Happy New Year! If you're anything like us, then you massively overindulged during the holidays, binging on food, drink and games as though the world was about to end. Frankly, if someone offers us another festive biscuit, gift-wrapped craft ale or 60-hour RPG, we're not sure our guts can take it. Obviously we can't help with the former, but if you're feeling a bit jaded about switching on the PlayStation or Xbox again, here are a few gaming mood-cleaners to refresh your senses and get you back in mental shape for the likes of Monster Hunter World, Sea of Thieves and Far Cry 5, which are now just a few weeks away.
1. Proteus
We're not really a PC site, but if you're feeling remotely out of sorts this month, then we definitely recommend finding a way to play Ed Key and David Kanaga's Proteus. This is a simple game where you explore a dreamlike island and the ambient soundtrack responds to your meandering. There are no goals, Achievements or Trophies; this is just a nice place to be, and always feels like a welcome holiday from whatever else is going on in your head.
2. No Man's Sky
If you can set aside all the controversy - we appreciate some people find this difficult - No Man's Sky is a pretty substantial game at this point following 18 months of heavyweight updates. But really it's that underlying core of simply floating around the universe exploring beautiful procedurally generated planets with no particular agenda that rouses us from our January blues. Every time we break atmosphere over a fresh planet is like a new dawn.
3. Journey
We could have chosen thatgamecompany's entire oeuvre, including Flow and Flower, but in a month when we'd often rather close the blinds and ignore the world completely, Journey is a pretty calming way to reconnect with the rest of the human race. You've probably played it already, but hopefully not for a while, and either way, it's a rare pleasure to slide back into your robe and start making your way to that mountain in the distance, joined on your quest by other friendly souls who - certainly if you're both playing at this time of year - clearly share your desire to claw your way back to hope and optimism.
4. Stardew Valley
January is definitely the month we most feel like packing it all in and going to live on a farm, and thanks to Stardew Valley that dream can finally become reality. Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone's farming sim - obviously somewhat inspired by the immortal Harvest Moon series - sees players take over a dilapidated farm and set to work tending the land, rearing livestock and socializing with the locals. If you're tired of games where the world is about to end, here's one where a new world is about to begin.
5. Golf Story
Gaming nailed golf back in the 80s with the three-tap swing system, leaving developers casting around in the 30 years since for ways to keep things interesting. Golf Story isn't the first game to add intrigue beyond the fairway, but Sidebar Games' elegant combination of tried-and-trusted video game golf and 16-bit role-playing game works brilliantly.
6. Bastion
We've generally avoided combat on this list, but Supergiant Games' debut title feels like an exception worth making. Available for virtually every system under the sun nowadays, Bastion is an isometric action RPG where "the Kid" roams through environments that form up in front of him as he moves through them while a narrator tells the tale of his actions. There's a bit more cut and thrust to this than most of the games we've mentioned, but the way the music, art and sound design come together poetically still feels very cleansing.
7. Abzu
If there's an overarching theme to this list - other than 'get my head out of January' - then it's probably games that do something different for your senses. Ideally, everything on this list feels like a warm bath after a long day. Abzu takes the metaphor to its logical conclusion, literally plunging you underwater into a series of kaleidoscopic subaquatic landscapes where you float past shoals of colorful marine life, accompanied by a soothing soundtrack. Bliss.
8. Grow Home
If Abzu takes January cleansing to watery extremes, then surely Grow Home is our posterchild for getting back to nature, more so even than the green-fingered Stardew Valley. Ubisoft Reflections' third-person adventure is about oxygenating a robot's homeworld by growing a giant beanstalk and harvesting its seeds. The fact the game grew into a commercial release organically after it proved popular as a tinkerer's pastime within the UK-based studio just adds to its detox cred. Just writing about it again, we can feel the stress draining out of our shoulders. Fill your gardening boots.