Once upon a time, I dreamed of progress. Of playing so many games that, at the end of the year, I’d be able to look back and say to myself: “Self, look at all the experiences you had! You should be proud of yourself, if only for opening up to new experiences.”

Instead, I will be able to look back and say: “Wow. You sure played a sh*t ton of Destiny.”

Even though I’m in temporary setbackville, I’m still hoping to make good on my overall challenge for the year (to complete 52 games, one for each week). To do that, I’m going to have to pick up the pace and make good on a more responsible gaming schedule.

As you can probably tell from the preceding paragraphs (and the title), I haven’t played a speck of Half-Life 2, nor Doom 3 BFG Edition. I have gotten my light level up in Destiny (330!) and that has been a much slower slog than I ever thought it would be for the update.

Also, I’m going to come out and say it: I’m getting a little burned out on the Taken. It seemed Bungie thought that Taken-ifying anything would make it feel new, but all it has made it feel is tiresome.

I am especially tired of the Taken Psion. Those guys can pound sand.

I did get a few of the strike-specific items this weekend, and for that I’m grateful. I finally received the new Taken shotgun (and hoo boy is it a nice shotgun). One Arc, the other Solar. My Solar variant has auto fire and that has made certain encounters hilariously satisfying. I didn’t love this week’s version of the Challenge of Elders (those Psion Flayers can also feel free to take a hike), but I dove back in anyway with two friends to see if we could score some better rewards (we did, sort of).

The same group of the three of us also decided to take on the Nightfall (The Sunless Cell…again), and we got perhaps the saddest bunch of Nightfall rewards I’ve seen to date. The other two folks each got a legendary ghost shell at 320 or under, and I received 10 Three of Coins. It was underwhelming to say the least and, even thought I’m grateful for the Coins, it wasn’t worth the time investment to do it.

I know this will make me sound like a broken record, but I’m really and truly hoping to get to a few other games this week. If I can even complete one more game before the end of the month, I will consider that a small victory. I know I can do it if I just knuckle down, buckle down.

But I’m also seeing the solid lineup of games for May fast approaching and I am experiencing some super mild panic. How will I play anything other than new releases next month? And not just new releases, but, in one case, remasters of older releases (the Dead Island Definitive Collection). Those games weren’t perfect by a long shot (and neither were their game guides…a story for another time), but I had so much fun with them. I’m also a sucker for tropical locations in games, and, as you might expect, they are both island-centric.

What are you playing this week? What games are you hoping to get in May?

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some strike playlists to partake in. Must get those last few shaders.

Such is the grind of Destiny.