I was thinking the other day about how mind boggling and thought provoking the game Braid was. I was playing last night for my review (you’ll see my review for it coming soon on the PS3 version), but I sat there frustrated after an extended gaming session with it. Moving left, right, rewinding time, trying to find the right combination of moves to get strategically placed puzzle pieces. It started to hurt my brain. I needed to kill me something. Shoot someone in the face! Just something to cool down for a little bit before jumping back in to hurt my small pea sized brain again. It got me thinking about “cool down games”. What do I play? What do you play? Read more after you clickety-click!
We all know video games are supposed to be tough and challenging, but sometimes there are moments that get down right frustrating. I’m a pretty calm dude throughout the work day, but when I am tasked with clearing out the tunnels over and over again in Call of Duty: World At War on Veteran, it makes me want to run out into the street and shake the nearest baby in rage.
I thought the sniper sequence in the game was going to be hard on Veteran like all of my buddies said, but I got through that in about 30 minutes or so. Not bad, but still manageable on that difficulty. It was nothing like the tunnels on the other hand. I usually start loading it up on the PS3 and sit back for what feels like an hour of the same routine. “Clear out those tunnels!” my commander said. Oops, I died entering the second tunnel. Loading screen for the next 45 seconds. “CLEAR OUT THOSE TUNNELS!” he screams at me again. Alright already! The never ending barrage of enemies spawn from around the corner and through the skylight hole, dead yet again. This pattern continues until I get fed up with the game and almost throw my controller through my TV.
I don’t want to end my gaming session on a bad note, so I look for something a little lighter on the difficulty, but still fun. I’m not going to be like Matt here and break out We Cheer 2 or anything, but I need something to get my confidence back up again. Games like Castle Crashers, 3 on 3 NHL Arcade, GTA IV, and even first-person shooters that I think I am good at flood my brain. Titles where I can get some aggression out, blow some shit up, or cause harm to someone else are great ways to get the cool down juices flowing. Top these games off with a frosty adult beverage, and you are on your way to clearing those tunnels next time.
We might laugh or scoff at the Wii for its lack of adult titles, but what it lacks there it excels in party games and serves its purpose for me. Cool down heaven. Just pop in a brawler like MadWorld or slice up a few enemies in No More Heroes and you’ll be swinging that wii-mote like its nobody’s business. In fact, this added movement helps me out even more. Being engrossed in a video game that gives you a freakin’ chainsaw or katana blade to wield is a powerful thing, so you’ll eventually find yourself swinging the wii-mote around aggressively as if your harder thrusts through the air were registered by the sensor bar. Well, sadly they aren’t, but you do get your frustrations out. I’ll show that squad commander next time I’m heading into those tunnels. I did some soul-searching and found my top 5 list of great cool down games:
5. Scribblenauts – Who doesn’t want to see God with a shotgun killing a Kraken? With this game you are only limited by your imagination, and with me, its pretty twisted.
4. 3 on 3 NHL Arcade – Hockey is the most testosterone filled sport of them all (well maybe besides rugby), and to have cartoony guys and bone crushing open ice checks, this makes for a great time.
3. Left 4 Dead/Left 4 Dead 2 – I would even suspect L4D2 more because of the melee weapons, but who doesn’t want to chainsaw through the undead.
2. Castle Crashers – It’s cartoony, fun, has a comedic edge, and it’s above all bloody. All good things when you need to cool down.
1. GTA IV – You get to cruise around Liberty City hitting hidden jumps, being badass with guns, playing car tag with friends, and overall just cause senseless violence towards innocent bystanders. Good times!
What are your favorite cool down games Loot Ninja gamers? Post them in the comments!
One word – Borderlands. Wafer-thin story so there’s not much to think about, enemies that are challenging but not too bad, and more varieties of guns than you can imagine.
I have not touched We Cheer 2 myself. I don’t care what any of you think. I’ll cut you all.
For me, it’s definitely not FPS games since I’m not the best player out there. I tend to fire up games like Fat Princess or Wii Sports Resort to wind down and chill.
Civilization Revolution. Different adventure games or slower turn based games are normally nice and relaxing.
ay, civ rev is a great cool down game. shame though i only have it for the DS as i can’t track down a ps3 copy. also good article man, i personally can’t fade the wii though none of the games ive played on it have much depth. i tend to chill with mw2 or on occaision i hit up FF7 wen blazed
Peggle. Or any other PopCap game for that matter. And if for some reason I’m not feeling the PopCap library, then it’s Skate 2 or any driving game. Last but not least, when all else fails, I’ll play Puzzle Quest.
I used to play Facebreakers. That’s a good stress reliever. As a matter of fact, I need to pick that game up in the bargain bin at Gamestop, I think it’s under $10 now.
Oddly enough I usually don’t try to work on more than 1 game at a time. I often find myself forgetting moments in the story…but if i need to cool down… I’ll play storyless platformer’s like Katamari Forever, or LittleBigPlanet, or even Crystal Defenders. I usually play these between finishing up a game and starting a new one. For awhile i was on a Final Fantasy kick, I think I played FF2, FF4, Crystal Defenders, and Dissidia Final Fantasy… so at that point I felt the best way to break free was just to just change Genres.. fortunately for me I decided to take up Uncharted since the PRICE just dropped [at the time], and I knew I had to familiarize myself with the series since its Epic Sequel was coming up shortly…
Now I’ve been playing a string of Action Titles..and I’m ready to swap back to RPG mode hopefully by the end of the year… I still have to finish Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, start and finish Assassin’s Creed Bloodlines and Assassin’s Creed 2 though..haha
My fav cool-down game was Mercenaries. You could go anywhere and blow anything up at any time. Very stress-relieving.
The Hitman series is a nice cool down. Especially once you’ve gone through the whole game and have access to all levels.
Sadly, no official word on the next Hitman – but it’s safe to assume it will be far more open-ended. I doubt they’ll get to the open-endedness of GTA anytime soon, but, in the meantime you can pick up Hitman: Blood Money for $20 – $30; have a good time beating it; then pick you favorite levels to hop back into for “Cool Down” mode.
I fire up my Wii and play Super Smash Bros. Brawl!, or Wii Sports to cool down. GuitarHero/Rockband Depending on the mood. Avatar Drop on the 360 indie games is actually really good for cooling down.