Feeling burnt out on new video games/keeping up with the industry anymore?

Zilla360

After finishing Starfield, Zelda: TOTK, and Cyberpunk + DLC I just can't seem to get immersed into other games enough to spend more than ~20 mins or so with them. Not sure how to describe it. Maybe it's something to do with hitting age 40, and having played games as pretty much a lifestyle/hobby since I was ~7 years old? I just don't feel engrossed/truly engaged anymore... IDK?

I bought AC: Mirage and actually fell asleep after an hour of playing it...

I guess I'm just perhaps coming to terms with the fact that it's impossible for me to keep up with the water-cooler trends/new release hype train/cycle anymore. The whole industry has started to feel like an endless treadmill that's becoming a slog rather than a satisfying, joyous, escapist pastime. Coupled with my Long COVID causing bouts of brain fog, & exacerbating my dyspraxia, which has been an issue my whole life, but never this bad... 😪😥🤔

I'm probably just getting too fucking ooooold, and open world games have already gotten as big as seems reasonable to get.

There's just no longer that 'wow' factor to anything anymore. It's all tiny iterative upgrades, etc, IMO.

Or maybe I've just had my fill? My brain overflows with ~424+ stories and other lives vicariously lived. My brain is stuffed...

Jokerman

Are you still finding joy in other things your interested in? If so, maybe just give the video games a little break. I find myself overwhelemd by keeping up with the times myself.

BahamutZERO

might be depressed? that always makes things that are usually fun and enticing to me seem not fun and not enticing

davidsdurions

I’ve taken literal years off from the hobby a few times now because of this feeling. Works out because when I come back things feel fresh to me and I can also enjoy at least a few games at deep discounts that I might have paid for at full price and gotten bored by right away or skipped because I was busy with other games at the time.

It’s pretty normal to me to have my interests wax and wane over time. When video games go by the wayside, I’m usually filling the time with movies, music, sports, other random hobby I decided to try.

So, when I’m in your spot, I’d take a year or two even just naturally doing the other stuff that interests me and when I come back, it’s like “wow, these new games are rad”. Or, “what the hell is a fortnight and why are people buying skins individually for the cost of an indy game?”

Of the other stuff in your life isn’t feeling fun too though, yeah, could be a depression feeling sneaking in on you. So definitely talk to your doctor or a good therapist just to check in on the mental health, always a good idea to evaluate that before it gets too far off from even-keel.

Gilgaron

Could be some anhedonia, which can be mood related, or otherwise is just kind of normal to want a break from something even if it is usually fun. I like to rotate my hobbies around, sometimes I like to read, other times I'll do handcraft stuff, other times video games. Not keeping up with new releases makes you miss out on some forum conversations but does save lots of money!

Skeith

I'm inclined towards depression from some of the posting you've done.

BlindZenDriver

If it is anything like what am feeling, then you just need to find games that are different so they feel fresh.

Like here is my recent game experiences, most is on PC:

• Starfield Tried it for maybe 20 minutes or so, or to put it differently 2 minutes into to piloting the first space ship. Pretty graphics, but just felt like way to artificial game play wise
  I mean there is a fight with some pirates with everybody is in space suits and a bunch of miners win it easily - no way. And the space ships is supposed to have you manage power plus it has a boost button, surely space ships of the future are much more automated than that.
• Far Cry 6 I've played every FC game and did so when they where new. With FC6 I was waiting on getting a new GPU before trying, fortunately I tried the demo before investing.
  FC6 feels like it has been dumbed down or something, way to much being guided and to little freedom - and there is pet alligator FFS.
• Generation Zero This I just completed, and I may get some DLC to have more to do. An open world FPS survival/adventure taking part in rural Sweden in 1989, being sort of realistic and then not only close enough that it feels possible. I played it for 187.4 hours.
• Bridge Constructor Portal Imagine Pontifix, but add Portal mechanics. A really fun puzzle game - completed it in 59.2 hours.
• Lonely Mountains Downhill I used to mountain bike IRL almost every day, but I can't due anymore due to a health thing. This game isn't like a mountain bike sim, but there is a little of that and more importantly the atmosphere of it does bring some of the real thing. I don't play this every day, but again and a again.
• Limbo and Inside Puzzle/survival platform games, very polished and with great atmosphere.
• Gran Turismo 7, with VR head set Closets thing yet to real life racing, frustrating at times because progressing in the game does not give gifts, only it is worth the grind. High lights are racing a go-kart, the amazing job the developer has done making the car interiors as well as the cars in general and the real life tracks also.

Zilla360

Thanks, all. 💯

Skeith wrote: »

I'm inclined towards depression from some of the posting you've done.

Yeah, I'm on medication. But also I just... feel full... done.

If video games were food...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v29QfOyuZ3Y

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Paladin

I stopped reading for pleasure even though I loved to read because I just wasn't getting fulfillment from reading stories anymore. Now I'm on a skills kick: if I can get good at a new thing or achieve some goal, it's interesting. That's what got me back into video games, but only the difficult kind. This also coincided with me getting skill-hungry at my job and going to the gym seriously.

Look deeper into yourself about what honestly satisfies you. Previously I was obsessed with novelty but now it's progress. I'm sure that'll change to something else later in life, maybe nostalgia.

DarkPrimus

All the games you've mentioned are rather lengthy commitments.

It can help to mix things up. Get something that you know can be beaten in only a few hours. Even something that's like 20 hours is going to feel a lot different than the 80-100+ hour-long commitment that RPGs and open-world games usually are.

Mugsley

Have you considered looking into Indie games or games that aren't so big?

GRIS
Thomas Was Alone
Cobalt Core
Hellblade: Senus'a Sacrifice
Satisfactory (can be as big or as small as you want)
Deliver Us The Moon / Mars

Or maybe try messing around with something like KSP, where you can scratch a creator itch?

Smurph

I have basically zero interest in AAA releases anymore, unless they really jump out at me. I have a nice PC but my most recent console is a 360, because I found the games I was interested in spending real time with were almost always on the PC.

I play a lot of the Paradox grand strategy games (Crusader Kings, Hearts of Iron, Stellaris) and some stuff like Rimworld or Dwarf Fortress. Indie games with short runtimes are things I know I'll play and enjoy. Sometimes RPGs, but if I get bored of a game I drop it with zero guilt. I like games where I can sit down and have a comfy time. If I want to try a AAA series, a lot of the time I'll pick up an older game for cheap. Recently I decided I wanted to try Assasin's Creed so I bought Oddesey on sale, played it for maybe 10 hours, decided I wasn't exceited to play it anymore and uninstalled it.

I played a lot of Cyberpunk and Diablo 4 because I had friends who got really into them and this made the games more fun to me.

I'll also go weeks without putting in a real gaming session. If there are people to hang out with, or my SO wants to watch a movie or TV, I'll prioritize that. But I find that when I do have that rare weekend with nothing going on and plenty of time to game, it makes it that much more enjoyable when I haven't touched a game in a few weeks.

mRahmani

When I feel like that, I usually drop AAA games and play indies for a while. Celeste and A Short Hike are two games I played that way and they were both wonderful, fun, and a breath of fresh air.

Steev

The latest console I own is a Switch. I still have my PS3 and 360 hooked up to my TV. I barely play any of those. I built my PC in late 2016 and it's pretty outdated at this point, but I have so many old games I can play on it, that it doesn't really matter.

Just the other day I broke out the original SNES Actraiser and played through it in about 4 hours. I'm playing a lot of old games these days, whether I had played them a lot as kid (like with Actraiser) or am experiencing them for the first time (the Super Famicom Goemon series with fan translations).

Basically, there's no reason to keep up with the latest and greatest. That's not to say I'm completely uninterested in modern gaming. One day I'll play Alan Wake II, I'm sure. But it can wait. I can't run it anyway.

BlindZenDriver

SteevL wrote: »

<SNIP>
Basically, there's no reason to keep up with the latest and greatest. That's not to say I'm completely uninterested in modern gaming. One day I'll play Alan Wake II, I'm sure. But it can wait. I can't run it anyway.

Totally agree when it comes to the "keeping up" thing, older titles can be as much fun as the brand new ones. After all it is game play and story that matter, with many titles the work on great graphics seem to have distracted the developers from remembering that.

Just like with everything else we consume, the really great older titles is the one seen as classics so going by that is easier to find the gems and avoid the ones not worth bothering with. Being in IT professionally I do have the latest gear and then some, but I fondly play older titles, emulators are great for that, just as I enjoy some of the latest so called triple-A ones.

PS. A 2016 PC can be brought forward a lot by just a reasonably new graphics card, it may also there is other parts where a modest investment can be made only it is hard to generalize. Usually I will run through three generations of graphics cards before building a new system.

Mugsley

Speaking of great games that aren't AAA, there's a bundle at Humble that's really good if you haven't played the games

https://www.humblebundle.com/games/mindbending-masterpieces