Valentine’s Day is almost upon us, and if you haven’t got a special someone to spend it with that it can be a downright depressing occasion.
We’ve already listed the games which you can play with your partner on February 14th, but what about the games for the people who haven’t got a significant other and want to forget about the day altogether? Well, we’ve got you covered with that little issue, too.
Also See: 10 Games to Play with Your Girlfriend on Valentine’s Day
Here are a selection of the most engrossing video games currently available that will make your Valentine’s Day a lot more bearable:
Header Image: OldHat104
Games That Will Help You Forget About Valentine's Day
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Grow Home
Ubisoft's 2014 placed them firmly in the bad books of consumers worldwide, and the kind of stunts they pulled last year makes it easy to forget that they're often responsible for small, oddball games that take you by surprise and remind you how they've built up such an illustrious reputation, one which they've threatened to tarnish on multiple occasions.
Grow Home is one such game. Tasking you with growing a 'Star Plant' on a mysterious planet, there is nothing else to do but explore, traverse its environment and discover the most effective way of jumping from one of its floating mountains to the next.
It's brimming with charm, is lovely too look at, and is essentially the kid-friendly version of all those island survival games that currently litter Steam. You won't find a more joyful, relaxing game to play this weekend than Grow Home.
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Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
it's a good month for 3DS owners as not only do they get a Majora's Mask re-release, but the next Monster Hunter game has also reared its toothy head.
Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate is receiving great early reviews across the board, and for fans of the series it's a no-brainer of a purchase. If you want a game this Valentine's that will eat up your entire day, then look no further than this engrossing RPG.
Also, if you've got some similarly lonely friends who will be spending the annual day of romance by themselves, then convince them to buy a copy of the game, too, as it's much more fun killin' those monsters with a squad of hunters by your side.
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Evolve
Evolve has certainly caused a great deal of controversy prior to its release, though it's the biggest new multiplayer game out there and has actually managed to attract quite a positive reception, despite 2K and Turtle Rock's aggressive stance on DLC before the game had even launched.
Though it's often described as "Left 4 Dead with monsters" given that Turtle Rock were the ones who breathed life into the undead co-op FPS, Evolve does quite a few things that allow it to stand on its own two feet. While it certainly shares similarities with L4D (and that isn't exactly a bad thing), the emphasis on teamwork placed upon its human characters the 'Hunters', who are given class-based strengths and weaknesses similar to those featured in Team Fortress 2, separate it a great deal from Turtle Rock's greatest claim to fame.
Couple this with the game's monsters being a much bigger threat than the zombie horde and you've got a game with enough nuances that it should keep you occupied on February 14th, especially if you manage to grab a hold of a handful of friends who will join you in your hunt.
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Dying Light
It's shocking to consider that zombie games are still as popular as they ever were, but with quality games such as Dying Light releasing under the "undead apocalypse" umbrella it's difficult to see that popularity dwindling in the near future.
Developer Techland, previously responsible for the fun but flawed Dead Island series, have pushed things to the next level with Dying Light and released a game that does a great deal of things right, even if it falls over a few of the same hurdles that proved to also be a stumbling block for its creators' previous zombie games.
What Dying Light does right, though, is provide an immensely fun open-world to simply mess around in. Free-running through its environment and killing zombies in a variety of (often silly) ways can provide hours of fun, which will prove to be more than enough to distract you from all those loved-up couples hosting public displays of affection in restaurants worldwide. Forget about them - dropkick another zombie in his rotting face.
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The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D
Why not use Valentine's Day to travel back in time to a point in your life when you didn't care about relationships or the other sex, and experience an underrated entry in one of gaming's most beloved series?
Ever since Ocarina of Time received an updated re-release on the 3DS, fans of The Legend of Zelda have been begging for Majora's Mask to receive the same treatment. Nintendo has now answered their calls, and for many it will be their first time delving into the darkest Zelda game to date.
Featuring an iconic antagonist in the form of the Skull Kid and the omni-present, scowling moon above you that terrified many a young Nintendo 64 owner back in 2000, forget about your adult problems with relationships and step back into a time when the thought of settling down with someone was incomprehensible, as it would mean you'd have to spend less time playing video games.
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Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has received a major boost in popularity in recent months, with the game steadily rising up the ranks on Twitch and receiving a big rise in its amount of concurrent players.
Our gaming editor Jonathan Leack has already spoken of how addicted he is to CS: GO, with it rivaling CS 1.6 in terms of favor with the series' veterans. As the most popular competitive shooter out there right now, if you're an FPS fan then prepare for your Valentine's Day to be filled with bullets and bomb-detonating if you choose to play this game on February 14th.
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Life is Strange
If you want to get yourself wrapped up in an engrossing story, then you need look no further than Life is Strange. More interactive movie than video game, fans of Heavy Rain will lap it up, though its plot has more subtlety than that of Quantic Dream's breakout PS3 game and is shaping up to be more "independent drama" than "Hollywood blockbuster."
While only the first episode of the game has been released thus far, meaning you won't be able to spend your entire Valentine's Day consumed by it, it's certainly worth the investment of those handful of hours that it takes to play through.
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H1Z1
H1Z1 is one of the most-played games on Twitch despite only having released with a relatively small amount on fanfare back in January. Critical and consumer opinion is mixed, but there's one thing for certain: a LOT of people like this game, and I rank myself among them.
In many respects, H1Z1 is a poor man's DayZ. It certainly doesn't look anywhere near as good in the visual department, and it's got a few major issues (it is an Early Access title, after all), but there are a number of ways it really comes into its own. For one, it's far more forgiving to newcomers. Whereas DayZ will have you wandering around its vast map with no direction for hours, H1Z1 takes place in a small environment in which you will always find yourself meeting people. It's also much easier to make your way to points of interest thanks to its co-ordinates system, which may turn it into a "DayZ for Dummies," but many are finding that they much prefer this style of survival game when compared with Bohemia Interactive's vastly more unforgiving title.
If you enjoy DayZ and games of that ilk, then you'll probably find something to like about H1Z1 this February 14th.
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Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
You could start playing Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft on the morning of Valentine's Day, then look up at the clock and discover that you've whiled away the entire day on it.
One of the most addictive games to release in recent years, Hearthstone will keep you occupied for hours with its engrossing deck-building and multiplayer which embodies that "just one more go" quality that only the best video games possess.
There will be no greater distraction this February 14th than if you load up Hearthstone on your PC or iPad, and if you haven't tried this digital collectible card game yet, then there's no better time to jump on that bandwagon than now.
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Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Unless you've been living under a particularly heavy rock which has no Wi-Fi access since November, you know that Halo: The Master Chief Collection's launch was an unmitigated disaster. In fact, even several months after its release the game still doesn't work in the way 343 Industries intended it to. So why should you spend Valentine's Day playing it? Well, what could possibly be a bigger distraction than spending 30 minutes at a time trying to join a matchmaking game?
Sure, you'll hate yourself after attempting to play it, but at least you won't have to think about Valentine's Day anymore.
