The best games for stress relief this Christmas

Whether it’s the snow and ice, seeing family members (that you would rather not), shopping or just general organisation, Christmas, and the build up to it, can be a particularly stressful period. Video games are a fantastic form of relaxation and stress relief, and I’d like to make a few personal recommendations to help you make it through to the New Year. I’m going to focus on some of my favourite experiences, both immersive and escapist, that will help take you away from real-world frets if even only for a number of hours. Rock Band 4 Plenty of people listen to music to de-stress, so why not play it? There’s something rather mesmerising about watching all the little coloured blocks come down your screen in time to the beat. With friends, the game is great, but create a playlist with some of your favourite songs and have a jam session on your own. The game may not transport you to a fantastical world, but if nothing else, will distract you from your problems for ‘just one more song’, and then another, and another. Dragon quest Builders It’s literally Minecraft with a story mode (though not Minecraft: Story Mode). Take your time exploring a charming little world, and building shops, inns, housing, gardens and more. There’s still challenge to be had with the quests and monster invasions, but the game has a sense of adventure and progression which survival games such as Minecraft simply do not. There’s more than enough here to keep you busy and involved, but nothing to really stress you out. Xenoblade Chronicles X JRPGs are as lengthy as anything, but not all of them have quite the scale of Xenoblade Chronicles X. The world is open, and there is a LOT of it to explore. Treat yourself to an otherworldly safari, taking in sights of alien wildlife, foliage and landscapes. The game actively encourages you to visit new areas and travel from location to location to complete different tasks. The combat is exciting, and will get your blood pumping in just the right way. The soundtrack deserves a mention too, with a nice selection of cheesy rock and pop that surprisingly fits in perfectly. Skyrim Skyrim is a vast fantasy epic. The Special Edition just released, and brings upgraded graphics and mods to console. Skyrim has one of the best game worlds ever created, and is VERY easy to lose yourself in. There are literally hundreds of things to do, and often you have to go actively out of your way to find them. It’s a time-sink, but a beautiful one. Mods add plenty of new content to the game, with user created quests, towns, items and weapons. Once you’ve seen everything you want to see, start again with a few mods installed and have a very different experience. VR games (PS) You can’t talk about immersion or escapism without mentioning VR. I’m not going to talk about a specific game, but about VR in general. Once your headset and headphones are on, you really are in a different world, and your brain may very well be tricked in to physically feeling movement. There will be so much going on and so much to take in that you really won’t have any time to think about the outside world. The PS VR is probably the easiest way to get your hands on a dedicated VR headset, but don’t count out the Gear VR either. If you’ve got the right phone, it’s certainly the cheapest way, and there’s still some great experiences on there. Simulation and sandbox games Simulation games cover a wide variety of themes and scenarios, and there’s a good chance there will be something to suit your tastes. It’s theme parks for me, so Planet Coaster does the job, but a farm simulator might be better for someone else. It’s probably a safe bet to set your game to sandbox mode, so you can just play about without having to worry about time or finance. Even if not a simulation, sandbox games in general are great. Animal Crossing is always a hit, and the recently Stardew Valley seems fairly popular too. Keep in mind that these are all just games that I find useful for keeping calm, and whilst I’m sure they’ll work for you too, I can’t say they will 100%. It’s also probably an idea to have a look at what some of these games have in common, and once you’ve identified similar traits, you could easily judge what else might do the trick for you. There are certainly games you should avoid, too. Highly competitive games (especially those with intense communities) should likely be avoided, like League of Legends, for example. Single player experiences are far better in this regard, but I’m not saying multiplayer should be avoided entirely. Feel free to take note of my advice, but just experiment and find what works best for yourself. The only real rule is to stay away from Mario Party, that game destroys friendships.