What's your video game happy place?

We all have our happy places: somewhere - real or otherwise - to escape, relax, and replenish away from the stresses of the modern world. Perhaps yours is in nature, lost in the reverie of a spirited hike up a windy hill, or sweatily squatting your cares away amid the pounding Daruda Sandstorms of your local gym. Perhaps your demands are simpler: the call of a good book and an escape into the realm of imagination, or the familiar celluloid embrace of a favourite film, or - as I finally drag this intro into relevance - the soothing rhythms of a beloved video game. And hopefully it's the last one, because that's what we're talking about today.

As you might have noticed, it's Optimism Week here on Eurogamer - a chance, at a time it isn't always easy to remember, to reflect on how special video games can be. And to celebrate the occasion, we're reviving The Big Question to tackle another topical talking point before wafting it lovingly over to you. And this time: what's your video game happy place?

Do you prefer to take solace in the cosy idylls of the farming life, sinking dreamily into the comforting mundanity of turnip whispering? Perhaps your gaming happy place is one of nostalgia, the warmth of a retro favourite of old. As it happens, I've already written about one of my own favourite happy places: the vast procedural universe of No Man's Sky, where I can amble serenely with the vaguest of purposes, tweak my infinitely expanding base, dip into its wonderfully kind community, or idly tinker with its latest toys. But I've got other happy places, far removed: harsher, crueller worlds to explore.

FromSoftware's Souls games might not be what you'd typically call relaxing, but their exquisitely forlorn spaces are so meticulously, completely realised, I find it hard not to get lost in it all. But more than that, they practically force you into a meditative state; demanding calm, cautiousness, and clear-headed focus if you're to survive their merciless worlds. Nobody ever beat Ornstein and Smough by being impatient, after all (but I'm now ready to be informed otherwise in the comments!) So they're my happy places, but what about the rest of the Eurogamer team? We've asked, they've answered, and then it's over to you!

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64, 3DS)

There's a very special house in Hyrule Castle Town. A house full of pots. Pots you can smash. The guard inside will never stop you from smashing them. You can smash, smash, smash away to your hearts delight. Leave the house only to return and all of the pots will be back in place. Slip into an nirvana of pot smashing. - Lottie

RuneScape (PC, Mac, iOS, Android)

I've celebrated a very special anniversary this year as 2026 marks my 20th year of playing RuneScape. Something I definitely didn't expect when I made my first account on an April afternoon many, many, many moons ago.

Sure I've taken a break - a month here, a month there whenever the new content hasn't interested me or I simply haven't had enough time - but I've always come back, because I simply love the world of Gielinor. Sometimes I log in, not to play the game, but to simply go for a walk - be it the farmlands of Misthalin or the mountains of the Fremennik Province. Whether it's RuneScape 3 or Old School RuneScape, I feel like part of me is tied to Gielinor and hearing the opening score as the game boots up feels like going home. - Lottie

Super Mario 64 (N64, DS, Switch)

While it was tempting to say that Silent Hill is my happy place (which, honestly, it kinda is), I figured I'd go for the next best thing that's slightly more cheery; Princess Peach's Castle in Super Mario 64. As one of the first games I remember playing, and one of the few games I revisit and replay regularly as an adult, returning to Peach's Castle feels like going home in a way. Whether I am racing Koopa through Bob-omb Battlefield or being jump-scared by the flying books in Big Boo's Haunt, everywhere (that isn't an underwater level) is a very happy place for me; full of nostalgia, Toads, and flying slide-kicks - which I could never pull off as a child, but do so with pride now. - Kelsey

Rollercoaster Tycoon Classic (PC)

The joyous screams of a working park, the clack-clack-clack of chains pulling a rollercoaster train to its peak, and the cha-ching of money rolling in as guests flood in. The premise is simple - make a working and profitable theme park - but how you do it (or even if you do it) is entirely up to you. Whether I'm making literal death traps, or malfunctioning rides, I never tire of it. After making my first basic park, I keep finding new challenges and new build methods to try. - Marie

Spyro Reignited Trilogy (PS4)

Pretty much every Spyro game is my happy place, and this edition contains three (hence why I've chosen it). It's where I turn whenever I need a game that is familiar, that I don't have to think too hard about, and it still fills the 'I need entertaining but I don't want it to be too difficult' gap in my library. Seeing the purple dragon race across my screen while charging sheep to get butterflies to feed Sparx, or using his flame to blast away Rhynocs and setting Gnasty Gnorcs undies on fire, or whatever else he may be doing, it's yet to become dull. I simply love this little purple dragon and being a part of his adventures, and away from the Reignited Trilogy, there are so many more. - Marie

Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (PS5)

It's a yearly tradition at this point. Hearing the opening titles, punching Lurkers, Daxter's sarcastic quips when you die, powering up with eco... I could go on and on but will leave it at this: it makes me happy! - Marie

Quake 3 (PC)

It's nice to feel good at something isn't it? And there's one Quake 3 map I'm confident I can say that about: Q3DM17, also known as The Longest Yard. It's the one with the jump pads on; the one with that perilous leap out to the solitary platform in the spacey distance where the railgun spawns. The sitting duck leap.

I'm confident about being good at that map for two reasons. One, because I've played it so many times - hundreds, possibly thousands of times - that I know where all of the spawn points are, such that I can fire rockets to these locations to arrive when someone spawns. And two, because once upon a time, we played Quake 3 in the Eurogamer office and I trounced everyone on that map - and there were some very competitive Quake players here!

But it's only that map: I'm useless at all of the others. And it's that map in particular because it was available in a free demo version of Quake 3 that was all I had access to when I was younger. When I want to feel good at shooters, I boot it back up. It never fails to cheer me up. - Bertie

Hades 2 (Switch 2)

This has become my current happy place game! I'm surprised because I wasn't that 'in' to Hades 1; I sort of glanced off of the surface of it. But this one, I'm all in on. I think a lot of it being a happy place game has to do with the circular design of Roguelite games. Their being designed to be replayable in hour-ish chunks means they're really snackable, such that I find them much more tempting to play again than using that hour to get into a new game. After all, I've already done all the heavy lifting - I know what I'm doing now.

But an equally large part of it has to do with the game being Hades 2. It's just such a generous package. It's like a pass the parcel game that never stops unwrapping; every time I play, there's something new to do. And the playing of the game itself is exquisite - the speed, the snap, the chewy theorising over builds. I've been dabbling in it all year and see no reason why that'll end any time soon - Bertie

Critical Role (web series)

Bending the rules a bit here but Critical Role constitutes a gaming thing and it's certainly become a happy place for me, so I motion for it to count.

A few years ago, I wouldn't have predicted I'd become a 'Critter' - I wouldn't have thought I'd watch countless four-hour episodes of people playing predominantly Dungeons & Dragons. But here we are. And I'm now so excited about the current series helmed by Brennan Lee Mulligan that I genuinely look forward to a new episode more than maybe any other TV show.

There's lots I love about it - admiring actors' deep character work and their improvisational cool-heads to create stories on the spot; the laughs; the sense of community; the mutual support; the inclusivity - but something I come back to time and time again is just the presentation of the thing. One camera angle, mostly, and a relaxed, storytelling atmosphere. It makes for a refreshingly calming thing to watch in a world of strobe-like hyper-cut TV shows. I love it - Bertie

Lost Odyssey (Xbox 360)

This was the first RPG I believe I ever played, and you really can't beat your first right? The story was perhaps too good for my teenage brain, but something about the world, about the music, captured me. Like many others my age I was playing Halo and Call of Duty: Black Ops, but my heart was stuck with Kaim and the gang.

I remember swapping out the four discs on my Xbox 360 back in the day, and being genuinely unpleasable when the disc tray on my console broke. It kept me from my favourite game (and Dead Space 2, another honourable mention I'll sneak in here). I had to use a screwdriver to pry it open, which only worked for so long. The good ol' days.

This game is truly beautiful, and I still on occasion go back to revisit this classic. It pulls at your heartstrings, it's got some lovingly-crafted prose threaded throughout, and on top of all that it's got a killer turn-based RPG system under the hood. Well worth playing if you haven't had the chance - Connor

Guild Wars 2 (PC)

Gosh, this really is probably my favourite MMO of all time. It was a fierce competition between this, Maple Story, Old School RuneScape, and Classic World of Warcraft for a while but I think I'm landing on this one. The world is so beautiful, the gameplay so fun. I think I could play this game for another five years and be happy throughout.

It's just, there's so much to do and it all feels meaningful. I love collecting an achievement here and there, and filling out the wardrobe. I love trying out new weapons and seeing how they play. The story is good, the players are kind. It's a genuine masterclass of MMO design and I'm happy it's still popular even now. - Connor

Too Human (Xbox 360)

This game isn't one of the best. But it was there at just the right point in my life. Everyone I believe has a game they know isn't amazing but has a place close to their heart. I think some of the higher-end armour and weapons looked cool - I can't believe this was meant to be part of a trilogy. I wonder what Dennis Dyack is doing today. - Connor

Football Manager (PC)

One of the things that makes Football Manager feel like something of a safe space to me is the fact it doesn't really feel like a video game. There are a million ways to play this game but to me it's a game of optimisation. The absolute most efficient spend in a transfer window, and most optimal plan for upgrading a team over time (top tip: replace the weakest starting player with the strongest signing each window for the maximum average gain.)

It's where I can motivate a team perfectly. Where I can replay a conversation that didn't go well (don't judge me - in real life you can call people up and apologise!). Where I can formulate and execute my plan exactly. Or almost exactly, as players are ultimately outside your control. And that's what it's really about, for me: a place to retreat to where the world makes sense, where doing things the right way is rewarded, where I can identify problems with the world and then actually solve them.A power fantasy of its own. - Chris

FTL: Faster Than Light (PC, iOS)

I have a lot of happy places, if I'm honest. After Football Manager I could've put a childhood game here. A classic Pokémon game with a bit of modern tidying-up - a HeartGold or FireRed maybe - or Crash Team Racing, or Dawn of War. Pretend I wrote lots about those as well. But there is just something about FTL that even now, after years of writing about it, I struggle to truly put down. Maybe it's the isolation. There's something to the distance in FTL, the spaces between sectors, jumps, your ship and the others. The pauses between the battles where you just hang there, the chaos suddenly silent and your crew just happily at their stations, engines slowly coming back online. This is my meditative silence, just making decisions and looking after my little guys and inevitably crumbling when it gets too tough, and then going again for another silent ramble through the stars. - Chris

So that's the Big Question, and that's our gaming happy places... now it's over to you!

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