I‘ve had less and less free time as of late because of college, so I decided to listen to more to music while playing games, as to “better optimize” the little time I get every day.
I haven’t found any good recommendations for this niche on any other place online, so why not ask here in this forum? Basically, I‘m looking for games where sound (especially music) isn’t an essential pillar of the experience, so that it's possible to listen to other things in the background without sacrificing a lot.
I‘d say most Mario games are pretty good fits for this. Or any platformer, really. Also, if you’re playing an old JRPG and you need to grind for an hour or so, easy thing to do while listening to something else.
I have a hard time listening to listening to anything while playing a game these days, but I have very specific memories of listening to Queen‘s Night at the Opera while playing Grandia 3, and Fall Out Boy’s Folia A Deux while playing Hellgate: London lol.
If I happen to be playing something online with randos (say Dead By Daylight or something) I‘ll put on a podcast usually.
A friend once told me he’d listen to audio books while playing Dark Souls.
ASCII roguelikes also work pretty well I think.
I like to listen to music while playing roguelites and deck games. Games where you‘re bound to hear the same music a sickening amount, aren’t too mentally taxing and you‘re doing the same game loops over and over. Slay the Spire is a great one, because as good a game as it is, it has very few tracks and what is there isn’t that memorable. Inscryption, Dicey Dungeons and the Spelunky games all have good music, but after a while are better enjoyed with your own music or podcasts.
I didn't like Loop Hero myself, but that game feels like it's built for listening to podcasts.
In any online games having your own audio feels mandatory to me. Never understood how some people could play the same game 100s or 1000s of hours listening to the same music.
Puzzle games are my preferred genre for listening to things while playing.
Picross, Tetris, Dr. Mario, Boxxle; I‘ve been having fun playing those while listening to other stuff. Grind-heavy RPGs can also be good, but I don’t like missing out on new music, so I wouldn‘t listen to other things unless I’m grinding.
definetly Tetris or anything similar! I have like 200 hours logged on tetr.io and all of those hours i've had some music/podcast/youtube video/ or even tv show in the background.
in general i would say games you want to get good at and the music is gonna become really tedious at some point
Harvest Moon games have always been my go to for this. It feels like an appropriate mimic of real life to listen to music or podcast while farming or foraging.
One specific to me is in Gravity Rush I listened to a lot of podcast while just flying around and getting orbs for fun.
strategy games like Civ, paradox. Sports games like fifa and MLB the show. Football manager is good too.
On Get Played I think Matt Apodaca mentioned turning the volume down on hard bosses in Souls games to make it easier and less stressful and I did this sometimes for Bloodborne in particular. Maybe playing something relaxing over it could help also.
Back when I played Diablo 2 a lot, I'd usually listen to music. Billy Talent II in particular. I will always think of d2 when listening to that album now.
I find myself enjoying podcasts while grinding in rpgs or fighting games. In fighting games it usually calms me and makes me play more patiently.
@yeso
I find that when I listen to something while playing Civilization, too much of my thinking brain is caught up in the game and so I'm not actually listening to the podcast or audiobook.
I like podcasts or music with driving games like Euro/merican Truck Simulator or the Tokyo Highway Battle series. Music with fighting games.
@radicaledward yeah now that you mention it this happens to me too
Open world games and RPGs where you aren‘t actively engaging with the story or the story isn’t worth listening to are good for this.
After hitting the post game in Death Stranding and I was going for the platinum, I spent the next 50 hours of play time listening to podcasts since there was no story to do and completing the deliveries gives you one line of dialogue from an NPC.