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When I was younger, I played all sorts of games, but now that I fit into that dubious “gamer over 30″ demographic, I’ve noticed an interesting development: I really like games that chill me out. I guess it could come across as boring to some, but I’m too busy digging it to really care. I mean, I confessed to all of you that I loved Diner Dash, so if you don’t think I’m a loser already, you never will.

I chatted with the staff about their favorite chill out games too, and between all of us we came up with a list of games you have to play when you’re wiped out, nursing your hangover, or any other time you don’t have too much brain power to spend, but still want to game. Hit the jump for our recommendations!

Hexic

There are so many good things about Hexic. Firstly, it’s free when you buy your 360 and get your Live Arcade account set up, and you know, free stuff rules. But beyond that, it’s just a soothing, easy to play little game that is simply a lot of fun. Your basic match 3 game gets a boost from beautiful HD graphics and music that you can enjoy without having to think too hard. You can really go into the zone with this one. did I mention it’s free?

Rez

My love for this game knows no bounds. Famous for being “that game that came with the vibrator”, Rez had a lot more to offer than just alternative masturbation opportunities (although the idea it presented that in the first place is kind of freaking incredible). Hurtling through the network and shooting to the tones of music rather than your usual sound effects just makes for a hypnotizing experience, and on top of all that, it’s also an incredible game. Talking about it makes me wish I was playing it right now!

Flower

I know, this is like the most obvious choice for this article ever, but I’d be pretty lax if I didn’t mention it. Plus, playing this game is a simply beautiful experience. Some people probably couldn’t sit with it five minutes, especially if they love high energy action, but for me it was something I could lose myself in if I were in the right mood for it. Few games are so elegant and thoughtful — it’s like the gameplay equivalent of listening to a perfect classical composition.

Tetris

What can I say about Tetris that hasn’t been said already? It’s gaming perfection. No many how many incarnations of it come out, I want to play them all. Essentially, I always want to go back to that deeply satisfying feeling of fitting blocks together, building them all and letting that one row stay empty until you get the long skinny block and you slam it into place and feel a burst of accomplishment even though you’ve done it a thousand times before. It makes you feel like you can organize LIFE.

Peggle

The fact I love Peggle kind of embarrassed me at first. I mean, look at it. The unicorn, the goofy gopher, the rainbow. At a glance it looks like something your mom would play at work when her boss wasn’t near her cubicle. Except that if you play it, you feel this deep, almost impossible sense of addiction set in almost immediately, and suddenly you can’t stop clicking. And when you get Fever and that ridiculous music bounds in, well, you kind of feel like jumping from your chair and air-conducting along with it. Go ahead. Try to deny you’ve felt the urge to do this.

Diablo II

I know you’re thinking: What is Diablo II doing in this list? It’s not peaceful, like zen meditation. It’s lots of lots of killing, demons running rampant, and lots of dark shit. The thing is though, this is my list, and when I play Diablo II, I go into a wonderful trance state where I click and kill for hours until I’ve regained my sense of peace. What can I say, it’s like a peaceful release for aggression. Diablo II probably kept me from killing a lot of real people. Thanks, Baal and company.

Taiko no Tatsujin

I can’t even remember the first time I played Taiko no Tatsujin, or Taiko Drum Master as it’s known here in the US. I think I played the DS one first. I was far beyond addicted — I was obsessed. I played until my fingers were nubs and my face looked like the middle drum in the picture up there. I just couldn’t get enough of the combo of Japanese music and rhythm tapping. As you progress in difficulty you eventually unlock Oni mode (”demon mode”) which will certainly require your deepest trance state to complete. You’ll need to talk to God to have a chance to pass it, in fact.

Geometry Wars

I have a terrible secret to reveal about Geometry Wars. I find it deeply soothing, yes — to watch other people play it. I personally have not played it that much. However, because of the way it makes me feel to watch other people play it, I felt it had to be included in this list. When I reach for a dual-stick shooter, I usually got for something like I Maed a Game With Zombies In It, but I think I just really like the theme song. No hard feelings, Geometry Wars?

Puzzle Quest

I can’t count the number of times I fired this game up and a friend or roommate yelled “DAH DAH DAH DAH DAHHHHHHHH” to make fun of the consistency with which I played it. Maybe it’s because it’s essentially Bejeweled with role playing elements. Maybe I liked the cheesy story. I don’t know what it is. All I know is that an hour or so of Puzzle Quest every night made me a more tranquil person. I bet that’s something D3 Publisher didn’t hear in the reviews.

PixelJunk Monsters

There are a lot of lovely, trance-inducing games on this list, but for me, none of the others even come close to the perfect zen state I can achieve while playing PixelJunk Monsters. I actually completed the game (with the help of a friend) in all difficulties and then erased the save so I could begin to play it all over again. I’m not sure what higher compliment anyone can give a gaming experience … but I’m glad I now have PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe on my PSP, because I can access total bliss anytime I want!

Microsoft went on a banning spree this past week and up to one million users have been banned from Xbox Live for having modded consoles. Don’t feel sorry for those idiots as you should know not to connect your Xbox 360 to Live if it’s been modded because piracy is bad.

IW reports (by way of CNN) that the banning may have had to do with the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The game showed up on torrent sites days before the official release and Infinity Ward may have put some pressure on getting Microsoft to go on the ban modders.

Users with banned Xbox 360s can still play games, they just can’t do anything online anymore. Well, users can sell their banned Xbox 360s on Craigslist, as Hot Blooded Gaming points out.

Anyone in the land of Destructoid get their console banned? And if so, why they hell did you connect online you moron?

[Thanks, BS3Owner!]

Update:  We’re live!  http://www.justin.tv/destructoid  … but just for another half hour!

We have raised over $4,000 in the last 24 hours but that’s still a tiny amount to what’s realistically needed to cure cancer and EVERY DOLLAR COUNTS no matter how small.  Got a buck? Donate now!  http://extralife.destructoid.com

What we’re doing now:  BEATLES ROCK BAND!  We’re taking requests – send them our way! Since 8am we’ve been gaming non-stop and we are almost done. (The chat room is right above our studio, we can seeeeeee you)

What you may have missed: Niero’s spontaneous podcast! You had to be there, we covered everything from the meaning of life and bad choices in graphic design software.  We also played Geikisha Boy 2, fought Nazi zombies in Modern Warfare, played God Hand, Plants vs. Zombies, Niero failed to rescue (we tried again at 4am, it happened!) Michael Jackson in Space Channel 5 part 2 so the bad people in space took him away from us forever, just like in real life! We have this and more weird PS2 games coming as we go into the night. Colette made sammiches!  Niero beat Tetris level 9-5 on Tetris and launched a space shuttle. Rey turned blonde and Gabe lost his voice screaming: we just played a Japanese game called Super Mic Chan where you play mini-games by screaming.  Have you played Mr. Driller? Imagine Screamo Driller. Nuff said. Before that some weird guy trying to pay Colette a complement which turned into the funniest meme ever, you had to be there. Our Dreamcast melted after Leonard Nemoy’s Seaman followed by Samba De Amigo, fired up 4-way I ma3d a gam3 with zomb13s in it!!!, got eaten alive at Ikaruga, Colette cosplayed as Mitsuru from Persona 3 and summoned various strange characters and am halfway through first quest of Zelda, Rey finished most of Uncharted 2, Niero beat Space Harrier II, Mega Man 2 and Noah’s mission in Bible Adventures (seriously) by request, bizarro Chad Concelmo performed asombroso, we sang Sarah McDuckling accapella, we beat Legend of Kage, suck at Double Dragon II and Strider, completed a 2-hour session of face-melting Rock Band 2 song requests, beat the Citizen Kane of video games Altered Beast, beat E.T. on the 2600 while wearing a rubber horse head, played Fear 2 (aka Modern Warfare 42), and Mass Space Effect. 

We started Saturday 8am and our marathon will run through the night, ending at 8 AM Sunday. Want to donate something to sponsor our efforts? Head here to do so. It can be a totally minimal amount (or if you feel really inspired by our antics, a big fat amount), but no matter what, it all counts. You can comment in our live feed, too, so make sure to come in and chat us up. See you in the chat room!

Special thanks to all of our donors below!

My Sponsors

Name	Date	Amount	Comments
K. McLaughlin	10/18/2009	$125.00	Still doing awesome Dtoid crew. Keep killing cancer!
H. Do	10/18/2009	$10.00	Go Destructoid! Shoot a huge load of cure all over cancer’s whore face.
A. Wooster	10/18/2009	$24.00	PARAMORE!!!!
C. Rasmussen	10/18/2009	$1.12	Dtoid FTW
C. Polly	10/18/2009	$26.00	Long time supporter of D-Toid. I love you guys! RFGO!
G. Cockrell	10/18/2009	$10.00	Great fun, great laughs, great cause. You’ve caused my death in batman numerous times. Love you guys! – Garon (Pop Culture Beast!)
C. Rasmussen	10/18/2009	$10.00
B. Gee	10/18/2009	$2.00	Everytime a Dtoid staffer screams, cancer gets kicked IN THE GROIN!
C. Edwards	10/18/2009	$2.00
S. Wong	10/18/2009	$5.00	Internet is over! You guys are screaming at this Japanese game so I’m donating again because you guys made me lulz so hard I fell over crying. I love you all. Please keep it up!
C. Hansbrough	10/18/2009	$6.00	WELCOME TO EARF! says the Scion of Mogo
K. McLaughlin	10/18/2009	$20.00	SCREEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
A. Davidson	10/18/2009	$10.00
A. Kotek	10/18/2009	$20.00	Screw Zelda, it was a childish dream anyway.-Bishna
J. Rubenstein	10/18/2009	$120.00	Cancer sucks.
N. Strife	10/18/2009	$8.50
Anonymous	10/18/2009	$100.00
K. McLaughlin	10/18/2009	$110.00	Let’s go for 3500! Keep it up you beautiful people! Love, lyfeforce
Anonymous	10/18/2009	$6.00
Anonymous	10/18/2009	$100.00
Stryker	10/18/2009	$5.00	Cure cancer. Donating for great justice, I wish people would stop wasting their money on stupid shit like flashy clothes, expensive cars, and other crap they don’t need when people are suffering in the world. Lots of Love, 4Chan.
Anonymous	10/18/2009	$20.00
M. Stryker	10/18/2009	$15.00	Just joking Colette. Sorry. Love you guys, hope you all make it through the night.
M. Stryker	10/18/2009	$0.69	Colette, I heard you and rey are bumping uglies, is this true?
M. Stryker	10/18/2009	$0.69	Colette, You are now reading this in the sound of my voice.
D. Weber	10/18/2009	$24.00	I want to see Jim Sterling shirtless and gaming for 30 minutes
M. TERRY	10/17/2009	$50.00	F*ck you cancer, F*CK YOU!!!
M. Stryker	10/17/2009	$75.00	Dtoid: I love you guys, keep playing till 8 A.M.! Good luck!
T. Muenster	10/17/2009	$72.00
A. Nicholson	10/17/2009	$30.00
D. Yednock	10/17/2009	$2.00	Just 14 more!
G. Martinez III	10/17/2009	$81.54	Think of the Childrens – Polo Guy
A. Hitler	10/17/2009	$2.00	Even Hitler is against cancer.
A. Welker	10/17/2009	$15.00	With <3 from Welkstar
L. Cichowicz	10/17/2009	$10.00
B. Darst	10/17/2009	$20.00
S. Wong	10/17/2009	$15.00	I love you guys! much love you guys are hotness <3 I also love mai waifu. <3 Stay Classy Rey!
S. Reed	10/17/2009	$100.00
R. Hunter	10/17/2009	$1.00	You guys are so awesome I had to donate again. Sorry it’s smaller than last time – TripleZer0
Anonymous	10/17/2009	$15.00
J. Tubbs	10/17/2009	$72.00	^_^
A. Butler	10/17/2009	$20.00	I feel bad for getting to see Hamza’s pee-pee and not having to pay so here we go!
N. Dave	10/17/2009	$20.00	Shaq-Fu must be played. Also it’s AB-uh-cus -Ok_Abacus
J. Budic	10/17/2009	$20.00	In support of the Texas Children’s Hospital. GO DESTRUCTOID!
J. Burton	10/17/2009	$10.00	Go go Destructoid <333
Anonymous	10/17/2009	$2.00
S. Button	10/17/2009	$5.00
A. Saum	10/17/2009	$5.00	See, even the economically challenged can donate! GO, DESTRUCTOID, GO!
D. Kicklighter	10/17/2009	$10.00	Destructoid SAVES LIVES. And pays for green Jello.
Anonymous	10/17/2009	$50.00	<3 Dtoid
J. Ross	10/17/2009	$50.00	Rawr.
T. Sheehy	10/17/2009	$5.00	If I were a rich girl, I’d donate more. <3 you dtoid
R. Hunter	10/17/2009	$5.00	From TripleZer0
C. Keilhofer	10/17/2009	$10.00
K. McLaughlin	10/17/2009	$100.00
G. Turner	10/17/2009	$8.00	DTOID LOVEEEEE! The Dtoid Army Stomps out Cancer!!
K. McLaughlin	10/17/2009	$100.00
U. Duck	10/17/2009	$600.00	Give more than me and I’ll make you an avatar or something. – Ugly Duck
M. Stryker	10/17/2009	$25.00	YAY COLLETTE HAS THE VOICE OF AN ANGEL!!!!
M. May	10/17/2009	$24.00	Castrate Cancer ‘Cause Children Can’t.
F. Cortez	10/17/2009	$24.00	<3! Together Dtoid can make a difference!
H. Aziz	10/17/2009	$20.00	KIDS ARE BETTER THAN CANCER
K. McLaughlin	10/17/2009	$500.00	This is just plain epic. EXPLODE CHILDREN’S CANCER!
J. Kesner	10/17/2009	$24.00	GO DESTRUCTOID!!! – Evil Cheese
D. Sanford	10/17/2009	$20.00	Let’s frag cancer.
J. Sterling	10/17/2009	$24.00	We love you! We’re excited to give money to cancer!
J. Tackett	10/17/2009	$12.00
J. Berger	10/17/2009	$50.00	Love letter and autographed photo, please, Colette!
J. Lange	10/17/2009	$7.00	To the children! …and to Colette wearing a Mitsuru outfit.
I. Roberts	10/17/2009	$24.00
A. Kwaselow	10/17/2009	$24.00	Colette, I want that love letter
B. Gee	10/17/2009	$5.00	HorseHead punches cancer in the face!
C. Hansbrough	10/17/2009	$24.00	Scion of Mogo makes a DONATION!!!!!
P. Lam	10/17/2009	$10.00	Calpis here and I’m contributing towards toplessness and the children but not both at the same time.
Anonymous	10/17/2009	$10.00	Fuck cancer. – John Solgrim
B. Nicholson	10/17/2009	$30.00	Keep it up, guys! Awesome, stuff.
A. Sanderson	10/17/2009	$20.00
T. Weadock	10/17/2009	$30.00	Good going guys, you make me so proud! Love, Travis!
D. Blanker	10/17/2009	$24.00
M. Ferry	10/17/2009	$7.77	<3 Destructoid. <3 Extra Life
R. Drozdalski	10/17/2009	$20.00
P. Jan	10/17/2009	$69.69
F. Jimenez	10/17/2009	$24.00
M. Marquez	10/17/2009	$24.00	Hi Jim & Ash! It’s me, matty! Cure cancer and let the children Plaaaay!
M. Dang	10/17/2009	$24.00
J. Millward	10/17/2009	$24.00	Play it up but good, guys!
Anonymous	10/17/2009	$24.00
Total:		$3,510.00

What’s tomorrow? Well, it’s Saturday, but other than that. It’s a big day here at Destructoid. Niero, Rey and I are already setting up the camera, connecting up more game systems then we usually have running and making sure the lighting is just right. The reason why is that tomorrow kicks off Extra Life, a 24 hour long gaming marathon which works to raise money to fund treatment and research for pediatric cancer (you may remember Jim Sterling did this solo last year). See, gaming is not just about wasting you life away — tell your mom!

We start gaming here at the Dtoid fortress at 8 AM EST, so get up bright and early and and tune in here if you want to watch our day of awesome taking place. Want to donate something to sponsor our efforts? Head here to do so. It can be a totally minimal amount (or if you feel really inspired by our antics, a big fat amount), but no matter what, it all counts. You can comment in our live feed to, so make sure to come in and chat us up. See you in 9 hours!!!

What does it feel like to be a super hot chick who can deftly kick the asses of large groups of thugs all while looking great and managing not to rip the small amount of clothing you are wearing? Well, that’s how the Fighter feels, one of the primary classes in Dungeon Fighter Online. Nexon was kind of enough to share an exclusive video with Destructoid of how she plays in the free MMO, and now you can check out the action.

If you want to try out this sidescrolling multiplayer fun, you can head over to the official site and download the client to check out the game for free. My username on there is DtoidColette, so if you want to play a few games feel free to send me a message anytime — it’s more fun when you play with more people!

When I was a kid, my absolute favorite holiday-related thing to do every year was carve a pumpkin. We never did anything totally off the wall, but I just enjoyed the whole ritual every year. Now, I see stuff like this epic project, and I think I need to get off my ass and do something similarly awesome since I love Halloween crafts so much.

Spotted over at 8 Bit Fix, this set of four pumpkins totally rocks and even features a Miyamoto design. The creator is also responsible for those epic Punch-Out!! scarves you may remember from way back when. All I can say is, this beats the hell out of wasting your time with the pumpkin carving sim. NOW we’re talking. I wonder if I could pull off a Persona 4 pumpkin….

All excited about your shiny new PSPgo and want to put some brand new games into it? Well Rockstar wanted to make that easier on you, so they announced the Legacy Collection today, which includes Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition, Manhunt 2 and Midnight Club: L.A. Remix. You can now download all three games for your PSPgo or PSP system from the PSN store. A little something to get you on the go while you’re on the go!

Also, Rockstar is premiering their own storefront on PSN. As of October 22nd, this store will feature a ton of titles both classic and new for download to the PSP, including Grand Theft Auto’s Vice City Stories, Chinatown Stories, Liberty City Stories, The Warriors and Beaterator. It sure seems like a great time to be a PSP owner, with all these goodies popping up left and right. Now if I could only tear myself away from PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe…

I always hope that if the day ever comes where I think having a child is a good idea (God forbid), I would end up being a rad parent. You know, whipping out our Rhythm Tengoku to teach hand/eye coordination, playing the Shadowgate soundtrack as a bedtime lullaby, and hanging things over the crib like this Left 4 Dead mobile. Because it beats the sh*t out of those pastel mobiles you can buy at Target, I’ll tell you that right now.

Etsy crafter Salty and Sweet made this, and I’m frankly shocked to see it’s actually still in stock. At $30, it’ s a good deal, and it pretty much brands you as awesome in every way if you actually hang this over your child’s crib. If Left 4 Dead isn’t your thing, by the way, you can get Team Fortress as well.

[Via Technabob]

[Editor's note: Possible spoiler alert! Cover your brains!]

Of course we want Persona 3 Portable, despite the fact that most of us have purchased the game twice already. As some of you have so eloquently said in the comments, some of us are obsessed with the series, and you know what, you’re right. Now, just keep reading if you are into this kind of news, and skip if it’s not your bag.

So who’s the girl on the left up there? Why, that’s Yukiko from Persona 4! Apparently, playing as the new female protagonist allows you to stop by Inaba, the town that all the events in P4 went down in. Siliconera reports that you’ll actually stay at the Amagiya Inn and meet a young version of Yukiko (since the events of P3 take place about 2 years before P4). How awesome is that?