Games that wind you up. Games that bring you back down.

[BHvrd]

I was going crazy tonight on Quake Wars on PS3. Played like 8 hours straight none stop killing and capturing t-bag fest.

It's time to unwind to some Everquest. :)...phew

So what games wind you up and what games bring you back down?

[G-Boobie]

I play survival horror games quite a bit, and they wind me up pretty well. I can't for the life of me figure out why I love games like Silent Hill and Siren. They are NOT fun. The tension they evoke is something pretty close, though. That's probably as near to getting wound up as I get, although a really good match in a fighting game probably qualifies too.

As for winding down, Symphony of the Night and Little Big Planet are the games I play when I need to unwind, have a beer, and just cool out. Not very challenging, simple, and pure fun. No stress. No hassle. Just jumping and running. Stabbing too, in the case of SotN.

[RJ]

I used to have Swing Away Golf, a PS2 launch title that I swore would give me a heart attack since every game came down to ONE FRIGGIN' STROKE. I never ran away w/ a round no matter how well I played. Maybe it was designed that way...? A disc problem kept me from unlocking any characters so it's gone now. HotShots 3 is more my speed anyway.

& today I was at a late Xmas family thing w/ Simpsons Pinball in their basement, but the damn kids monopolized it so Im gonna unwind w/ Wii Williams Pinball & maybe some Endless Ocean- I really should get back into that.

[Gunface]

Biggest wind up moment: 200 lightning dodges in Final Fantasy X. That part was MISERY.

Half Life 2 and Gears of War wind me up because of the intensity of the action.

Lately I've been playing mostly relaxing games; they are my reward for getting some work done. Metal Slug Anthology and Sonic Mega Collection Plus for PS2 are good ones. Oblivion is very relaxing when you can just hang out on a sunny day at the river near the Imperial City. It's also great because it's snowing here and not sunny at all.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Team Fortress 2 winds me up when I can find a good team and have fun playing against the other team.

The same game pisses me off so much because I often end up with people who don't know what the hell they're doing.

[Flashback2012]

WoW can accomplish both for me. If I'm feelin' froggy I can do some PVP. If I want to wind down I can just run around and quest all night. But in regards to games that specifically do one or the other...

A good game that winds me up is Team Fortress 2. More often than not I'm cannon fodder in that game but I love playing the Pyro who's the first into the enemy base and torching everything I see. ;)

Home Run King is a good wind down game for me. I'm currently trying to complete a season (that I started in 2002 ^^;) and it's relaxing to me since I'm good enough to where the comp will never beat me.

[Nebagram]

In a nice irony, the game that winds me up the most and brings me down the most is the same game- Rock Band.

On guitar (on medium, shamefully) I am somewhat mental, Pete Townshend-like and I wind myself up like nobody's business. On drums, despite being a huge fan of Keith 'exploding drum kit' Moon, I'm relaxed, laid back, taking the charts in my stride, and ironically enough, playing on Hard or Expert. :-/

[heybtbm]

So what games wind you up and what games bring you back down?

Wind up:
Probably any online FPS. I can get..."passionate" in the heat of battle. And by passionate, I mean furious.

Wind down:
GTA: San Andreas. I still love to just hop in a car and drive around San Andreas listening to the various radio stations. I have spent 100's of hours doing this over the past 4-5 years. So much so that the it took me upwards of 80 hours to finish the story missions the fist time. I just love driving/flying/boating/jetpacking around the map.

Castlevania:SotN seems to have the same effect on me. Very calming.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

Winding up? I remember the last game I got seriously mad at, was Sniper Elite- to the point that I never finished it. It was infuriating because it was a late stage in the game, and I continually died within the 1st 2 minutes of that stage. It was a great game up until that point though.

Wind down? The most numbing and calming game has to be tetris. You can switch off most major brain functions and still operate it.

[jdc]

Great thread. Some pro level championships in various racing games can push me to heart attack levels IF they include stuff like rubber band or bumper car AI. LOL

NOTHING calms me down more than a nice comfy run through the Ulti ruins on good ol' Phantasy Star Online 1&2 for the Cube. I dearly love that game more than anything else I've ever played and have actually been know to nod off while playing.....it's THAT calming. It scares me when I think of how many years I've been playing PSO for.