I am 85 hours into Death Stranding 2, an apocalyptic nightmare about Earth becoming infected with death monsters, and I've realised that I'm playing it as a cosy game. For hours at a time, I trundle along the photorealistic landscapes in my pick-up truck, delivering parcels to isolated communities and building new roads. The only reason I complete the main story missions is to open new areas of the map so that I can meet new people and build more roads. I find it blissfully enjoyable. Of course, I am far from alone in playing video games this way.

In 2017, a game design thinktank called Project Horseshoe gathered a group of developers together to define the concept of cosiness in video games. Games, of course, have had non-violent elements since the medium was invented. Early life simulators such as 1985's Little Computer People, a low-stakes game in which the player interacts with a man living his unremarkable life in a house, could fit the bill; then there was the proliferation of social farming simulations after 1996's chibi-adorable Harvest Moon. But the resulting report, Coziness in Games: An Exploration of Safety, Softness, and Satisfied Needs, is probably the first organised effort to define a then-emerging genre. Cosy games (cozy in US spelling) don't have high-risk scenarios: "There is no impending loss of threat," they wrote.

I just finished writing a feature about the Video Game History Foundation in Oakland, California, and how it is preparing to share its digital archive of games magazines. From 30 January, you'll be able to visit the institute's website and explore a collection of about 1,500 publications from throughout the history of games, all scanned in high detail, all searchable for keywords. It's a magnificent resource for researchers and those who just want to find the first-ever review of Tetris or Pokémon. I can't wait to visit. While researching the article, I spoke to John O'Shea and Ann Wain from the National Videogame Museum in Sheffield, which is also collecting games mags and other printed ephemera.

We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Your home theatre is immaculate--equipped with a giant screen, surround sound, and an HDMI cable hungry for console content. You'd spend every waking moment there if you could. But more than you'd like, the outside world calls, whether it's the morning commute or a walk to the dog park with your pet pooch. But you're smart; you planned ahead. You bought a Nintendo Switch OLED console (read our full review here) and can easily change it into handheld mode for fun anytime, anywhere.

At a wide desk in a bedroom somewhere sits a figure, her back facing the camera, supported by an ergonomic white office chair. Her head is bracketed by puffy, white noise-cancelling headphones. Her wrists rest on a foam cloud as she plays a pixelated farm-simulation video game called Stardew Valley on a handheld Nintendo Switch. She is surrounded by screens. On the wall, lights the shape of geometric tiles cast a soft glow in changing colors according to whatever is onscreen.

Updated November 2024: This story has been updated with the new availability of Stardew's 1.6 update. The popular farming sim and ultimate cozy game Stardew Valley dropped a major update on Tuesday after months of anticipation. Stardew's 1.6 update has an insane amount of new content that touches every area of the game, from new menus and DIYs, to a new farm layout, new crops, and the ability to have multiple pets and play with seven friends at once. It's enough updates to make the game feel fresh, but it isn't so new that you can't ease back into a beloved farm and toil away. As of November 4, 2024, the free update is available for players on all platforms.

A great number of us have played games in extra-difficult modes (or in the case of Kingdom Hearts, Proud Mode) to challenge ourselves. Now, a Stardew Valley player has created a "hardcore" option for the otherwise chill game, one that will delete the save files of any player who uses a guide while playing the game on PC. According to GamesRadar, software engineer Sylvie Nightshade created the high difficulty mod on June 21 after reading an article published the day before on the satirical website Hard Drive, the gaming version of The Onion. The article in question joked about a "hardcore mode" in Stardew Valley that will delete players' hard grown farms if they dare read the wiki at any point during gameplay. That same day, Nightshade quote-tweeted the article on X with the link to the mod in GitHub announcing that she turned the joke into reality.

Baldur's Gate III is a role-playing game with some romance elements. Stardew Valley is a role-playing game with some romance elements, and a lot of root vegetables. Why not stick'em together in a peanut-butter-and-chocolate combination, for those who want to date a half-elf while they're watering cabbages? A team of three modders is putting a new map in Stardew Valley inspired by last year's D&D smash hit. And yes, getting all those eye-catching companions into the farming sim as romanceable characters is a priority.

The popular farming sim and ultimate cozy game, Stardew Valley, dropped a major update on Tuesday after months of anticipation. Stardew's 1.6 update has an insane amount of new content that touches every area of the game, from new menus and DIYs, to a new farm layout, new crops, and the ability to have multiple pets and play with seven friends at once. It's enough updates to make the game feel fresh, but isn't so new that you can't ease back into a beloved farm and toil away. It's important to note here that the free update is currently only available for PC players. The update will come to mobile and consoles like the Nintendo Switch later on.

There aren't a lot of games I buy on every device I own, but Stardew Valley is among them. I have the farm life sim on PC, multiple Nintendo Switches, and mobile. It's only 15 ( 5 on mobile) and has brought me hundreds and hundreds of hours of joy. Stardew Valley launched in 2016 and has had a chokehold on my life for nearly a decade, as is common among cozy gamers. Part of what keeps us constantly hooked are the massive updates that creator Eric Barone (better known as ConcernedApe) brings to the game.