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.
It’s not clear to me that I could ever listen to podcasts while playing most of my library, but I’ll do my best to list some with which I might try:
- Euro Truck Simulator 2 (and, by corollary, American Truck Simulator). If you can listen to podcasts in your car, this is basically a similar experience :)
- Super Hexagon. This is not a game about making conscious decisions, it’s too fast for that. You’d have to turn off the music, and determine whether you can retain stuff you’re listening to at the same time.
- Race The Sun. This is somewhere in the middle of the above two.
- Solace Crafting. This is a relatively bare-bones sandbox RPG with harvesting, crafting, and building elements, that doesn’t require all that much decision making, and can be played at any pace.
- Minecraft (the Java edition). You’ve probably heard of it! I recommend the Java edition due to the rich modding ecosystem; you can usually find a flavor of content that suits any purpose.
- Cities: Skylines (and, by corollary, SimCity 4). These are both world-class genre-defining city builders, which can be played at your own pace, don’t require a whole lot of active involvement, and pair well with background listening of your choice.
Path of Exile
Just pull up a build guide and zone out :)
This season’s mechanic is neat! For those not in the know, it basically gives weapons a passive skill tree that’s randomly generated per item, that you get experience by charging up and then activating pillars that spawn monsters.
The season mechanics can be pretty hit or miss but as long as they spawn a bunch of monsters people tend to be happy enough with them lol
I’d also throw Train Sim World into the list. Idk why I enjoy it so much lmao
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The truck sims are so good
Many roguelites could fall into this category, and are generally cheap to boot (i.e. vampire survivors).
Came here to suggest vampire survivors. Super cheap game that you can just turn your brain off and play.
this game is pretty dangerous. i got super hooked on it. after you get better and more unlocks, each run locks you into another 30 minutes. it was pretty awesome to get sucked into.
Any other games that you recommend?
I would just look through any number of online list of “Best Swarm Survivors”. There’s dozens of different themes and tweaks from the VS formula, including boat and train varieties! I also watch the YouTube channel Never Nathaniel as he’s a pretty awesome source of both info and entertainment on the matter (as well as other games). He’s literally the only streamer I’ve watched and I couldn’t tell you why, his formula just works.
One more that is outside of the swarm survival genre, Child of Light. Though there is a fun and endearing story that irecommend, once you get through the first 20 minutes, you can kind of just not care and enjoy the simple but interesting play style of an almost-turned-based RPG.
Vampire Survivors.
Powerwash Simulator is perfect for this.
This, it’s so relaxing and satisfying.
Also would add Unpacking as well.
This is the answer I was going to give. It’s my go to game when listening to podcasts. It’s relaxing, it’s satisfying, and doesn’t take a whole lot of attention so you can really focus on the podcast without missing anything.
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.
Second Dorfromantik. Very chill game, no timer,
Dorf is probably the most milage I’ve got out of $10 in years. I got it on sale during early access, and it’s been my go-to casual game when I’ve got something else on the go pretty much ever since.
Stardew valley is pretty good
I’ve actually gotten back into Guild Wars 2 for the first time since its release over a decade ago, and I’m really enjoying all the new content they added. It SEEMS complicated with all the MMO-style currencies but you can honestly ignore most of them and go at your own pace because there’s so much to do but none of it is required to have fun. It’s even more casual if I’m using a low intensity character build, aka just left click in combat to win
Seconding Guild Wars 2! One of my favourite things about it is how when it comes to levelling, it supports whatever you want to do. If you literally just want to run around killing things and participating in dynamic events, you get experience for that. If you want to forego combat and just run around exploring the world and seeing what you can find, you get experience for that. If you want less freedom and would prefer a more structured story, guess what, you get experience for that. If you don’t want combat or story, and instead would prefer to be a humble craftsman… yep, you get experience for that, too. (I accidentally leveled an alt to 80 just through crafting!)
The combat is a huge selling point for Guild Wars 2 in my opinion, as it spares you the dreaded ‘hotbar bloat’ of similar MMOs by keeping it simple. Every class/profession gets 5 main skills, 1 healing skill, 3 utility skills and an ‘ultimate’ skill. On top of that, a few of them may get a few extra buttons (e.g. for directing pets or swapping stances) but that’s about it. Additionally, a lot of the content can be completed with any gear and more or less any build; you don’t have to worry about minmaxing or being optimal if you don’t want to.
Lack of hotbar boat also makes it a great game for Steam Deck!
That’s very true! I haven’t actually tried Guild Wars 2 on the Steam Deck yet myself, personally - the last time I looked, I recall that a fair few keybinds need to be set before it’s playable and that seemed a bit too overwhelming to me at the time. Have you tried it? What’s it like? c:
The back buttons are mandatory, and there’s a specific config someone made that I altered slightly for personal use, but I can’t remember the creator’s name. It was the highest used one at the time I downloaded it though. There’s definitely a small learning curve, but the reward is portable access to a great MMO!
Honestly I absolutely love the customizable nature of the Deck for individual programs, especially because I was able to pair 4 different build and equipment tabs to each of the face buttons so I can swap between all 3 elite specs for my engi main. I just wish they had official controller support with their UI like how I’ve seen FFXIV’s hotbar with multiple on-screen “pages” you can flip through easily.
I’m just about to give GW2 a go on my Deck. Thanks for this message - I’ll take any advice I can get!
Came here just write just that! got into Guild Wars 2 some months ago. The first part of the has cut-scenes, but the story is somewhat short. Once it is over you may repeat parts of it, but you can also ignore it.
I currently use it to turn off my brain, just roaming around the huge world, with full control on how intensive the game is. Do I work on some end-game mount ? do I roam high-level areas ? or do I just chill and jump between low-level areas ?
However, I don’t listen to music while doing so, as the game’s music creates a very nice atmosphere.
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!
If you’re into simulation games I highly recommend American Truck Simulator.
It requires little to no thought. Pick a truck, find a job, and hit the road. Perfect for zoning out to some music or a podcast.
Euro Truck Simulator 2 was my go to after work, it was so relaxing delivering from point a to point b.
Ok wow. I like this idea! I have a racing simulator and play iRacing on it. But sometimes I want to just chill with a beer instead. This sounds perfect.
Stardew Valley is a really chill and fun game. You can talk to the towns people but don’t have to and the dialogue is all very short if you do.
Yeah, I’ve played that game to death at this point, I’m afraid.
Ah, damn. I feel you though. I have way too much time in that game lol. Have you looked into Sunhaven? Its similar to Stardew.
I’ll also add Urbek City Builder. It’s a city building game but it’s a more simplified one. Resource management is very easy and you can build your city as fast or as slow as you need.
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.
Skyrim. You CAN pay attention to what’s going on but you don’t have to, just look at the pretty landscapes while listening to your podcast and follow the questmarkers.
I have 1700 hours in OG Skyrim. I moved on to Elder Scrolls Online and now can’t bear the way faces look in Skyrim. :-P
ESO was going to be my recommendation.
I’ve gotten to CP 1928 almost exclusively by doing crafting writs on ESO, every day, for seven years, while listening to podcasts. But doing the quests while listening to podcasts is not possible for me, because I like to actually follow the plotlines.
Dorfromantik is a very chill puzzle game that runs great on Steam Deck if that’s your thing, a favourite of mine while the TV is going in the background.
If you’re into factory games I 1000% recommend Shapez, which is a shape-building game that doesn’t have the notion of grinding or currency or running out of resources. It’s immensely satisfying when you get the perfect mechanism together and you’re churning out shapes. Definitely one for mouse and keyboard though.
Definitely recommend Dorfromantik! Islanders is another super chill casual game (and also a builder) that I started and fell in love with the other day.
These are both great relaxing games!
Thanks for the recommendation, because of your post went to look at how it looked and played. As a result, got Dorfromantik installed on the Steam Deck and already having a good time!
Brilliant! Hope you enjoy
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 second this, it’s like listening to music or a podcast while coloring a book. It’s extremely soothing!
Mine is currently Civilization 6 and I don’t think I have anything else that could possibly fit; I occasionally have to step back and decide what to do next as it still is a strategy game, but since turns can take awhile (especially in late game since the AIs have to take their turns), having something else to pass the time helps. The dialogue is pretty inconsequential, and turning the game’s sound off won’t really change anything. I usually have music/podcasts going while I play.
(Worth noting it does have lots of DLC, but it doesn’t make winning easier and is entirely skippable.)
The entire Civ series are great for this, and have a lot of replay value, especially if you add mods for more wonders to tweaking the tech trees or whatever.
I also want to suggest Stellaris. It’s not as brain-free as Civ because at times things can happen fast and there are often largish chunks of flavour text to read so it might not be ideal for podcasts, but music absolutely.
I’ll agree, CivVI is my goto for podcast/movie watching time. Once you know how the game works, you really don’t have to listen to anything and can just click away. If Warhammer inclined, Gladius is another Civ lookalike that can be fun to chill and watch a movie with
Just wondering if you think any of the DLC is worth it? I bought it awhile back before they had DLC and I was curious if there were any you liked. I know you said they are skippable but idk just wondering.
I’d say the biggest two DLC packs (Rise and Fall, Gathering Storm) can be worth it; though only on sale. They add a new era score system, natural disasters, and global warming. I bought Civ 6 in its platinum bundle (more than half off), while I like having them had I paid full price I wouldn’t have been happy. If you don’t want to play with them after you get them, you can still toggle them off at the beginning of a game. Then there’s individual civilization packs; if there’s some that interest you/come in a pack, that’s great, but you’re just getting one or two new civs to play with there. Don’t have the New Frontier or Leader Pass stuff, that’s in the anthology, but I’ve heard the Leader Pass doesn’t even run right on Mac or Linux. Hope this helps you out, definitely wait for the summer sale though!
