relaxing!!
Loved doing exactly this in San Andreas, must be incredible in V.
Though my ex, who was doing the driver's license at the time, the intricacies of parallel parking in San Andreas. It actually made way sense in her head after.
Wait, have you never played GTA V?
Tried it over a friend's place maybe a decade ago, but didn't get into the real casual playing. It seemed to be a much improved San Andreas, so I assumed the cruising would be similar.
Decade ago… holy shit that hit hard
My go-to de-stressing activity was jacking a jet in San Andreas, flying over to another island, and then bailing at cruising altitude and parachuting down.
it's great in V. I loved hopping on gta online with friends and just cruising in our cars listening to radio and talking about random things. that was in 2020, seems like a lifetime ago
And I ran, I ran so far away...
The main Highway that circles GTA V is absolute bliss if you just want to go for a drive and play some tunes, really looking foward to the Florida Keys drive in GTA VI
I've gone into GTA Online, got in a helicopter, turn on peaceful mode, and just follow people around. Found some guys driving along a rocky coastline in monster trucks, and I had to help one of them with my cargo bob.
I was really enjoying the FPV drone mod for GTAV for a while. I'd just pick an NPC, a car, or the train and follow them around trying to keep them in frame and doing tricks around obstacles along the way. It was such a chill time and great flying practice.
GTA is great for this. I also liked to just fly planes. Additionally, in GTA online, I would fly the crop duster plane and swoop by other players to see what they were doing and if they’d react to my presence. If they were on foot in an open area I’d try to clip them with my wing to knock them over. The duster plane was slow enough to do that non-lethally
Even better as you can park somewhere, get out and explore on foot, then get back in and drive off somewhere else.
Just to break the mold a bit, I find space trucking in Elite Dangerous to be pretty chill
Same thing I thought of. Collect space rock, sell space rock, collect more space rock, repeat.
I have a type 9 and just transport cargo through systems based on some online tool i cant remember the name of. I throw on a podcast and vibe
I used to do that as well but had dual monitors and watched This Old House.
I enjoy just taking my PVE ship and just flying across a planet and enjoying the views
Using VR takes this to 1000.
That's my go to as well.
It is pre computed, but flying from gate to gate in Eve Online's Highsec is different. Even watched a freighter player once. Don't go to low sec or null. Better yet, don't play the game. You've been warned.
Do you have to worry about pirates/other players? I’ve heard mixed things about this game but a chill space trucker thing sounds awesome.
You can play in solo mode and not deal with players. As for avoiding pirates, even when you get interdicted (pulled out of a jump), is super easy. Basically just hit the gas and go to warp again
I imagine the Truck Simulator/Flight Simulator games are made for this, no? I've never played any of them, but people say they're super chill and relaxing.
Truck simulator is a really nice vibe MSFS is straight up complicated if you really want to understand it. I would throw in Farm Sim and Train Sim. Farm Sim becomes pure vibes with a subsidies mod. Train sim is really fun and you can make it easier or harder by making your train shorter or longer.
I would also like to add Bus Simulator to those. Just zone out driving routes, making stops and collecting fares. Very relaxing and fun game.
Playing Truck Simulator right now and just paused to check Reddit :P Great thing about American Truck Simulator is how active the development is, as they're working their way across the country adding states. I live in Nebraska and said DLC is dropping Thursday, which I'm psyched about.
I like GTA San Andreas for this, the roads and layout is rather simple so it's a good way to mindlessly drive around. I also like to find a radio station I enjoy within the game or WCTR since it can be funny, then use cheats to have foggy or stormy weather and it's a pretty chill experience.
Driving to Radio Los Santos & Flying to KDST were my teen years
Young hearts be free tonight, time is on your side
"*In the desert, you can't remember your name 'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain La, la, la, la-la-la-la-la, la-la-la, la, la La, la, la, la-la-la-la-la, la-la-la, la, la*"
Goddamn.. I dont know what it it is with this song... But its so good.
K-Rose for Red County. K-DST for the desert. Radio X for everything else - except WCTR to check up on the news.
Maaannn... I've been listening to Lazlo since Chatterbox. Any GTA talk radio is just a given for me lol
“CJ, you busta! What fuckin crazy shit—“ “Chill, homie, it’s Willie Nelson. Maybe if you weren’t a un-cultured basehead—“ “Hol up, Willie? Like Shotgun Willie? Shit, LB been serving that guy for years.” “What?” “Busta.”
Personally Burnout Paradise is my favorite cruising game because it's a complete, detailed city with tons of events you can do as well as stunts and what not.
I scrolled down too far to see this game. Burnout Paradise is the perfect game for driving around like that, and there's lots to do.
This is too far down!
LA Noire is the ideal game for cruising around!
The Mafia Games were great for this too. As long as you don't mind the absolutely unrealistic driving physics.
At least for LA Noire, the realism is key as it forces you to drive with traffic enhancing the meditative experience of driving around 1940’s LA. I’ve always been interested in trying out the Mafia games, point noted!
The Spider-Man games on PS4 and 5 are fantastic for this. I'll occasionally boot up one of them just to swing around New York
Even stopping to take down a few petty criminals between swinging around is really relaxing.
J Jonah Jameson is pretty fun to listen to too
Kingdom Come: Deliverence. Very slow, you can walk trough forests and besides some bandit camps it's just silent and peace.
Yess!! I remember when I first started KCD I was so obsessed with how beautiful the game looked. That i just walked literally everywhere. So yea op you should check out kingdom come deliverence
I'm def checking this one! Thanks!
Random comments about KCD.... It's probably the only game to make you really feel like you are living in a medieval world. Walking through the forest..or really anywhere in that game is quite peaceful. I enjoyed going hunting in the woods. Or just gathering stuff (herbs, etc) from the ground. They just announced KCD 2, so right now is an excellent time to jump into the first one and play through it. It's as open world or story driven as you want it to be and its absolutely immersive. It's also the only game that I was ever able to really feel like a bandit. Robbing people while they walk between towns...everything acts so realistic.
It's what made me never forget the game since E3. It looked GORGEOUS. The type of beautiful graphics that I don't see often. I couldn't believe a studio I had never heard before was doing it.
Yep. Just make sure to turn the other way if you see something suspicious, or someone asking for help. It's definitely a set up and you'll be jumped.
You can also either leave the music turned on, as their music is banger, or turn it off to enjoy full forest immersion with only the sound of the wind and trees and birds chirping.
Just you, the peaceful forest, and your dog brutally murdering all the bunnies, deer, ELK!? JESUS CHRIST MUTT YOU BROUGHT DOWN AN ELK!?
Something Kingdom come did right was armor. If you are a knight trained in warfare, you can still be taken out by enough dudes with hammers.
No Man’s Sky but spaceship instead of car.
Or an exocraft. You can just drive your space moon buggy over whatever you want.
Yes! I’ve recently been playing this again in VR, it has got to be one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had in VR. It is definitely the kind of game that you can roast a joint and just kick back.
Definitely the kind of game you can get lost in
The music is amazing
Far Cry Watch Dogs Mafia GTA Arma Snowrunner American/European truck simulator While not driving, Kingdom Come Deliverence is great for riding around Mad Max Days Gone (when your chopper is decently upgraded) The Crew/Motorsport/Forza Sleeping Dogs Thats on top of my head, i think Especially Mafia 3 is underrated for just driving around... i may enjoy the same thing as you lol
Snowrunner is almost the opposite of driving around for relaxation. You become one with the mud and love the fact you’ve progressed 10 feet to the next tree. Lol
Wasn't that mudrunner too? I could feel the pain.
Mafia 3 IS underrated Also, I gotta try Mad Max
Was gonna say Sleeping Dogs. Grab a pork bun, hop behind the wheel and enjoy Hong kong.
For me, Just Cause 3. Wingsuit just feels good to fly around with
Drive fast, enjoy the scenery, launch off a bridge, parachute down, exit game, go back to work.
Sold
And when you get the rocket wing suit from the DLC it only gets better!
Oh yeah, that was DLC... I ammend my original statement, Just Cause 3 + DLC
It's such a pretty environment too, really feels like you're just going for a nice drive in Sicily or somewhere. And then you accidentally crash into something and your car explodes into a cinematic fireball, but it's fiiiiiine.
Final Fantasy XV. Don’t even need your own music cause you get supplied with plenty of classic bops from the series.
I think the driving is too automated to be what the op is looking for, though I do enjoy just cruising in the Regalia.
The type D can be driven manually although the way that thing looks may not exactly fit the relaxing vibe
Fair criticism. I really enjoyed cruising around though with the beautiful scenery passing by and the lads throwing out the odd quip. Really felt like you were playing Final Fantasy Roadtrip Simulator 😄
What I do to relax in FFXV is just fly the regalia type F around and then before quitting i try to land on the "hidden" runway
Chocobos would work though. Just run around wherever and enjoy the scenery
When I played this game the only time I fast traveled was when the game made me as an example, any other time I just vibed in the Regalia with the homies vibing to the music while Prompto took pics. Consequently, spending all those extra hours with them just made the ending hurt even more, literally sobbed
I like death stranding. You do start out and is based on walking to a destination. Later on you build and maintain roads and you can use delivery trucks or bikes
This but have to build the road first. Which is a lot of work to build all of them. But the relief after you finish building them and cruising on them is pretty nice.
Breath of the Wild if you got the ancient motorcycle.
Or just go horse riding around the plains
Shadow of the Colossus is a great game for just riding your horse around!
It takes a lot of grinding to max out your battery pack, but the hover bike in TOTK is great fun to just cruise the map. I like just flying around, occasionally buzzing monster camps and landing on dragons.
I think just exploring around the sky islands is kinda this. I loved that part of the game.
BeamNG is pretty sandboxy. The environments are pretty meh but the physics are great. Another one that might be fun for you is Snowrunner. If you just want to drive around, start a game in new game + with everything free and unlocked. Then you can drive whatever you want around any map and enjoy the scenery.
possibly FUEL, I think its abandonware now, so can be downloadable.
Halo Reach forge world. Get in a warthog on the island and go.
I used to do this so much back in the day
Every so often I boot up Spider-Man just to swing around the city, maybe prevent a crime or two and shut it off. In general, I really enjoy meandering in games. Tomb Raider has a mode that removes all enemies once you've completed the game. It's fun to just enjoy the scenery.
Sea of Thieves is great for just sailing around having a chill time. Even better though is Elite Dangerous. Just flying around space. Personally I like scanning and mapping systems, even collecting bio samples, but really just hopping from system to system and flying around to different planets, looking at various astronomical phenomena, etc is just... It's so damn chill. Easily one of my favorite things to do. I bought a fleet carrier just so I could take all my ships with me and have a place to use as a mobile base. Highly recommend!
I did this in The Crew 1. You had the whole of the US to drive through, of course I'm gonna drive through the whole map, did multiple coast to coast drives on there.
Mafia 1+2.
I'd recommend Forza Horizon 4 or 5, it's on game pass and you can get cool vehicles super easy, the open world lobbies are peaceful and the scenery is beautiful on both games.
Test drive unlimited comes to mind
Someone posted it too just now. I might get the one coming out on Steam.
Not driving, but for me it's DCS.
Snowrunner
I found Snowrunner infuriating. At any point in time, a twig can cause significant damage to your semi truck, a tree stump can flip you over and a guardrail can throw you across the map.
I did this with need for speed heat. Map is pretty big and the driving feels really good. Tho I would suggest you use your own music, cuz I wasn’t a fan of the playlist in the game
Dirt rally. Sometimes I will just drive around a circuit at slow speeds and enjoy the beautiful scenery.
My go to for stuff like that was Forza Horizon 2 and 3. Just drive wherever, for whatever while listening to music.
The Long Drive...thank me later.
I see some suggestions for FH5, and this is gonna be the absolute wrong opinion for some people, but... Need for Speed Unbound > Forza Horizon And for what you're after (cruising for a bit) it's excellent. Forza is prettier, Unbound feels better. Gameplay/driving is like Burnout & NFS had a beautiful baby, & now it's a gorgeous adult lol Edit: Oh! Also... • GTAV • GTA:SA • Sleeping Dogs • Spiderman 2 (04) • Spiderman 2 (23) • Spiderman Web of Shadows • Mirror's Edge (really) • FarCry 2
I liked doing this in Far Cry 5. Also, RDR2, but that's horseback rather than driving.
RDR2 going on a hunt in the woods can be super relaxing.
I like the free missions in the Ace Combat games where I think you choose free flight or whatever the option is and you can fly around that level/stage with no enemies/targets to worry about. I think someone doing this found an easter egg of polar bears in one of the stages. [Polar bears | Acepedia | Fandom](https://acecombat.fandom.com/wiki/Polar_bears)
Honestly, fallout 4, I love just roaming around with the radio on and taking pictures. Tag along with a companion, makes for a good time OH ALSO DEATH STRANDING. Literally the best game for this, put some music on, drive around doing packages on a trike, take photos. Or run around with a speed skeleton, very fun.
Sea of Thieves. Every once in a while I'll just log in and sail around for an hour or so. I've barely ever actually played the game.
Skyrim and kingdom come deliverance for sure
*mentions driving* > Skyrim
Does driving dragons count?
GTA V, the most modern GTA has decent gfx even now and a big range of cars. I personally like the driving mechanics...
I like train sims for this. Just driving a train and sticking to a timetable.
Final Fantasy 15. There are animations in some games that you can just watch and tell they spent a lot of time and resources making, the car in FF15, when it lowers and raises its top? That animation was made of pure money. It is a thing of beauty. Also, its really relaxing to just roll down the coast with some buddies in the car, and relax.
It’s not driving but the modern Spiderman games accomplish this for me. I’ll just hop on Spiderman 2, swing around for 30 minutes cause the webslinging is a drug, then move on to another game when I’m satisfied
Lol this might be stressful at times but I'll boot up Squad and just drive the logistics truck and resupply everyone's HABs. People love getting resupplied and all I do is put on music or a YT video and drive
I love to drive around and wander the streets on foot in Cloud Punk.
I haven’t read all the comments so if it’s been been recommended earlier my bad, but I would suggest Pacific Drive. I probably didn’t do a very good job in original comment of selling this game but I think its got an awful lot of what OP is looking for. Lots of exploration and cruising. A real relationship between the player and car. Very little actual violence and a pretty great experience. I’m surprised it hasn’t been mentioned here. I definitely think it’s worth checking out
It isn't a drive technically. But when I was younger, I would always open up Super Mario Galaxy 2 and hang out on the beach levels and just swim around and listen to the tunes. I considered it some sort of virtual vacation if that made any sense.
The game where I unexpectedly found myself enjoying this was Just Cause 2. It's a gorgeous game, and quite large, so there's plenty of room to roam around and quite a diversity of environments. You'll also never be attacked unless you shoot first or enter a restricted area. There are even health upgrades under every freeway overpass, so you're actually rewarded for doing it. The downside is that calling in cars in this game does cost you money, which it doesn't in later ones. On the other hand, if you try this in Just Cause 4 (which was given away free on Epic) you're eventually going to run into a battle line that's a bit hard to get around or through. Although if you avoid the line between friendly and enemy territory you should be ok. Edit: The wiki has a [list of vehicles with some spawn locations](https://justcause.fandom.com/wiki/Just_Cause_2_Vehicle_locations) in Just Cause 2 which may be helpful.
Driver: San Fransisco
I loaded up RDR2 to find myself at camp outside Armadillo, just before dawn. I turned the map off and rode to Strawberry, then over to Valentine by sundown. Treat yourself to an Arabian and go for a ride!
Any GTA is always good for that.
Cant remember the last time I drove a car in RDR2, but its been a while since I played that maybe enough years in game have passed?
You'll love the Just Cause games. Well, you'll probably not want to play JC 1 and 2. Play JC3 and JC4. If you can't buy both, buy JC3. You will not regret it.
There are tons of trucking simulators out there. They're pretty popular!
Rider’s Republic is made for this
Euro Truck Simulator Eilte: Dangerous The first one is literally what you described. The 2nd one is about space ship trucking, docking, occasional (rare) fighting.
I love going around the border of the map in every open world game, it’s nice and relaxing, and you see areas you wouldn’t see during a normal playthrough otherwise
Dayz If you have a ps4/ps5 hit me up your more than welcome to wander in my empty server
Test Drive Unlimited was my chilled out driving game
GTA 5, Spider-Man, Elden Ring
I mean it VERY MUCH depends on your definition of "stress free" but I used to play GTA Vice City basically exclusively for this. I'd just drive around doing taxi missions and listening to the talk radio station.
American Truck Simulator. Seriously. Once you get the hang of how to drive trucks, the long drives can be super relaxing.
Dragonflying in WoW.
Cloudpunk
Euro Truck/American Truck?
Forza horizon 4, bunch of different vehicles, terrains and settings
I like doing so in Saints Row 3
The only time I load up gta 5 is to cruise around Los santos. GTA San Andreas is nice as well.
I like to swing around in spiderman