When the warmer weather starts to recede, and you find yourself spending more time at home, gaming once again comes back around to being a more enticing hobby. Coming home and finding yourself with a free evening to get lost in a world of your choosing can be exactly what you want to wind down with.
However, finding new games is always a difficult hurdle to overcome, especially if your interests are quite specific. It’s always worth looking into genres and styles that you wouldn’t normally consider, though, and online games might be able to provide certain playstyles and experiences that you have yet to find elsewhere.
Diablo IV
One of the most highly anticipated game releases of 2023 was Diablo IV, the latest entry in a long-running franchise of action role-playing games that are all about dungeon crawling and battling with hordes of monsters. The gloomy, gothic aesthetic and immersive soundscapes would fit right at home in a cozy environment while sheltering from the cold. While the gameplay loop present isn’t for everyone, if it does click, you might find yourself with hours of entertainment.
Online Casino Games
Taking a different approach, it might be that you’re interested in games that are capable of offering a more immediate thrill. Online casino games are readily accessible from devices like laptops or smartphones, and with options like Spin Casino, you can play comfortably knowing that you’re getting immersive audio-visual features and protected by security features like encrypted platforms and multiple ways to pay. Furthermore, innovations like the implementation of RPG-like systems in certain games can make players from other genres more curious to see what’s on offer.
Rocket League
Perhaps you’re looking for something similarly immediately exciting in the short term but with a long-term structure to keep you engaged. Rocket League takes a frame and aesthetic that is easily identifiable from popular sports like football but compacts it into a condensed and simplified version, played with vehicles. The simple ruleset of the game makes for a low barrier for entry – anyone who feels comfortable with a controller or keyboard can pick up the game. However, you might find that the passionate community around the game means that there is a high ceiling that keeps you engaged for a long time to come, which might be exactly what you want to see you through the colder months of the year.
Baldur’s Gate 3
To bookend the list with sprawling fantasy epics, you have the critically popular Baldur’s Gate 3. What differentiates this from Diablo, however, is that this game is an inherently focused campaign that puts emphasis on role-playing and player choice. In a lot of ways, it works ideally as a single-player game, but the option exists to play it cooperatively, either locally or online. This might be the ideal way for you to connect with friends over large distances, working together to immerse yourselves in a story that can have you forgetting about the distance between you entirely.