For months now I have been in the thrall of Pokmon Trading Card Pocket. Its a devilishly slick blend of card-collecting and pared-down battling that has had me obediently opening the app on my phone at least twice a day since it launched. The virtual cards are beautifully done; the rare art cards especially, with their pastoral scenes of Pokmon in their natural habitats. I have spent many hours on the battles, too, honing decks and chasing win streaks to earn myself victory emblems. I got most of my friends into it, anticipating the day when its makers at DeNa would finally enable trading so I could fill the last couple of holes in my collection.The Guardians journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link.Learn more.This week, on the day that the trading went live and an expansion full of pretty new cards was introduced, I quit. I made a couple of trades for the Venosaur Ex and Machamp Ex that had evaded my grasp despite opening hundreds of packs, took a screenshot of the collection complete screen, and I havent opened it since. Im done.I didnt quit in protest at the fiddly, expensive nature of the new trading feature, or because the new cards mostly feature monsters from an era of Pokmon that holds no nostalgic power for me. Ive just suddenly had enough. I was enjoying every minute I spent with the game until I wasnt. Usually, you know youre done with a game when youve finished it, but in this era of the forever game, we have to choose when to quit. Sometimes this happens overnight for me. One day Im enjoying a game, the next day Im sick of it.Inconveniently, I realise it about 75% of the way through a games campaign. Especially with open-world titles, the best hours are the ones in the middle, where youve played enough to understand a games unique ideas and systems but not enough to have totally mastered them; there comes a point where you know youre nearing the endgame. Suddenly, the friction between me and the game world the stickiness, as game designers refer to it is gone, and everything feels smooth and easy, and I lose interest. (This is why I love FromSoftwares games so much: from Dark Souls to Elden Ring they never get easy or predictable.)Enough is enough Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Photograph: Games PressHere is a small selection of games from the past year that I abandoned in this way, not long before the end: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle; Dragons Dogma 2; Paper Mario: the Thousand-Year Door; Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom; Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. I could sit down with any of these for a couple of evenings and polish them off some of them I already have, months after leaving them unfinished but it always feels like a chore. Meanwhile, Ive played Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders, Balatro and Hades long past their completion points, because the stickiness is still there.I often get readers writing to ask when its OK to quit a game. For me, the answer is whenever you stop having fun. I rarely quit because I get stuck; instead I quit when I stop getting stuck, when I sense Ive seen everything meaningful that a game has to offer. I think its easy to keep playing something thats lost its appeal out of a sense of obligation.Studies of trophy and achievement stats over the years have found that only between 15-35% of players (pdf) actually complete any given game. I feel for the developers making hours of content that people might never see, but there is just so much entertainment available to everyone that you can hardly blame people for not finding the time for all of it. Some players take pride in finishing every game that they start, but for the rest of us? Its OK to stop.I felt briefly bereft when I was done with Pokmon Trading Card Game, the same feeling I get when I finish a good novel. Part of me also felt relieved to be freed of the daily habit. Its opened a little space in my day for something new and something new is always what Im looking for when I pick up a video game.What to playLife ruiningly compulsive Civilization VII. Photograph: 2K GamesTwo enormous, time-eating historical games are out this week: Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, a pitilessly challenging simulation of 16th-century Bohemia that really rubs your face into the horse dung at the start, and Civilization VII, the next in the venerable, life-ruiningly compulsive strategy series that challenges you to rerun human history from the start. (The latter might seem especially appealing right now, as we appear to have made an almighty mess of it.)Available on: PC, Xbox, PlayStation 5 Estimated playtime: What to readReaching new box-office heights Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Photograph: Paramount/Sega of AmericaThe third Sonic movie has just become the second highest-grossing video game movie ever, behind 2023s Mario film, bringing in $462.5m. (I swallowed my 90s Nintendo kid pride and took my kids to see it over Christmas. Its fine.) Its also on track to overtake Bruce Almighty as Jim Carreys highest-grossing movie; if that happens, itll make a great pub quiz question.At IGN, Rebekah Valentine investigates the phenomenon of copycat slop games that have been appearing in droves on console digital stores, and gets this incredible quote: Once Im in the door, I could make Fart Fart Boobie Fart: The Game and maybe it would eventually get taken down.Among the higher-profile winners at the Grammys was a video game soundtrack: interestingly, this years award went to composer Winifred Phillips for the soundtrack to Wizardry, an RPG from 1981. Polygon has an explainer about how a decades-old game ended up getting remade and winning a Grammy.skip past newsletter promotionSign up to Pushing ButtonsFree weekly newsletterKeza MacDonald's weekly look at the world of gamingPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionWhat to clickQuestion BlockGod of War: Ragnark, one of the best video game stories of recent years. Photograph: Sony Santa MonicaThis weeks question comes from Natalie:Its taken me many games played and unfinished before Ive realised what all of my favourites have had in common: a compelling narrative. Can you recommend me some of the best storytelling of all video-gaming time?Video game stories come in so many forms that this is a tough question to answer: many of the best stories in games are the ones we find for ourselves. That said, games correspondent Keith Stuart and I have recently been updating our best-of lists for games on all of the current consoles, so my favourite narratives of recent years are fresh in my mind. The authored stories that I remember best from the current gaming generation are: The Last of Us Parts I and II; God of War and its sequel; Immortality; and Alan Wake 2 (mostly for the way its told). Great shorter stories that you can play on a Nintendo Switch include: Oxenfree; Wandersong; To the Moon; Night in the Woods; A Space for the Unbound and Rki. You might also want to try Citizen Sleeper if you like sci-fi. As for the all-timers: Undertale, Chrono Trigger, Portal and its sequel, What Remains of Edith Finch and Fallout New Vegas are up there for me.What would be your top three? Please do email in to tell me on pushingbuttons@theguardian.com and ask me more questions. I apply myself to serious and silly video game questions with equal rigour.