Mindless Entertainment + High Quality = ???

[Maria Caliban]

I glanced at the Torchlight thread and remembered my fondness for the game. It's an amazing creature in that it's both mindless hack and slash and a very fun and polished product. Too often, people conflate easy and pure escapism with making any crap reminiscent of a popular game.

 

What I'm looking for is your list of games that you find fun, engaging, and well made, but is also simple and undemanding. Think of them as 'I've come home at 9 pm and just want to game a few hours before heading to bed' type games.

 

Torchlight fulfills this criteria for me. I have no idea what the story is, and the game doesn't expect me to do so. I turn it on, kill massive waves of evil with minimal effort, watch the pretty graphics, and end up with sweet loot.

 

World of Goo is another one. While the puzzles were often complex, they were more absorbing than stressful (like the Myst series). The music, the whimsical environment, and the soft liquid bouncing of the black balls sort of lulled me into a stupor.

 

Robot Unicorn Attacks has got to be its antithesis; it’s loud, garish, with explosive death an inevitability.

 

Prince of Persia. Yes, the new one. The original PoP: Sands of Time had a compelling and dramatic story, and the angst drew me in. The new one has a story that’s easy to ignore, so the vast majority of time, the object of the game is to leap around beautiful environments catching little balls of light.

 

Batman: Arkham Asylam. Batman is good, everyone else is evil. Sneak up on them and hit them/swoop down on them/hang them from a gargoyle.

 

Any other suggestions?

Edited August 24, 2010 by Pidesco

[WorstUsernameEver]

Torchwood? Is it Torchlight or another game I don't know about?

 

I wouldn't call Batman : Arkham Asylum undemanding though.

Edited August 24, 2010 by WorstUsernameEver

[Bendu]

Any other suggestions?

Braid, Trine, The Misadventure of P.B. Winterbottom, Crayon Physics Deluxe and Machinarium.

[Nepenthe]

I dunno, this is the way I've had to play most games in the last ten years. Probably why I pretty much play CRPGs exclusively, they generally have the structure where you can do a major quest or two in an evening.

 

Baldur's Gate II can take a while this way.

[mkreku]

Puzzle Quest is a perfect "I just want to sleep while I game"-game. Weirdly enough, Crackdown on Xbox 360 is another one; I just jump around and catch green balls all over a beautiful town.

 

Oh, and never let the Gothic games anywhere near your house. Highly demanding + Low quality = Death from stress.

[sorophx]

and I just installed Gothic 3 because people kept saying, "man, this is the best RPG since Fallout 2!"

 

it IS demanding though, demands resourses... I played Starcraft 2 on high graphical settings and it was ok. then I start up Gothic 3 and it's a freeze-fest all of a sudden. wtf?

Edited August 24, 2010 by sorophx

[WorstUsernameEver]

What places have you been frequenting sorophx? I don't think I've ever heard anyone praising Gothic 3 like that, it's usually ranked lower than the original two. Also, have you installed the community patch?

[mkreku]

and I just installed Gothic 3 because people kept saying, "man, this is the best RPG since Fallout 2!"

 

it IS demanding though, demands resourses... I played Starcraft 2 on high graphical settings and it was ok. then I start up Gothic 3 and it's a freeze-fest all of a sudden. wtf?

http://www.g3cpt.eu/

 

You need Gothic Community patch 1.73. YOU NEEEEED IT

[HoonDing]

Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad.

[sorophx]

wow, that's a great title for a game

 

What places have you been frequenting sorophx? I don't think I've ever heard anyone praising Gothic 3 like that, it's usually ranked lower than the original two. Also, have you installed the community patch?

I installed 6 patches in total, this community thing being the last. but I guess I should erase the game before it does some permanent damage to my psychic health.

[kirottu]

Casual World of Warcraft by that I mean dungeons and battlegrounds.

[sorophx]

I tried CWoW, the grinding killed me. I mean, to enjoy all of the dungeons and stuff you have to keep leveling up, and that's a drag

[Enoch]

GTA 3 and it's spinoffs.

 

Although they certainly have their sections that require more concentration and focus, just driving around, listening to the fantastic radio content, and looking for jumps or hidden items is a great mindless time-sink.

[WorstUsernameEver]

Is San Andreas any good? I know you'll probably all answer me "YES!" because I've heard nothing but praise, but for some reason the setting put me off, compared to the deliciously campy take on the eighties of Vice City.

 

I should really try to find the PS2 version again on some online shops, because I suddenly have the urge of replaying it, but I borrowed it from a friend and gave it back to him years ago...

[sorophx]

oh, I liked SA but I thought GTA 4 was better. as a matter of fact GTA is the only series where I equally enjoy all the games. I'd suggest GTA 4 to the OP

[Gorth]

What I'm looking for is your list of games that you find fun, engaging, and well made, but is also simple and undemanding. Think of them as 'I've come home at 9 pm and just want to game a few hours before heading to bed' type games.

Hmmm... what fits that description of games currently installed?

 

Painkiller: Resurrection (first person shooter)

Zombie Driver (racing game, ram and splatter as many zombie pedestrians as possible)

Archon (violent chess)

 

Easy to get into stuff, no mental preparation, just start up, kill a few half hours then abandon it without feeling any great sense of loss

 

If all else fails, there is Spider Solitaire which usually comes with Windows.

[Purkake]

Any other suggestions?

Braid, Trine, The Misadventure of P.B. Winterbottom, Crayon Physics Deluxe and Machinarium.

Maybe we should just sticky this or something.

 

Oh, also Carmageddon and Team Fortress 2.

Edited August 24, 2010 by Purkake

[GreasyDogMeat]

Is San Andreas any good? I know you'll probably all answer me "YES!" because I've heard nothing but praise, but for some reason the setting put me off, compared to the deliciously campy take on the eighties of Vice City.

 

I should really try to find the PS2 version again on some online shops, because I suddenly have the urge of replaying it, but I borrowed it from a friend and gave it back to him years ago...

I'd say go right to GTA IV but yes San Andreas was amazing. I'm not really crazy about the whole 'gangsta' thing either and I hated the idiotic main character who never shuts up while exploring, BUT, the game gets much better after you leave the LA area and the 'gangsta' war story section. The farmland, San Francisco and desert/Las Vegas missions/story are really good.

 

I think a good example of why I like GTA IV more is that in San Andreas I had burnout roughly 75% of the way through the main story and just stopped playing, only to come back months later to finish it off while in GTA IV & Expansions I burned through the missions ASAP to see what would happen next.

[Raithe]

I'm surprised Purkake hasn't already mentioned Just Cause 2 for mindless fun destructive entertainment...

[Purkake]

Right, I was thinking of older stuff.

 

Just Cause 2 and Red Faction: Guerrilla offer copious amounts of mindless entertainment.

[Raithe]

And personally, I found Saints Row 2 to be more mindlessly entertaining then GTAIV which seemed to have a touch too much angst buried in it to be properly fun.

[Purkake]

Liero is pretty fun as well...

[Pidesco]

I wouldn't call Liero mindless, though.

[Purkake]

What's more mindless than filling the screen with bouncy mines?

 

 

Liero is also free

 

[Pidesco]

Real men play Liero with reload at 100%.