The Holidays Can Be Stressful: Take A Game Prescription

Flower

Look, just ditch the meds. We're a critically over-medicated country already. If you've got the holiday blues, there are things you can do to relieve accumulated stress and tension.

Although it may sound simple and even cliched to "escape," that is very often what the body requires most. So if you're one of the Black Friday maniacs or holiday shopping in general just gets you all frazzled, or your family or friends or coworkers (or all three) are just driving you nuts, there are some games that can help. You just have to know where to look.

First on my list is Flower. The gem from Thatgamecompany is simple, accessible, and oh so relaxing. You just press a button and off you fly; you become the wind, guiding an ever-increasing tendril of petals, opening closed buds and restoring life to an expansive landscape. Green and blue supplants brown and gray. The carefully selected musical pieces act like an invisible masseuse, massaging away little pockets of stored tension. It's not complex enough to really think about, which is precisely what we very often desire. We're not sitting and staring; we are doing something, and that something is having a surprisingly profound effect on our well-being. Of that, I am absolutely certain.

You really can't go wrong with Thatgamecompany's more recent masterpiece, either: Journey. That demands a bit more attention and is slightly more intricate, but the accessibility remains high and the primary goal remains very much the same: An oddly surreal, haunting, ultimately relaxing adventure, almost a spiritual trek of sorts. Now, if you want to get your brain a little more involved, my third recommendation would be echochrome, which is a puzzle game with a rapturous score and a wickedly unique puzzle perspective. Essentially, what you see becomes reality...seems straightforward but good Lord, it really isn't in later levels. Still, it focuses your mental energy and as such, causes nerves to dissipate.

What games would you recommend as therapy?

Tags: gaming, video games, gaming culture, holidays, gamers

11/22/2012 10:16:25 PM Ben Dutka

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