Zen gaming: What games put you in a meditative trance?

[J T]

My favorite for this purpose is Gridrunner: Revolution. The psychedelic visuals and simply, yet still challenging difficulty help me get in the zone.

I've also played Street Fighter II Turbo (SNES) so much that I can play it to simply relax and center myself.

I find rhythm games are good for this too. Games like Rez, Frequency, and even Guitar Hero on a moderate difficulty setting are good for achieving a sense of flow.

What games do you play for this purpose?

[Hazerd]

Racing games, they put me in a trance, i get like mad focused tunnel vision.

games such:

F-Zero series
Need for Speed series
Gran Turismo series

[alienjesus]

This one:

[Sideroller]

Tetris.


'nuff said.

[CFFJR]

Any game I've been playing for so long as to have memorized it will usually do the trick.

The genesis Sonics come to mind. I can run all of those games without even thinking about it, and I won't come out of the "trance" until I beat the game. I like to play them normally, but these are the games I'll usually hit if I feel the need to completely turn off my brain and forget the world around me.

Tetris has also always suited me well, even when it gets fast. The C music on the nes version does a wonderful job of relaxing me.

More recently, even though I've only played the demo a bit, I've found that I really go into the trance when I play Audiosurf. I keep it simple on the easiest setting, and I get completely absorbed in the music. Its a really nice feeling.

[puke_face]

Racing games, they put me in a trance, i get like mad focused tunnel vision.

Me too.

[Ziggy]

Tetris.


'nuff said.

Tetris

/thread


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris_effect

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris#Eff ... _the_brain

Any game I've been playing for so long as to have memorized it will usually do the trick.

Yeah, I was gonna say the same thing. There's a lot of games that I can just really relax when playing, turn my brain off so-to-speak.

[Gamerforlife]

Meditative? I don't think that's possible with a video game. I have entered a certain zone with some games though, where it feels almost like my brain and hands are on auto pilot. Space Channel 5 on the Dreamcast, The Red Star where I use to be able to S ranks most stages on normal with relative ease and rare moments in the original Halo where my buddies would piss me off sending me into a zone where I would just start pulling off crazy shit I couldn't normally do and sending my kill count up dramatically. Focused anger can do wonders for my gaming ability

[Michi]

I really wouldn't call it meditative, but the closest I've come to that is playing Tetris and Okami.

[jfe2]

Rez HD on XBLA for sure, and Tetris for Gameboy.

With other games there is usually a goal, or end in sight, that keeps you thinking ahead a bit. With Rez, and Tetris in particular, I feel more "in the moment". It's all reflexes and reactions.