After Work Gaming: What games do you enjoy mostly after a day of work?
After Work Gaming: What games do you enjoy mostly after a day of work?
I am not a regular gamer, but once or twice in the week I am indulging in some after work gaming. Mostly I enjoy games that are either story rich to put different thoughts in my mind or games with a simple, but enjoyable gameplay (not too much micromanagement).
Here are my favorites for an after work gaming spree:
- Football Manager (mainly 2008 and 2014 edition)
- Citizen Sleeper
- Suzerain
- Disco Elysium
- The Long Dark
- Dave the Diver
- Hotline Miami
- System Shock 2
- The Long Drive
What about you, what do you play after work (even occasionally) to get your mind off or do you have any suggestions in general?
Whatever I can hack and be a god. I have enough stress and challenge at work, I just want to come home and smite.
For me the biggest one is my current "filler MMORPG" of choice, which has been Final Fantasy XIV for the past few years.
The reason this works so well for me is:
- By and large these games allow you to invest however much (hardcore raids) or little (dailies/weeklies) brain and attention into their gameplay as you desire, which is important after work when my brain is all mush from coding.
- Light social interaction helps not completely feel like I've "shut down for the night" yet.
- If I want to I can chat about daily things with my friends/guild.
It's the right combination of ultralight gameplay and light social interaction to allow me to come down from work mode. 😁
When I saw articles about Team Fortress 2 breaking concurrent player counts, I jumped back into that. I still suck, bad. But I have played it several nights after work just to have some mindless gameplay.
Diablo 4 and Zelda ToTK
I play God of War 2018 to chill out, the scenery is great and you can just vibe around.
Cannot find an artefact or realm tear in Midgard at the moment so the wandering is actually putting me off but I would highly recommend this game for a chill out session.
I haven't played the new one, maybe some day.
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Red Dead redemption 2 or Noita, depending on how much time I have to play.
Against The Storm, still in early access but very regular updates and fantastic team behind it.
Very fresh feeling take on rts/micromanagment game. Feels very unique in its game play loop.
I used to play Europa Universalis 4 or Cities: Skylines for this purpose.
Wow.. did not expect that many responses! I have strolled through all of them. There are a lot of really nice suggestions of games. I have bookmarked some of them.
Love the Lemmy energy, except those 1-2 hardcore 'redditiers' commenting here in their usual way : ).
Thx to all of you!
Single Player:
- tetris effect connected
- descenders
- tony hawk pro skater 1 & 2 remaster
Multiplayer with close friends:
- Risk of Rain 2
- Rocket League
- Golf with your friends
- Halo (if they get their shit together and get their player count back up)
- Fall Guys (if they get their shit together and unvault the maps)
Trackmania, Witcher 3, City Skylines. Man I wish I had more time.
My jam is an indie game called Warsim! It's got a delightful arena battle minigame that you can bet on, complete with audience interference, a spike pit, and goblin streakers. After that, you can have a pint of various drinks in one of dozens of unique taverns, and round out the evening by presiding over the royal court and issuing decrees, proclamations, and dropping unruly petitioners through my personal trapdoor.
Cities Skylines. Not stressful and still interesting.
Lately ive been bouncing between my usual dailies on final fantasy 14 or a few round of battlebit remastered. Battle bit has been really great at capturing that battlefield feel
Honestly, right now it’s Overwatch 2. Probably Stockholm syndrome at this point, but the game can still be fun to just jump into for 30 minutes for me.
Every day after work I play Beat Saber. Usually for about half an hour--as a warmup--then I'll play again after dinner for 45 minutes to an hour or so. I've been doing this for a little over a year now and I'm still completely addicted to this game, LOL!
As much as I hate Meta Beat Saber on a Quest 2 is fantastic (if you get it modded). One of the mods (BeatLeader) uploads every successful replay (where you beat the map or your previous best score) and you can watch them on the web! It's the coolest thing! Here's an entertaining example of me playing a silly Hatsune Miku song with the Faster Song modifier enabled:
https://replay.beatleader.xyz/?scoreId=7668607
Or if you prefer a more recognizable song, here's Shut Up and Dance:
https://replay.beatleader.xyz/?scoreId=8047177
Since I started playing this game I've lost 15 pounds and gained a ton of stamina (and some muscle tone). Way more in shape than I used to be. Many days I'll burn 1200-1500 calories playing!
I've mostly been wanting to play Rocket League, but I've been super stressed and for whatever reason playing against real people stresses me more. I think it's because I can't just pause the game whenever I feel like it.
So I've been mostly playing against ML bots with RLBotGui. As a gold/plat level player, it's actually a great way to practice.
I've also been playing through all of the Adventures of Lolo games(1-3 US and Japan, GB Lolo, eggerland series, plus all of the many rom hacks) on my Anbernic handheld. It's my favorite puzzle game of all time.
Lately it's been Persona 4 Golden on the Vita and Zelda ToTK.
Zelda because you can change your play style easily, sometimes I just want to build stuff, other times I want to explore the map, fight monsters, or do side quests. Sometimes I'll sit there and spend a bunch of time preparing meals for a future play sessions.
Persona 4 I keep coming back to for the story and overall experience - music, voice acting, and even just navigating menus is so stylistic and top notch. I started my playthrough in 2019 though and am barely picking it back up.
On days I have more energy I've been playing Freedom Planet 2 for some action platforming as well.
Counterstrike: counterintuitive but dealing with the toxicity and probably getting massacred by smurfing players (or cheaters) still is a good outlet for the day's stress.
I just downloaded Deaths Door on gamepass as I'm about to go away for a few weeks and didn't want to start anything story heavy. It's pretty straightforward and the art style is great. It's basically Tunic without needing to think about anything.
I usually play Terraria as it's one of my favorite games. I've beaten the game on three platforms. Going to play it again on a harder difficulty next time.
I find it fun since it's not a shooter so no intense rage moments that make you want to quit the game.
I’ve recently gotten back into the OG Guild Wars and forgot how much of a chill MMO it was when it comes to grinding and questing. The quests (at least, so far) are a bit more varied than the “get 20 of this loot” and “kill 50 creatures” borefests that most MMOs have (the game still has them, but not as much as later MMOs), but also not super stressful. It also helps that it’s pretty easy to get geared for end-game stuff, so the actual end-game grind is for fashion and cosmetics.
Hollow knight was my favorite
Monster Hunter, I needed the fast paced action and thrill of the hunt to contrast with my slower work days..
Love some "turn your brain off" kinda games. BOTW AND TOTK (altho that one is a bit more involved) are perfect for this. Also love an after work session of some Warriors (not nba) game.
I generally just play whatever game I'm working through at the time. I recently replayed GTA:SA, and now am trying a new character in D:OS2 to get me by until BG3 releases from EA.
Dota.
For a few years I played a lot of skyrim. I've done many builds and challenges to make the game harder without going to high in difficulty but I burned myself out and can't get myself to play it long term.
MCC and Risk of Rain 2 are my co too games lately. Both have a ton of things to do and are easy to put down when it's time to pass out.
System shock 2 is brilliant. Runs on a toaster too, and on GOG it's DRM free so slap that bad boy on any laptop you have.
Mostly I play No Man's Sky right now, but I occasionally go back to elite dangerous and/or Mass Effect.
For me, it feels great to do a few laps in a racing sim like Assetto Corsa Competizione after a long day. Even something more arcade-y like Forza feels good to me.
If I don't feel like like driving at the end of my day though I'd probably hop on Monster Hunter or a story-based single player game.
Nhl offline. No idea why. I win almost every game. Sometimes it's a close one. But it's not easy on superstar. I just enjoy finding the angles. Good podcast game. But I am down on myself for ignoring the massive backlog.
Finally though, I snapped out of it and tried Hades for the second time and this time it stuck. Chasing those Heat skulls now.
The same games I would enjoy on my day off.
Still playing Diablo 4 pretty much whenever I have downtime for gaming.
If I'm knackered it's Noita, if I have some energy left I'm pwning noobs in Population 1.
Fallout 4. Current playthrough is no armoured melee playthrough
Infection free zone demo. Post apocalyptic colony Sim with maps based off the open street view. is pretty fun.
Starship troopers: Extermination. 16 player coop fps where we fight the bug menace. Service guarantees citizenship.
Satisfactory or RDR2. Depends on the how the work day went.
I have a group of friends that I have been playing CSGO with every night for years. We now all have over several thousand hours and don't really play seriously on low rank and just have fun together. I couldn't not play the game tryhard after a day at work...but then with so much experience it's not a problem anymore.
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I usually have my regular games that I use to disconnect: FIFA, NBA2K, Rocket League offline, SimCity4, Anno 1404, RDR2
And also other more intensive games that I play if I'm in the mood: just finished GoW Ragnarok, started The Witcher 3
Lately it’s been War Thunder. Finally got it set up nicely with my Quest 2 and it’s pretty damn good in VR.
Been playing phoenotopia: awakening in whatever spare time I have for the past little while. It's been a good time!
Just a perfect mix of 80s-90s rock, some weed and Diablo IV. Really hits the spot.
Transport Fever 2 has consumed my free time. It's like a time machine, I open the game and I'm launched 4 hours into the future
Steam Decking fallout 3 atm, with D4 occasionally spaced in. Next is n ew Vegas and fo4.
Hotline Miami
Ahh so I see you enjoy some "brainless" (I mean some parts can be brainless, especially if you know the stage pretty well) slaughter after work.
Deep Rock Galactic is a good choice for me after a long day at work, it's a PvE co-op game. Even at the highest difficulty you can have a smooth time with a good team, and otherwise you can turn down the hazard level a notch or two - it's fun and not too mentally taxing to mow down bugs en masse.
Bonus, drinking a beer in game while having a beer in real life is peak immersion.
Forza Horizon 5, have been playing racing games for a lot of years and the Forza games are easy to pick up for a few races. You can also just cruise around the open world map.
Usually play some Doom 1 or 2, a level or an episode, or Minecraft if I have more time, but I'm in a boring replay/comfort phase because work is kicking my ass atm
Started playin monster train. It scratches the itch of finishing something in 1-2 hours and while they're very similar I feel like it's a bit more forgiving than "slay the spire".
Zen Koi on mobile https://zenkoigame.com/
It's chill mindlessness with soothing audio. Excellent for zoning out after a hard day. Calms the soul.
Albion Online :)
I've been playing Dinkum a lot lately. A cross between Stardew and Animal Crossing, but with an Australian theme. Real chill if you want it to be.
Any game really. Currently going through ratchet and clank rift in time since it just came out on pc. Other is legacy of the duelist and ace Attorney trilogy
Currently doing a second playtrhough of Pathfinder WoTR.
It's really whatever is new or whatever game I'm interested in for the month. The only staples I cine back to would be battlefield and FFXIV. Although the latest iteration of BF wasn't that good
For running around and shooting things - Boltgun.
For running around and stabbing things - Diablo IV
Fro driving around and shooting things - World of Tanks
Right now I'm into racing as I just got a new wheel. So like Asseto Corsa Competizion or F1 23
Final Fantasy XIV if I'm feeling social or Planet Zoo if I just want to zone out and look at cute animals. I love both games right now.
Like most here I have a couple of games which I play for a few weeks before moving on to the next. The cycle (as of now) includes:
Terraria
Warframe
Elden Ring (Sometimes Bloodborne, DS1 or DS3)
Factorio (because fuck sleeping)
SYNTHETIK
Resident Evil 2 or 4 Remakes
These are the usual suspects I play over and over again. Sometimes I squeeze in a new game. Some of the last games were Outer Wilds, Dead Space Remake, Katamari Damacy REROLL, God of War Ragnarök and Boltgun. Right now I am farming the shit out of Warframe again, but I think I might give Starsector a shot. Looks like a lot of fun to me.
Games that have been a part of the cycle were: Destiny 1, Destiny 2 and Guild Wars 2, Fallout 4, Skyrim. I lost interest in these games after a couple of
hundredthousand hours.I don't have any specific games to play after work. I just play whatever I'm enjoying most. Currently, that game is baldurs gate 3. I haven't played anything else since Thursday. Before that, it was Spiritfall. It's a roguelite with brawlhalla/smashbros type combat fused with hades' blessings power ups. It's still in early access but it's pretty polished, and a lot of fun. I was also playing risk of rain 2 from time to time but boy does it take a while to get good at that game..
For the last few weeks it was Sons Of The Forest. But now that my wife and I finished the story and are waiting to lose ourselves for months in Baldurs Gate 3, we've been filling the time with Green Hell, another survival game in a similar vein to SotF. So far the constant struggle to stay on top of food, water, and injuries has been kinda frustrating, but hopefully that headache will go away once the systems start to make more sense.
I got hooked on Pillars of Eternity (the original vanilla game), might be worth a look if you're into top-down 'Baldur's Gate' type RPGs. Big huge map, non-linear storyline, lots of things to find. Stats, items, classes, dialogue options that are often dependent on stats and choices affect the storyline. You can add NPCs/hirelings to your party - play through by unlocking and adding the regular NPCs and wind up with a conventional group (dude with shield, healer, damage dealers), or try to get through as a Rogue with a bunch of ranged damage dealer Cipher hirelings to snipe the hard targets. Play through choosing 'evil' dialogue options, or try to get through solo without adding anyone else to your party (there are achievements and one of them is to run through solo, some others are playing through without main character dying, or playing through with a lot of UI targetting helpers and tooltips disabled).
My last playthrough I was running through to try to get the Triple Crown Solo achieve (solo/no dying/'hard mode' toggled) and had a second playthrough without 'no dying' toggled, so I'd crawl through the story a little on the 'dying allowed' file until I was confident I could advance a bit on the triple crown save, then jump to that file and advance the story. Ultimate time waster.
I've played through it a half a dozen times easily, each time it plays out different and I wind up discovering a lot of things I must've missed in prior playthroughs. It's the kind of game you can dive into until you're kind of bored with it, then weeks/months later you're looking through your Steam library, glance at it, think of maybe trying to get through as a Paladin, and next thing you know you're hours into yet another playthrough.
Generally things that are easy to pick up and get going again. If I have to try and find a notebook to get back on track I'll leave it for when I have proper time off. Often I put it down to pick it back up months down the line. Games such as the below are usually on my rotation.
Guild Wars 2
Some ARPG: Grim Dawn, Last Epoch, Diablo
PvE multplayer loot shooter: Deep Rock Galactic, Warframe
Right now: loop hero, factorio, evil within, and battlebit when friends are online.
I've been playing Dismantle. You just smash stuff mostly. Well, I just smash stuff mostly. Then upgrade tools to smash more stuff.
Annapurna stuff and VS style shooters (latest is 20 Mins till Dawn).