I've been experiencing some pretty severe game burnout in the past few days and it got me thinking, so I'm going to try to revive this thread here.

I've completed more games in the last year than I have in all of the previous years of my life combined, I've been playing a ton, mostly because I'm trying to branch out, try different genres and series. I'm certain it'll pass and that fire will be re-lit for me, but what I noticed is that I've gotten pretty bad burnout even with all these new genres and games, to the point where none of my comfort games seem enjoyable and I don't feel like starting anything new at all. So I guess a question is do video games as a medium just become more boring the more you play, and maybe less enjoyable despite efforts to keep playing fresh new games and genres? I have a few ideas, like how if you've experienced the highest of highs in so many games and you've played so many 10/10s that it eventually becomes more difficult to reach that again. Another theory I have is that I may be taking game completions too seriously, I'll write pages of notes while playing games and write lengthy reviews for my blog, so maybe that's taken some of the enjoyment out of playing these games, as much as I love writing reviews. And maybe I'm way overthinking it, it could be something really simple like external factors, or maybe our brains just get bored sometimes and need a second to recover.

I managed burnout very well for a while but I think it's caught up to me now. I've retired a few games very recently just because I got bored and frustrated with them which I suspect is related, I had trouble enjoying Hades, FTL, and the GOTM Turnip Boy Commits Tax evasion, retired all of them within almost a week. So I'm just wondering what other ideas people may have, do you experience burnout at all? How do you manage it? etc. Really just anything that comes to mind with your experience of it, and I'm not particularly looking for a solution, I just want to hear some thoughts.

I would advise you to stop gaming for 1 month. Or even longer, until you really feel like gaming again. And stop writing (long) reviews for a while. Gaming should not feel like a job.

You can compare it to a rechargeable battery. Yours is empty.
You can stop for a few days but then you hardly charge anything so it quickly goes back to 0.
Sometimes you have to take a step back to enjoy something again.

With that iconic title, the game has been on my radar for a long time now and since it was given away for free on the Epic Games Store at some point, I had no excuse not to participate in this GOTM.

It's a very chill and lighthearted experience for sure. It was mentioned before that there are light parallels to Legend of Zelda and yeah, the references are very obvious.
The fetch quest adventure style gameplay loop was fine. Never actually challenging and the comedic writing taking most of the spotlight. The actual gaming was just engaging enough though it would probably overstay its welcome pretty quick if it went on for longer than it does.
That being said, after beating the regular boss fight and getting the credit roll, I noticed I was only missing 3 more documents to destroy and with the help of the clues from the post-game cave cat, I got the rest of them as well and beat the extended boss fight as well.
I also did one run of that Sunset Station roguelike challenge. Seems like a decent idea and it works well enough with the systems of the game, but the engine lends itself better for slower puzzling than fast-paced action. So that didn't really keep my attention past one attempt.

Speaking of the plot and lore, I predicted the nuclear warfare reveal. Don't think that's a very original or surprising twist. But I did enjoy the slightly disturbing sequence of invading those survivjng humans' bunker and essentially dooming the parents' remaining child with radiation before killing her. Pretty fun juxtaposition of tone there.
I also liked that, as the world's background story becomes clearer, the goal basically became to destroy all remaining documents of humanity's bureaucracy, to stop it from corrupting this new vegetable society. Kinda satisfying. lol

All in all, nothing great but a chill short time. It's not something I'd go out and actively recommend to people but if you get it on sale (or even for free) then there are worse ways to spend two to three hours.
I am very curious though where they might go with the sequel. From what I've seen, they're doing a more action-oriented twin-stick shooter style thing with that one. So, seems like it probably feels completely different to play. Probably gonna pick that one up for a low price someday as well. I imagine it might be more engaging in the gameplay department.

Shoutout to the random macaroni piece reciting the entirety of the Navy Seal copypasta. Had absolutely no bearing on anything but that one always makes me smile. lol

- Matt

The title was also the reason the game caught my eye last year.

I finished it and I enjoyed it. Definitely recommended if you want to play a game after a long/difficult game.
It would be nice if more games used the mechanism of saying what things you missed after you finished the game.

I'm glad I nominated this one.

One of the first games I played with my daughter. A simple, fun, fast-paced game that keeps you engaged without relying on tutorials or anything like that. Even my daughter (shes 3 yo) managed to do well in some scenarios and responded well to the controls. Definitely a very enjoyable experience.

It is an honor that my chosen game is a fun memory with your daughter.

I started it today. I will finish it this weekend.

I am pleasantly surprised that the game I nominated won.
I bought it last year but hadn't started it yet. The store doesn't even exist anymore.
I nominated it because I wanted to play it this year. Never thought I would play a game with a turnip as the main character.
It seems to me a perfect 'in between game' between longer/heavier games.

Not many responses in this topic.
I haven't had time to finish it yet. But I will definitely do that in February.
Just like hpuente85, I am not a fan of the N64 graphics, but I think it works out well for this game. Maybe this is also because I played Pokemon Violet before which is a blurry mess.

Anyway, my girlfriend asked me if it was a recent game when she saw me playing it. She thought the graphics were good for an old game.Maybe also because she saw me play violet first :p

For regular: Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion

No idea (yet) for a game from 2015

I don't care about online gaming anymore, but bought a membership a few months ago to try out a few specific games. But I ended up forgetting about it/starting other games. Paper Mario was one of those games. When I saw the nomination I thought "now is the time to finally use the membership" :)

I think you are right that this Paper Mario is overlooked. I didn't know about it until 2024 either.

I suspect I'll start it halfway through this month

To start 2025 with speed I nominate Need for Speed: The Run.
The shortest game in this series if I'm correct.

I want to nominate Pikmin 4 (the easiest of the Pikmin series)

Retire usually means you stop playing a game before you beat it and have no plans to go back and finish it. If it's a physical game that you sold before beating it I suppose that also qualifies.

Then I use this tab completely differently.
I use retired for games that I no longer have (because I sold or borrowed them). So it is possible that I give a game both the completed and retired tabs.

I have a custom tab called pause for games that I have started and want to finish later.

Apparently I use the 'retired' button differently. I retire games when I no longer own them. Is this wrong?