I only own serious games

[Shiny]

Get Bully. That isn't a serious game at all.

[Mo-Nercy]

The Professor Layton games are good to curl up in bed with too.

I second the Bully recommendation too. You can experiment and pretty much do whatever you want, getting yourself into all kinds of trouble because getting Busted does nothing. You can reclaim all your items instantly anyway. =]

[Loony BoB]

Depends on what you mean by relax. Do you mean "no effort gaming" or "slow moving gaming" or "soothing gaming"?

No effort: Grab any game and put it on 'Easy' mode. Seriously, it's actually kind of therapeutic to mow through a game like that once in a while, but don't do it often or you'll get incredibly bored.
Slow moving: Anything turn based such as the Tactics games of the FF series and, of course, the Civilization series. You can do everything in your own time that way.
Soothing: I second Flower.

[Yeargdribble]

A Grand Theft Auto game, nothing blows off steam like popping that in and going to town on everything in your way.

I didn't think about this, but I endorse it. When you don't want to have a goal and just want a few minutes of time killing it's easy to just jump in and start driving around and doing silly stuff.

[Crossblades]

Have you considered playing any Dynasty Warriors or Samurai Warriors games? IMO, they are good relaxing games, where it's just you against a bunch of soldiers to beat up on.

[Citizen Bleys]

Dynasty Warriors still involves character building.

I'm the same way; it's all RPGs and near-RPGs except for Gundam: Crossfire. You might want to try something like Leisure Suit Larry or a flight sim.

[Bolivar]

I guess I would recommend Racing and FPS games.

Call of Duty seems like the ultimate recommendation for you. You can literally be playing a game within 2 minutes of booting it up, and they may last only 10 minutes.

Of course there's better shooters out there, though.

[Iceglow]

Ever considered a Guitar Hero game for this? A guitar hero session can be several hours or just 20 mins of you blowing through a couple of songs in quick play. The good news is even in quick play you're entitled to earn some of the achievements/trophies available so you're not missing out by not doing the career mode (though doing so in guitar hero 1 - 3 is simple since you select each song individually not as a set to play. Guitar Hero World Tour and the later games you can select either a gig to play or a selection of 1 - 5 or 6 songs to play through consecutively.

Also of note is cod:mw series yeah you can boot up and spend hours trying to get through the game on veteran difficulty because that challenge is ridiculously evil (if you're in to challenging affairs then it's definitely cool) you can also simply whip a single level on (quick play style) or go multiplayer and have a fight or two there. Lastly in MW2 you can simply try one of the mini-levels known as "spec ops" because these are designed to take around 10 minutes (most even less than that) and can be done single player or 2 player.

Also as previously mentioned the DS is good for time burning, I have trouble sleeping at night and use my DS to quickly tire me out by doing a single fight on FFTA2. (I usually select a mission what won't take too long ie, not bright moon tor or other two - five part battle missions) I then save the game before I actually enter the combat because some nights, I'll fall asleep and my DS battery dies and I end up having to repeat the fight. Putting a save in before entering the fight or on the very first turn I get generally means I can cut myself some hassle out by picking up where I left off before hand next night the most boring thing to do is have to equip, trade and find a suitable mission 2 or 3 times over before you go on to the next one.

[Meat Puppet]

Left 4 Dead

[Mo-Nercy]

Dynasty Warriors still involves character building.

Yeah, but you're just pressing Square the whole time to do so. I think it's a good recommendation for laid-back gaming. I think only someone who's really interested in the subject matter will get more serious about the game.

[I Took the Red Pill]

Okami is a good deal of fun, and though it requires you to rack your brain sometimes, if you don't feel like it you can just run around drawing and cutting trees an' . Whenever I feel like popping a game in to just smurf around, I usually throw Skate 2 in, idk if you're into skating games at all, but Skate 3 just came out and it's always tons of fun to just mess around and explore the city doing nearly impossible things on a skateboard (though not Tony Hawk level impossible, mind).

[black orb]

>>> Disgaea games..

[Flying Arrow]

If you're into fighting games at all, I highly recommend Super Street Fighter IV. Sit down, fight a couple of online fights, and relax. No unlocking necessary; all the characters are at your disposal at the get-go. The game is just plain fun, and it really shows off how a lot of games these days lack the ability to just show the player a great time from button-on to button-off without including busywork or downtime of some kind. Best part: the game brand-new is half the price of most other newly released titles.

Then again, if you're not a fighting gamer, playing and losing online can get very frustrating.

[VeloZer0]

Thanks for all the help. Now I feel bad as I go through and torpedo all the suggestions.

Flower (PSN) would be at the top of any list I'd make in this category.

I'm somewhat skeptical of this game, but I have heard nothing but good things so I should probably give it a try

Maybe it's time for you dabble in a new genre. ... Racing games and fighting games ...

I've also just gotten Nation Red (I believe it's available on Steam as well). It plays like Asteroids, except with the great graphics and ZOMBIES!

Dead on about the new genre. Unfortunately I've never played a racing game I have liked. Fighting games is a very good suggestion, but the only one I have ever liked is DBZ:Budokai Tenkaichi, and that is on loan. Need to get it back.

Also look at Klonoa for platformers or Tetris. Those things eat up alot of time imo.

Right now I play a TON of minesweeper

Find a Katamari game. Any of them.

I'll give that a try

I would recommend either Portal or Mirror's Edge actually.

Tried Mirror's Edge demo and I didn't like it. I got my free copy of portal the other day but haven't cracked it open.

A Grand Theft Auto game, nothing blows off steam like popping that in and going to town on everything in your way.

That entertained me once for 5 minutes. That constituted the entirety of enjoyment I have gleaned from the series of a whole. (As you can take it i'm not a GTA fan )

Get a Lego game. Don't be fooled by the Lego label, they're good games.

I was under the impression they were adventure type games, which sounds like something that would become a little too involved.

Shinobi is always a good title to blow off some steam, everything in it bleeds, including vehicles.

You have my attention.

I'd also recommend the Phoenix Wright series as well. You could also try to get something like Galaga or other top down shooters. If worse comes to worse, there is always solitaire on PC.

PW has never appealed to me, but I haven't given it a fair look. Solitaire is exactly along the lines of what I'm looking for aside from having already played the hell out of it, and it being inferior to Minesweeper in every way.

Get Bully. That isn't a serious game at all.

I don't like GTA at all, which I'm guessing means I won't like this.

..., the Civilization series.

Good lord are you insane? Just what I need, take a 15 minute break to play some Civilization and realize 4 hours later that I should probably stop playing. Other than that the game is great

Have you considered playing any Dynasty Warriors or Samurai Warriors games? IMO, they are good relaxing games, where it's just you against a bunch of soldiers to beat up on.

Another good idea.

Call of Duty seems like the ultimate recommendation for you. You can literally be playing a game within 2 minutes of booting it up, and they may last only 10 minutes.

Not a fan of competitive FPS games. Not only do they not keep me interested, I suck hardcore at them

Ever considered a Guitar Hero game for this?

I hate Guitar Hero
Thanks for the input though.

Okami is a good deal of fun,...

Okami has always seemed to be one of those games I will either love or hate, so I don't want to go out of my way to get a copy. (As it isn't especially plentiful)

Disgaea games..

I do find grinding to be somewhat relaxing. I usually like to play the PSP games and watch TV at the same time.

Thanks for all the input everyone.

[Beowulf]

Find a Katamari game. Any of them.

That about sums it up. Everyone's initial reaction to playing this game the first time: "Whoa! I just rolled up a (insert animal here)!"