What are your "comfort" games?

[Flak Beard]

I'm not necessarily taking about your all-time favorite games, but games that you go back to from time to time to just relax and enjoy for a while. Games that you can find yourself in the mood for just about any time. Games that you don't necessarily have some task to attend to in, just play. Games that'll make a bad day better. I think you guys know what I mean.

So, what are your "comfort" games and why?


PSO:
I put in a ton of time on V1 for the DC, playing on both the official servers and Schtack's unofficial server. After switching to broadband though, I picked up the Xbox version for $5 and started playing that. Now those servers are gone, but I still have my old gamer tag saved on the HDD. It's not like I didn't get accustomed to having nights where my friends weren't playing online, so I did a lot of offline PSO playing and I still do to this day. I find it to still be a fully enjoyable offline experience, and love the hunting, gathering, music and atmosphere. I've since then tried to switch over to PSU and PS: Portable, but they just didn't stick with me. I keep coming back to PSO. I guess you could say that it's my "Diablo".

Sonic 2:
I've probably played just about every port of Sonic 2 there is. I don't know if it's my favorite plat-former, but it's definitely my pick-up-and-play one. I fire up the Genesis Collection for PS2 about once and month and play through the game. Something about the speed, levels and music always get me excited. Also, this was my first Genesis game as a kid so it takes me back.

Life Force:
Tried and true, this is hands down my go-to SHMUP. I pop this in every few weeks, enter the Konami code and go to town. Love the gameplay. Love the music. Love the bosses. Always satisfying.

Tetris:
What can I say? It's Tetris.

[nateup2]

Ferrari F355 Challenge (DC)- such a smooth ride, any day of the week, any time of the day

Hydro Thunder (Midway 3 on Xbox)

Samurai Shodown 4 (Saturn) - Especially great when in an irritable mood

[Pulsar_t]

Puzzle games make me quite tense
Games to relax: Densha de Go Final, Sega Bass Fishing, Euro Truck Simulator, Rail Simulator, Lander
"comfort games": Sonic 3, M1TP2, Mario Kart DS, Bare Knuckle 3, Total Annihilation, C&C Generals, BF2

[Flak Beard]

Games to relax: Densha de Go Final

I've always been intrigued by this series, and have been eyeing the PS1 version for a while. Is it necessary to play with a special controller?

[Mozgus]

Lately it's been Team Fortress 2 at the www.FUGTF2.com servers. About half the time though, people ruin it for me. They're either on their voice chat talking economics or some other unrelated pointless crap, or I'm on a team that's absolutely getting gangraped round after round. Yesterday though I was rounding up ultra kill after ultrakill, backburning lines and lines of idiots who refused to learn from their mistakes. I was literally laughing like a maniac, as my enemies were screaming into their voice chat in frustration.

[Pulsar_t]

Games to relax: Densha de Go Final

I've always been intrigued by this series, and have been eyeing the PS1 version for a while. Is it necessary to play with a special controller?

http://www.densha-de-go.com/ this site has good info about the series. The controller isn't necessary of course, but from my brief playing using the special Wii peripheral it does add to the experience (as is the case with most other accessories). It's more challenging using the gamepad though. I wouldn't bother with graphically inferior titles since the visuals are a big part of the games.. Railfan with its use of real FMV tops everything else in the series, alas I don't have a PS3.

[jfrost]

2D fighters, Mega Man 2, X, X4.

[Niode]

I like to play Crazy Taxi to relax, I very rarely get under $25k on arcade mode so the game isn't really a challenge anymore but it's quite relaxing putting down smooth lines from point to point.

Sega Bass Fishing is great to relax to and I agree about PSO, it's such an awesome ambience and the music is awesome, it never feels tense or anything. I'm currently playing schthack with blue burst a lot (when it doesn't crash all the damn time).

[lwcook]

2D fighters, Mega Man 2, X, X4.

If you add rhythm games, that is EXACTLY my list. I've played through Mega Man X so many times I could
do it in my sleep almost.

[Jayson]

Ghouls N Ghosts - One of my all time favorites, even though it can be hard as hell, it just relaxes me.
probably just a throwback to a time in my life that was just so much simpler, even the music makes me smile.

Starcraft Brood War - I spent a whole lot of time playing this game from 99-03 and I love loading up a map and just playing Vs the Comp. I usually only have the time to do this on the weekends and I plan to remake some maps that I had made (and then lost in a crash). I cant wait for Starcraft 2. I never play online as I always have my ass handed to me

Need for Speed: Most Wanted - I love driving around, having cops chase me, and losing them only to do it all over again. I want to check out the cops and robbers DLC for Burnout Paradise soon, I hear it makes the game alot like this...