I’m looking for PC games that I can play while listening to podcasts- games that don’t have engaging cut scenes or important dialogue, games that honestly don’t require a lot of skill or thought.
I used to be really into things like Farm Frenzy, Rescue Team, hidden object games, that kind of thing. I got heavily into MMOs and stopped downloading casual games for a decade or so.
Now it almost feels like this sort of game isn’t made anymore? Were they completely nuked by the existence of Gacha games, P2W, and anything that earns the dev a constant income stream? I’m happy to pay for a game once, but I can’t be constantly buying booster packs.
I also don’t want to play on mobile or on a console, PC Master Race here, haha.
Vampire Survivors for sure! It’s a very chill arcade game and it’s like 2-3€ when on sale.
My father really likes Mini Motorways. You could try something like that
He’s a big fan of sim cities and zoo tychoon and stuff too
Love me some mini motorways and mini metro!
I have a Steam collection just for that purpose, called “zone-out games”:
- Factorio
- Euro Truck Simulator
- Viscera Cleanup Detail
- Satisfactory
- Space Engineers
- Hardspace Shipbreaker
- Rift Breaker
- Monster Train
- Jupiter Hell
- Vampire Survivors
- Dorf Romantik
- DOOM (any)
- Nethack
Some advice I want to give is that “games that require a lot of skill” is only a temporary blocker. If you enjoy a hard game enough to play through it repeatedly, it can become a podcast game. Many people play Bloodborne or Binding of Isaac to audiobooks, and roguelikes are generally like this.
That in mind, I have a list of games that are valid podcast games but I haven’t built enough familiarity with them yet:
- FTL
- Binding of Isaac
- Terraria
- Risk of Rain
- Against the Storm
Factorio is awesome. To make it even more chill - I turn off enemies and increase resources. Even without enemies that game gets so complex and involved. But still mindless.
https://classic-mahjong.com/ is free, entirely browser based, has no ads or other nonsense, and has the pleasant waterfall cascading effect when you clear all the tiles.
FTL is fun and hard.
Also mindustry
FTL is such an interesting game !
You might like Super Auto Pets. Not my kind of game but it’s casual and my friends loved it.
Power wash simulator will be your best friend. No spoken dialogue, no important cutscenes, just you and a power wash gun. The only thing you’ll miss out on listening to podcasts is the admittedly very soothing sound of PSSSSHHHHHHHHHH from the washer itself.
Great suggestion. Also, if people are into it Lawn Mowing Simulator is good as well.
I love to play from time to time Banished with podcasts. Once you figure out how to survive then it’s just “how much can I build on a map before my PC explodes”.
Ostriv seems nice too, but it’s still in alpha, so weird things happen like villagers going out to buy candles or soap and returning with shoes.Oldschool Runescape. The perfect game for watching something on the side. Just get into a rhythm and grind away
Minecraft creative mode can be very relaxing but time consuming, it takes a while to build a big project but looks awesome when completed, you can go for a small hobbit home too and give in some detail, it takes your mind off of things sometimes, especially when doing the math to even builds out.
Not exactly an easy game, but Don’t Starve has quite a lot of downtime that makes it great for listening to podcasts.
Mordhau is definitely one of few casual games medieval fighting game where you can mindlessly kill other players and laugh your ass off. But at the same time its the type of game you can get really good at too. So it has a very in depth combat experience
Try Dorfromantik. It’s a hexagonal puzzle game where you build a map using different tiles and connecting like with like. Very relaxing, doesn’t require sounds or full attention.
Eufloria is that game for me.
Dang, I haven’t read that name in a literal decade. When was it last updated?
I guess they added a few levels to Eufloria HD in 2020, 9 years after release.
Also in the truck driving bucket - Snowrunner. The focus is on off road trucking, mud and snow physics, with a winch that you can use to unstick yourself.
