What games do you play just for fun?

I was giving a lot of thought yesterday between playing The Beginner's Guide and reflecting on my thoughts on my experiences playing MGSV versus how dissapointed/frustrated people seemed to be about the back half of the game.

As the industry grows, people gain the ability to tell different stories in fascinating new ways, but what games do you play just for fun? It doesn't have to be a complete genre-shifter or even a game that most people consider good, just a game that brought you endless hours of sheer joy.

This is obviously quite a subjective question, and I'm not expecting any definitive answers. For me, clear standouts in my mind would be Super Mario World, Renegade Ops, and Saints Row 3.
What about you?

My current go to game for hours of entertainment when I just wanna play a game.... Civ 5. I can literally play that game for 12 hours at a time and just zonk our.

Most Super Mario games, Rocket League, and I'd like to give a special mention to the first Halo trilogy.

Those are games you can either experience as an immersive experience with a decent story and world, OR you can play for mindless fun. They're so quick moving so you can play them that way, yet if you want to slow down and smell the roses, you can do that too

Are you talking about games you enjoy, despite significant flaws and/or not doing anything to advance the series/genre/gaming as a whole?

Or games you can just sit back and enjoy mindlessly (not relative to their quality of lack thereof)?

Hopefully every game?

I rarely play games just for mindless fun, I need narrative, characters to hook me in and once I am done with the game I rarely come back to. It is hard for me to think what kind of games I replay for gameplay alone. Maybe other posts refresh my memory.

Word.

Grim Dawn for the past year or so, there's still so many builds to make. Though lately I've been zoning out with Sublevel Zero and NeonXSZ which are two very nice 6DoF games (inspired by Descent).

Maybe I don't understand the question. Fun is the reason I play games, if a game isn't fun, I don't keep playing it and move onto something that is.

I hope all the games i play are for fun, or why am i playing them.

Every game I play. If i'm not having fun, I don't play it.

All games? But there are different types of "fun". A hardcore challenge can be fun, but not always what I'm looking for. Same for a mindless action or a grindy RPG in its own way. Or just a linear story driven game. Just depends on what I'm in the mood for.

@deanoxd: @mike:

Some of us play some games for competitive aspects. Sure, fun is absolutely a necessary part of it but it's the excitement and personal progression that is the big deal.. I'm sure there are other reasons too for other types of games. At least I think this is what OP is on about.

But isn't the competitive aspect part of the fun? I guess it depends on how you look at it.

Maybe some people are just gluttons for punishment, like Dota 2 players. JUST KIDDING!

Civ V and Rogue Legacy are great filler games for me. Spelunky too or course.

I play competitive games as well but i stop or don't play them if i am not having fun. Winning or being the best is not reason for me to play any game.

@mike:I think the word fun is simultaneously too broad and too narrow of a word. I don't play all games because they are fun per se. But I do play all games to be entertained, even if the word I'll use in the end to describe the experience is something other than fun specifically.

But the way I read this question, I would answer CoD/Battlefield multiplayer.

F.E.A.R. especially with god mode on and all guns with infinite ammo shooting and blowing up enemies always feels so satisfy can't believe the game is 10 years old and doesn't feel that dated.

Now that I'm done with the story and don't really need to do anything else I'm really enjoying MGSV as a sandbox. I like the infinity bandana and having a grenade launcher a lot.

Diablo or basically any loot driven game.

Oddly enough Kirby Star Stacker is one of my go to games when I just wanna play something fun.

Counter-Strike

Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo.

That is all.

Pretty sure OP means to ask what games you pop open just to kill some time with no real goal (story completion primarily) in mind. Not necessarily whether you thought playing Deadly Premonition was "fun" or fun.

For me it's whatever the most recent NBA 2K is, The Pinball Arcade (I only own Seasons 1 and 2, mostly conquered Season 1 but 2 has some real tricky / less interesting tables so I waver on getting the rest) and when friends are over Jackbox Party Pack or Nidhogg. Every few months I'll get addicted to Civilization IV or V, but I have to force myself to avoid prolonged exposure (both due to how much sitting and clicking that is, and also because both games get chuggy / severely reduced in the later stages, especially V, on my 2008 iMac).

I suppose Destiny as well, though I'm on one of my longer breaks from the game (I popped in briefly the week before Taken King after a 6 week binge about a month and half prior) and haven't grabbed Taken King yet. It all sounds great, I just have MGS and Witcher 3 (once it became clear this already great game would be changing significantly I decided to just wait for this first expansion and start over) to get through plus all the 2K I want to play. It's like the worst possible time to decide to take a prolonged break from Destiny but, ugh.

I guess even not playing Destiny is excruciating.

I play all games just for fun.

If you're looking for a new game to play, play SOMA.

Spelunky. It may just be the best feeling 2D game ever made. This coming from someone that grew up in the 8 to 16-bit eras.

And aside from fun, I get to compete with those jerks on my leaderboard that refuse to quit (like I did, but only for a few months!)

All of them. I play all of them for fun.

Literally every game I've ever played. If I stop having fun I stop playing it

so what games do you play for work?

Destiny

Most 2D platformers and FPSs tend to just be fun. A few exceptions to that like Thomas Was Alone and Half-life 2. But it's generally true.

Put me in the "all games" column. It's a bunch of different kinds of "fun" but it's all fun.

I think I understand what you're trying say.

Trine is that game for me right now. When I just want to dink around and watch some videos on the side I'll play that and just roll through it. I typically always try to dive into a games narrative and lore but I just couldn't do it with Trine; I stayed for only the gameply.

All of them?

OK, I get what you're saying. You're asking for the pure joy of playing a fun, light game, not the cerebral kind of fun where we dissect a game, and not the Dark Souls/Super Meat Boy frustrating fun.

Well, I'd say that's Picross (I have, like, 6 or 7 of these on my 3DS, including the 3D DS one) or Concrete Jungle right now. Puzzle/card games, I adore Picross and I just love the raw mechanics bouncing off of each other in a card game.

Sudoku. Minecraft on peaceful (before the 'boo! we live inside blocks you break to scare you!" monsters got added).

Also a soft shout out to games I can safely run in the background. Ala the "Welp time to go take a bath while the FTL crew levels up due to setting it so neither of us can ever bypass the others shields."

Hopefully every game I play. If I don't find it "fun", fun can also mean every game I find entertaining or fascinating in my book and not necessarily laugh out loud having a great time games only, I will simply stop playing it.

Another "All of them?" Answer here.

Knew a guy who played Destiny despite not really enjoying it because he liked the clan he built up for it and i guess theres always E-Sport stuff and professional QA and Press, but outside of that, why would you play something for something other than "just for fun"?

Hearthstone, but to a lesser degree that I used to.

Diablo III or Tropico 5 depending on my mood.

I agree with you.

I just finished The Last of Us for the first time last night and it reinforced how much importance I give to good stories. The Witcher, MGS, Red Dead Redemption, hell even the twist at the end of Infamous made me reflect on the experience for quite some time. If as the credits roll a game doesn't make me scour its wiki and forum discussions for more tidbits and interpretations of the narrative I can't consider it to be great, or even good.

The closest thing I have to gameplay-fun is the Elder Scrolls games where I create my own story. These games allow you to roleplay any fantasy archetype (evil necromancer, druid, Dragon Knight, burglar you name it) without the obligatory support of the built-in quest lines. For that reason the ''story'' is always new, which explains the 400 hours I logged on Skyrim among 12+ characters.

I'm with you

I need something outside gameplay that's engaging to keep having fun with a game when it comes to Single-player games. For me, characters are a huge point, even if the gameplay is really bad, good characters will make a game really fun for me, Alpha Protocol and Mass effect 1 are perfect examples. Story is also a big point that will keep me engaged, and the previous examples apply. Sometimes other more gimmicky things will keep me engaged, the deep customization of Saints row 3 and 4 (it also ties into characters for me, since you are creating a character), or the NPC simulation aspect of Fallout or STALKER, or a really interesting setting like in Metro or Alien isolation.

If there isn't anything outside of gameplay that can engage me, then I will loose interest fast and stop playing. Deus Ex human revolution is an example, first time I played it I stopped after a few hours. There was nothing that engaged me, the story didn't do it for me, I wasn't interested in the setting and there were zero interesting characters, and there wasn't some other more gimmicky thing to cover this. Even after I actually went around to finish it, these points led me to not enjoy it that much. Same with Borderlands or Bioshock.

And now sadly MGS5. The gameplay in MGS5 is amazing, but there isn't anything outside it to keep me engaged. I don't find the characters interesting and there's so much side mission grinding that I can't even recall the story really. I really want to like it, and I do love the gameplay. But after playing 24 hours I have no desire to go back to it. It doesn't help that I'm super tired of open world games either, I've always preferred a tight short narrative to an open world game, with a few exceptions.

it might not be worded well but I get what the question kinda means.

games like wrestling games and now mario maker are games I play to kinda zone and chill.

but yea the minute im not having fun is usually when I stop.

@viper: you got out quick dude, I played MGS V for 50 hours and trying hard to convince myself that this game is good, but it is not, there is nothing in this game that I value, it's just bland. Then deleted and started Witcher 3 new game +, one of my best decisions in a while!

@edgaras1103: Yeah I sorta feel that way too. And from everything I've heard of act 2 I feel like I don't have much incentive to even finish it for the story. Might be worth it to watch metal gear scanlon go through it instead.

Binding of Isaac:Rebirth. I've already RPGed the game, but I still go back to it all the time because every single run feels new and fresh.

Orcs Must Die! (and/or OMD2)

Killing orcs is always good, wholesome, relaxing fun.

For mindless fun I'm currently into Resogun. Most racing games as well, I always just do some single event and never a campaign type mode. And I guess once all 3 of my classes in Destiny are 40 it will also just be for mindless fun, currently it's still for the sake of progression.

@asterack: I also play Civ 5 as something to do during a podcast, PM me your Steam name?

Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers.

Streets of Rage Remake is also great.