5 Games to play when you're ill as Hell

I haven’t had the energy to game as much as I would have liked recently, but I’ve spent so much time in bed that the prospect of spending even one more minute there is likely to drive me insane. Regardless of how badly I feel there are always those few games that shine, come rain or… you get the gist: here’s my list of five games to play when you’re ill as hell.

5. Assassin's Creed: Black Flag

I like pirates a lot – I like sailing, and cutlasses, and flintlocks, and my God, do I like the rum. Apparently, rum and antibiotics don’t mix as well as I’d have liked, and so I’m forced to live out my drinking habits vicariously whenever I have the sniffles. Black Flag offers the player what seems to be an entire ocean to sandbox around in with no real emphasis on finishing the main storyline (or, at least, I have no intention to) and so I’m able to cruise around, blasting ships and tormenting the Spanish without exacerbating my aching head through thinking about paladins and the dark brotherhood. Now, if I could only find some new shanties, I’d be set for any number of sick days.

It's just a cold, I swear

4. Skyrim Modding

This might be a more personal one here, but Skyrim always seems to be my go-to game whenever I’m not feeling up to the punishment of life or Bloodborne. I take immeasurable pleasure from downloading the newest and most cutting edge mods, sitting there as I mind-map every aspect of my prospective character and attach one of my many, many modding choices to skills, abilities and races. The community has allowed me to sculpt out my own world from Bethesda’s masterpiece, and there are few things more inspiring than taking a stroll through Whiterun’s Cloud District in order to explode Heimskr and anyone else that has a problem with me. It’s stupid fun; it doesn’t always work, and the frustration probably isn’t doing wonders for my head, but I don’t really care because I have an airship.

3. Spider Solitaire

Something of a new addition to my video-gaming arsenal, my version of Spider offers daily rewards for completing hands of the titular PC time-waster, always drawing me back whether I’m fit enough to think straight or not. Whenever I’m coughing up lumps of my insides, Spider is my soother, and is always loaded up on my phone for my quick daily fix. Who cares if I can only ever complete the one suit? If I’m not feeling up to changing the disks in the Playstation, or can’t be bothered to hook my PC up to my TV, a nice warm game of Spider is always just the thing to get me through the evening in one piece (relatively speaking).

That explains my plague-like symptoms...

2. Shattered Pixel Dungeon

Another mobile one here, but the place is sorely deserved: Pixel Dungeon is by far my favourite portable roguelike, carrying with it a low investment and a relatively small learning curve. Whether I’m on a long journey or a short journey, a trip to the doctor, or perhaps the bucket, Pixel Dungeon doesn’t judge my failures, and usually holds off massacring me until I’ve at least reached the caves. The game makes me feel good about myself, and always manages to inspire me to take those final few steps to the fridge to claim another batch of apple juice.

Diseases in Daggerfall come with uncomfortable homoerotic dreams, free of charge

1. Daggerfall

Yes, DAGGERFALL! I’m not very good at this one, least of all when I’m feeling sick, but Daggerfall’s vanilla game offered a huge amount more than its younger relatives in terms of freedom and roleplaying opportunities, making it one of the most entertaining titles to boot up when I’m not feeling myself. Whenever I load up my copy, I always have to create a new character and trawl through all the possible traits for my latest character to have: expertise in big swords? Don’t mind if I do! Immunity from disease? I could bloody well do with that right about now. The music’s broken, there are some elements of the game that straight up don’t work, and dungeon crawling is just about as much fun as using spider webs for tissues, but Daggerfall is where it’s at whenever I have to call in sick.