Of course the right answer will alway be Roller Coaster Tycoon! Combined with this: https://openrct2.org/ ... calm and peaceful bliss.
Currently it's Tears of the Kingdom. The music, the atmosphere, stable side quests etc. make it so chill and comforting. Some others are Ori and the will of the wisps, My time at Portia, Spiritfarer, Crosscode. Witcher 3 is also great to get lost in and forget about real life.
My personal ones:
Dragon Age Origins - love the world, love the story, love the soundtrack, love the companion interactions.
Pure comfort? Pokemon Crystal Clear - it's like healing for the soul after a long day of marking.
Less pure comfort? Darkest Dungeon - because sometimes you need to feel pain to really relax!
Any of the Yakuza games for me! I love the feeling of walking around Kamurocho or Sotenbori and just trying different arcade games, karaoke, food, baseball etc 😊 the ambience and overall vibe is so nice (even if you do have to beat up random thugs every few minutes). Also, there are so many (very long) games in the series that there's always something new for me to try
!!! Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps. Easily in my top 3 games holy shit they're so good
!!! Hogwarts Legacy
!!! Control (if you're into 3rd person shooter with powers and a neat story)
!!! 7 days to die is probably my most addicted to game. (it's zombies) but imo way more fun with friends
Age of Empires II HD is a classic if you're into RTS (but I go brainless overpowered farming mode lol)
Any of the Assassins Creed games (I like 2,3,origins,odyssey,and Valhalla the most) if you want some stealth and fun combat
Walking sims:
Cozy adventure/puzzle games:
I always prefer to play with people. If I do:
No one has said it yet, but I find Raft to be incredibly relaxing. Especially if you just ignore objectives and just sit there collecting debris. It can be so tranquil and a ton of fun
Either Stardew Valley (for the chill vibe and calming soundtrack) or Old School RuneScape (for the massive nostalgia bomb)
As others have already touched upon, I think the Zelda series is masterful (pun semi-intended) at this.
I can't count how many times I've replayed through Ocarina of Time just to relax and vibe. These games really excel at creating little moments of catharsis.
I used to spend hours in OOT just hanging around Kakariko or Lon Lon Ranch or soaking in the ambiance of the Forest Temple.
Or hanging outside the Stock Pot Inn in the morning, waiting for it to open in Majora's Mask.
Or floating around on the Great Sea in Wind Waker.
Or taking Marin down to the beach in Link's Awakening.
And so on, up through the BotW/TotK era.
Audiosurf for me. Just listening to my favorite mp3s and not really caring if I set a new world record or not.
In the same vein, doing a job in American Truck Simulator or Euro Truck Simulator 2. Just chilling out, driving across the map to deliver cows or whatever.
Super Mario kart and the original doom. I can play either of those games at any point and always have fun. There are newer games in both of those series, and I do love them too, but if I want some comfort gaming it's the originals for me.
lately: against the storm. making a city builder into a roguelite was genius.
Morrowind and Mario Maker 2.
Trackmania! So many user made maps you never have to see the same map twice, and every map looks unique. You have a simple task: go from start to finish after collecting all checkpoints. Endlessly trying to get random bounces on "LOL" maps just never gets old.
Subnautica.
When I'm not running for my life from creatures trying to kill me then ambiance is actually very chill. Something about being in a giant ocean. Not to mention the soundtrack is pretty chill. And the environments are cool as heck!
Rimworld, honestly. I've logged 3k hours already. Probably have closer to 4k, if I had had the moolah for the game when I pirated it. It's the game I play when I don't really feel like playing something sweaty, just load up my latest colony and drink coffee or have my breakfast while watching my colonists go about their work. I just ended a 23 year colony based on aztec, kemetic, hellenic and solarpunk themes, due to mod conflicts making advancing a hassle. I've since cleaned up my modlist and I'm running a... Hm, dunno how to describe it. Monastic bounty hunters colony ig. Rootin tootin prayin magic cowboys in the desert.
Recently I picked Tunic as well as a chill game. It's pretty fun!
Breath of the wild has some chill situations, just going about in nature, or walking through the villages. It can also go absolute bonkers when you're unprepared.
GTA San Andreas brings back so many memories for me. There was a specific summer, when I was 12 years old, that I spent hours just driving around listening to music. I really wish rockstar would do an actual remaster of this game instead of whatever they crapped out.
rimworld - so many different things to make your pawns do - endless mods as well. recently picked up factorio, still getting used to it but it looks like a fabulous timesink
Euro Truck Simulator/American Truck Simulator
It quickly just becomes a virtual road trip simulator, and as someone who generally enjoys driving and road trips its very chill
Symphony of the Night. I've beaten it more times than I can count. Played it for the first time on my dad's old PSX. Probably my favorite single player game ever.
Minecraft and Stardew Valley.
OG Star Wars Battlefront I & II.
Easy to just put on, play a few rounds and clear my head.
Simple & fun to play.
Probably strange to call them comfort games but I've played them so many times they've become comfort games: Mass Effect trilogy, Dragon Age games, KOTOR and KOTOR II, and even SWTOR.
Yes, I recognise I have a BioWare bias but honestly no games feel like theirs. I hope they stick around for a long time and manage to claw their way back to being a trusted RPG maker.
I think the familiar world building, the fantastic characters, the cinematic conversations, dialogue options all make it comforting to me. And they're my happiest gaming memories.
My two most frequented games would be Stardew valley or Animal crossing. Specifically the GameCube version (emulation if you don't have one) or New Horizons (been surprisingly refreshing)
Nothing against the other versions I just haven't tried them.
Hardspace: Shipbreaker can be a super relaxing game. You sit back and slowly disassemble massive spaceships in a salvaging yard. I love playing it when I want something mindless but relaxing. It's nice sitting alone in the salvaging yard with the catchy music and slicing apart a bulkhead.
Slay the Spire is a big one. Casually smacking out wacky runs during a lunch break is the bee knees.
Brotato is good for this too, even if the game can be a bit repetitive. I wish it would grow even bigger with more items, more deep mechanics, more everything. Thank goodness there's modding.
As a kid, Alien versus Predator co-op survival maps were a big one. Mindless mayhem clears the mind like nothing else.
There are a lot of games I've spent a lot of time in, but none come close to Fallout New Vegas.
I left my heart in the Sierra Madre.
This is going to sound silly, but Clicker Heroes. There's nothing necessarily "comforting" about it in the classic sense, but I have ADD, depression, and anxiety. Putting that on and just mindlessly clicking and resource-managing allows me to focus just enough on that, without it needing my full attention, to be able to also sort through my otherwise incoherent strands of thoughts.
But going by art, music, experience, gameplay, etc, I guess I'd have to say Bastion from Supergiant Games. It's definitely up there as one of my favorite games of all time.
Me and my wife just finished It Takes Two. What an incredible game and story!
Death standing has been that game for me, I'm happy to just collect material to build or maintain roads.
Psychonauts. Amazing style, level design, gameplay, and top notch humor.
Fallout: NV
Elite Dangerous in VR. I can really disconnect from the real world and just enjoy being a space-pirate bounty hunter.
Definitely Minecraft. Old Pokemon games as well. Just something about the grind is therapeutic
In addition to RimWorld, I would say Deep Rock Galactic has never even once left me in a worse mood after playing it. Every time I boot it up, I cannot stop admiring the love and care GSG has put into their game and almost all of it for free. The only monetisation in this game is purely cosmetic, but they make sure that the stuff you can get through gameplay alone doesn't look worse than the stuff you pay real money for. Add on top of that the awesome gameplay, atmosphere and community and you got a game that pretty much never fails to lift you up.
If shooting native lifeforms as an exploited space miner isn't quite your mood right now, you could also try Tchia. Super pretty and lovely game, although I suspect it doesn't offer too much replayability, once you completed it. But the same could be said for Okami and that is the game I first say when asked what my favorite game is.
Hmmm probably civilisation is the one that I always go back to… but for pure comfort warm fuzzies - animal crossing.
As well as just being a nice, no pressure game it’s also associated in my mind with when my little boy was born. Spent many sleepless nights & mornings with our newborn snoozing in my lap while I played to keep myself awake. It was perfect as it’s such a nice gentle game.
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