Dad games?

I'm a dad...I don't actually think this has sunk in yet. My daughter is 7 days old. Wow, I'm a dad. I am responsible for another human being.

Yeah that's weird.

Anyway, games. I'm looking for recommendations. If there are other threads in the same vein I apologise.

What games would be easy to play in short bursts? Must be pauseable (not a word) too. I'll play just about any genre.

I just finished Doom Eternal which shockingly worked well. Do a combat encounter, check if the little one is still breathing (I literally do this multiple times a day...she's so quiet when she sleeps. It's scary).

I am also popping in and out of Animal Crossing. That game is perfection for right now. You can see totally different things at different times of day. So when the little one won't settle at 4 in the morning (like now) I can jump in for 5 minutes (when I finally calm her down) and catch a few bugs and whatnot. There's no energy meter like Stardew so you can just pick up and play whenever (I loved Stardew). Also the game is so laid back. I don't feel I need to constantly play it. I can play 15 hours one day and just 5 minutes the next there's just no rush (except Tom Nook and his loans the bell robbing bastard).

So yeah, ignore my waffle, games what would you guys play in my scenario?

Shit, I'm actually a dad. I have to be an adult and everything.

Congrats. I would say something thats easy to pause and has a story. Your probably home for a while so rpg.

@topcyclist: I was thinkin the FFVII remake, but my girlfriend informed me that she ordered it for my birthday at the end of the month. So really anything that will tide me over till then.

Congratulations! Fatherhood is definitely weird, but very cool. My daughter is 7, and she really just started getting interested in games in the last year, which has been fun for me.

As for games to play when you're a new father, I think you're on the right track with stuff that you can play in short bursts and can be paused. Getting the violent or otherwise mature stuff out of the way now is a good idea, too, while she's too young to absorb any of the material. Maybe the Resident Evil 3 remake, if you're at all into the series? By all accounts it's relatively short, so you should be able to get it done in the next few weeks before the FF7 remake comes out, even if you just have short bursts of time to play it in.

Lonely Mountains: Downhill

It's a straightforward biking game: you control a little fella on his mountain bike, and you move along trails. The checkpoints along MOST of these are generous, and the trails usually only take a few minutes each to complete. There are goals and challenges that unlock with the successful run of a trail, day and night rides. Shortcuts can be found.

What absolutely makes this game for me, aside from it being easy to pick up and drop in very short bursts, is the ambiance. Contrary to how the game is presented in its trailers, there is almost no music. A few strums here and there, but these are sso rare that you wouldn't even notice were they to disappear, Just coast along, listen to the sounds of the trail. It's peaceful. It washes away my worries. Even when those challenges are categorized as Expert, the general quiet just relaxes me.

The secret areas are simply called resting places. The reward for finding these is to simply watch your rider sit and chill out. That's it. He just sort of relaxes and looks at peace, as much as a character with no face can look at peace. This puts me at peace, in turn. There's no bonus to be gained from these. Your rider doesn't get some supercharge of speed for having rested. It's just an opportunity to be at peace.

It's one of my favorite games right now, because no matter how much stress there is with working from home, or if the kids are charging about, or if somebody is sick, or an expense arises, I can still pop into a trail for a few minutes, and everything just sort of... doesn't matter quite so much. I can breathe, and I can think, and then I can put the game down and tackle whatever it is that may need my attention.

Here's a quick clip of me playing a Free Rider mode of one of the trails. No checkpoints on this one, but you get the idea of what there is here. I also didn't bother much with shortcuts or trying to speed through since I just felt like chilling out.

Lol I survived the early days on Vita and 3DS. So something on portable.

Man those early days. I have fond memories of playing games sat on the sofa with my daughter laid across my lap. Now my daughter plays at the side of me on the sofa and begs me to play fortnite with her!

@frodobaggins: I took 2 1/2 months of paternity leave, starting when my daughter was about six weeks old. She refused to nap in her crib for me, only sleeping across my lap (on a Boppy pillow), so I did exactly what you described for about the 70% of the day that she spent sleeping. I got through so many games in those couple of months.

If you don't have one already, get a Switch. I've got a 19 month old, and his first year, almost 100% of my gaming was on Switch. It is just so convenient and the suspend feature is completely sound.

As for games, I played a lot of Into the Breach. Xcom 2 is also coming out soon. Tokyo Mirage Sessions could also work. But really, almost anything on the Switch would work well.

I just remembered pinball. As odd as this was, when one of my daughters was young and just wouldn't sleep in her crib, I would play Pinball Arcade. I suppose that it settled her down because it chilled me out, and she would fall asleep within a half hour. I could then move her to her crib, and there she would sleep for the night.

Congrats! The new mount and blade is great for quick and extended sessions, very easily paused and saved. I can pop in and make a few trade runs for 15 minutes or settle in for an all nighter easily

Agree with @redwing42 about XCOM 2 and Into The Breach (a perfect video game) and would add Civilization 6. It's on every current-gen console and PC, so take your pick.

I just picked up Murder By Numbers for Switch but that only works if you like Picross. Golf Story is another chill game that you can play in chunks.

Yakuza 0 works surprisingly well if you have a few minutes to spare. Pauseable anytime (even during a cutscene) and it's easy to come back to if you haven't played for a while. It's also on PC and Xbox Game Pass.

Congrats man! My baby is almost 8 months old now, so I’ve been trying to figure out the same thing.

I wouldn’t say what game you are playing matters, but just changing your playing habits. I can only play for a couple hours a few nights a week (if I want to be a functioning, rested human anyway). Despite this I have completed Jedi Fallen Order, Control, Death Stranding, an assload of Modern Warfare, and a decent amount of Animal Crossing and DOOM.

Try to find the time of day that you can carve out for yourself and set aside a chunk of that time to play. I am lucky because my baby has been a great sleeper, so I can usually play for about 90 minutes to 2 hours most nights of the week before I have to go to bed.

If I had to recommend games I’d recommend games like Modern Warfare that though you cannot pause have short enough rounds and are low takes if you just need to quit the match. Open World games are actually great too. You can just play a quest at a time and quit after.

Good luck and congrats again!