well, warband with gekokujo and suguroku mod, I can play that even when drunk, and thats when I'm too dazed to focus on any game.

My guilty pleasure was Rocket League until they pulled support for Linux. Other than that, Etrian Odyssey and Shin Megami Tense games work quite well when stressed out.

Civ, the Sims, Minecraft, Avernum, and Starbound (but modded).

Skyrim

I can always boot it up and just go for a stroll under the Northern Lights and just soak up the atmosphere. Skyrim feels like home and I have over 500 hours in the two versions of the game.

Minecraft

I can always create something when I'm stressed or just explore. Very relaxing game.

I think Columns works nicely for this purpose. Playing sessions can be short and self-contained (meaning there's no saving available or needed), the music is decent, and the game, particularly on easier settings, isn't impossibly difficult yet is still fun.

In particular, with only a 5 minute playing session, the game can still be fun.

For longer games, I would go with the original SaGa, which is extremely short by JRPG standards, but still feels like playing an RPG, and has some interesting growth systems (albeit with some strange mechanics, some of which are bugs where certain things are inverted). Until the game just decides to kill you outrignt, making you lose all your progress since your last save.

Another game that's sometimes fun to play for a bit is Syoban Action in mystery dungeon mode (press '0' on the title screen), provided you don't worry about making progress or how many times you die. (It is quite common that you'll need to die a bunch of times to get a configuration that is even winnable in this mode.)

Edit: Why the low rating?

Monkey Island series in general, Curse in particular. Yes, even 4.

The settings, voice acting, art, all combines for pleasant, brain turned off - knowing the puzzles by heart by now, of course - comfort clicks.

If nothing is at stake, I get stressed out because it feels pointless. That difficulty and the tension that comes with it is needed for me to feel "comfort" from games.

But I can see why it would just frustrate many people and add to the stress.

The Doom games to Doom 3 (and Resurrection of Evil) I replay alot.
followed by master of magic.

Subnautica. You can just hang out and swim around and maybe build some stuff. It's like a vacation.

Back in the days, it was always "Port Royale" and "Patrician" games.

But recently found the game "Foundation" to be just right for relax-play.

Also, "No Man's Sky" can do the trick for me.

Freelancer, Anachronox and Beyond Good & Evil, depending on the exact mood.

The thing is, a game can have tension over the short term without requiring you to repeat significant amounts of content and waste more time than an entire game of Flash Columns would take.

Another game I could mention here is Dragon Warrior (NES version specifically, as other versions drastically increased XP and GP rewards). The game is not that long, and most of the game is spent just mindlessly walking back and forth, killing enemies for experience points and money. If you want something less mindless, you can look at the sequel (Dragon Warrior 2), where late-game encounters, including the best ones for getting XP, require careful thinking and some luck (in particular, you can learn what to do the first round of combat in any given encoutner, but after that all bets are off, especially when it comes to status ailments (which are effective on both the party and enemies)).

Dragon Warrior 2 does something that is not nearly as common as it should be in RPGs; the best place to level up is also one of the most dangerous.

It used to be World of Warcraft... crafting, selling stuff, etc. Nowadays, I go for a walk while playing Pokemon GO. :p

If I'm feeling really anxious, only thing that works is like re-watching Star Trek:TNG.

I don't revisit games... and I don't have a thing like "comfort food". Ok, what am I doing in this topic?

I do like to set aside some unwatched episodes/seasons of good scifi tv series (of which there are few). It's pretty hard because I really want to watch them, any time.

I wish I could... maybe in 5 years or so. I've already watched every season 7 times or so.