Games for the Soul (Part Two)

With all the chaos going on in the world, people are looking for anything to help. They search for things to bring some peace and calm, and a lot of people are turning to technology. I am going to give a list of some of the games I play on my Xbox One S, some of which can be played on other systems, but not all.  

The first game I like to play is one most, if not all, people know. I love to play Minecraft, especially with

Minecraft Logo Photo Courtesy of Flickr
Minecraft Logo
Photo Courtesy of Flickr

others. You can have others join a game with you if they are active on Xbox or the Nintendo Switch, or you can pay to get realms, which are multiplayer servers that can support up to 10 people at once. I like Minecraft especially for the freedom to just make things, the adorable animals you can collect and the exploration options. There are so many worlds you can spawn into that are diverse and vast. You can challenge yourself with enemies or you can play peaceful, like I do, and farm and raise animals. It is by far my favorite game to play on Xbox for the variety of ways to play. 

The next game, a close runner-up in my opinion, is Stardew Valley. Another farming game that is more delicate than Minecraft. You must take care of your avatar and sleep and eat, but you can farm with the seasons and sell your crop. You take part in a town community and can romance just about anyone in the game. They have birthdays, special likes and dislikes, and their own past you learn from spending time with them. You slowly increase your farm and purchase new seeds to grow, build a social life, and

Stardew Valley Photo Courtesy of Flickr
Stardew Valley
Photo Courtesy of Flickr

you can enjoy side quests if you like. The music, much like Minecraft, is instrumental and pleasant. 

The third and final game I will discuss is a game everyone has heard of since it first came into production in 2000. The Sims is a game that has seen many updates, is playable on just about any format, and has expansion packs with every new update. The Sims is a real-life simulator that takes a unique spin. Your avatar, or avatars, has a job, can marry, have children, and sometimes have pets. The Sims is playable on mobile, Xbox, PC, and PlayStation. On the Xbox, the avatar can be so highly personalized and that is perhaps one of the things I love the most about it. I easily spent an hour fine-tuning everything about my avatar, down to the voice. It was certainly a learning curve as someone who started the Sims on mobile and switched to Xbox, but it has been enjoyable to play when I simply want to escape the real world for a little bit.

The Sims Photo Courtesy of WikiCommons
The Sims
Photo Courtesy of WikiCommons

Most of these games are games that people are familiar with and all of them have simple controls and are easy to learn. I enjoy them for the relaxing gameplay and the momentary escape from the crazy going on in the world right now. It is nice to sit back and boot up my Xbox every now and again to go mine some iron, plant some crops or drop in on my sims. Hopefully these games bring some joy to your lives too! 

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