Saints Row 2-3-4 are great for this. 2 is the GOAT, but 3 and 4 are arguably better at providing the “screwing around” experience.

Sleeping Dogs is underrated and regularly goes on sale for like $5. There is not as much sandbox-ey stuff to do compared to GTA/Just Cause/Saints Row, but I loved jacking a nice car and cruising the freeway at night, or going on a murder spree and playing survival against waves of cops.

Elder Scrolls isn’t necessarily as wacky of an experience out of the box, but between mods and the sheer amount of freedom you have in the game, there is plenty of dumb random stuff you can get up to.

If you have Elden Ring on PS4/5 and know your way around the game, invasions have a ton of potential for shenanigans. Probably not what you’re after, and I imagine multiplayer activity is down since Nightreign came out, but it’s worth mentioning as such a unique experience.

Honourable indie mention: Mars First Logistics is a game where you build vehicles and use them to transport objects from point A to point B. The challenges are largely physics-based, with the objects often having unusual shapes or odd properties, and your vehicle needs to be able to self-load them in addition to bearing them across varying distances and terrains. It’s not really what you’re asking for, but I feel like it scratched the same sort of itch for me in terms of open-ended low-stakes gameplay.

I have no C# experience and both styles look fine to me. /shrug

Oh no

Valve has the opportunity to do the funniest thing of all time right now

I’ve seen some devices call it “night mode” as well

WTAF. I was sceptical, but I’ve been using this all week and haven’t once had the issue in the OP. Whereas previously I had to log in 2-3 times back to back every morning.

Any idea why this works?

You might be in trouble, though. Luckily for you, I’m selling an app that protects you from scams!

So how’s your brain coming along?

How do I make this my career path

men don’t universally conform to a stereotype

therefore they must all confirm to a different stereotype

also women bad

This looks pretty slick. I need to find a way to have it slide down from the top of the screen guake-style

So it’s all your fault!

Trainpotting

Write about a character in a new, strange situation!

ShindoL:

What a great tune to start my day to. Thanks for sharing!

I would word it as: I should not have to allow strangers to execute arbitrary code on my PC just so I can view some text and/or images.

A Short Hike is A+ cosy for sure!

Damn, I knew shrinkflation was getting bad but this is crazy

Please place item in the bagging area. 💁‍♀️

🗣️📢 UNEXPECTED ITEM IN BAGGING AREA 🚨🚨🚨

I really like this question, because it is not something I’ve previously given much thought to. Here is what I’ve come up with, in no particular order:

1. Dense atmosphere. There’s a lot I could talk about here, but suffice it to say that the game needs to have Ｔｈｅ Ｖｉｂｅｓ.
2. High interactivity. I’m spending most of my time engaged with the game world, as opposed to transitional elements like menus, lobbies, or cutscenes.
3. Low friction. This doesn’t necessarily mean no challenges, but I shouldn’t have to feel challenged if I’m not up for it.
4. No pressure to advance. I can just dick around for hours at a time for any reason, without consequence.