A bit of a meta comment, but @[email protected] could you please unpin the past threads? The community looks a abit cluttered 😄 :
I’ve been so focused on active album listening lately that I haven’t been playing much, so I’m still chugging my way through Cyberpunk and Moonlighter currently, and enjoying both of them thus far.
Although I did pick up Furi while it’s 80% on steam, but honestly I only played it for a little bit so far so I don’t really have any opinions about it yet
What have you been listening to? I love listening to albums all the way through, definitely my favourite way to listen to music.
Oh god, I listen to a lot of music, so get ready, and fair warning I’m kind of a metalhead (but I genuinely do listen to everything), lol. Here’s a quick rundown of my recent listening, with minimal notes:
Sear Bliss - Heavenly Down. melodic black metal with a trombone!
Within Destruction - Animetal. deathcore goes pop sensibilities; I really think between this album and Left to Suffer’s ‘Leap of Death’ we’re on the precipice of the birth of a new microgenre that does to deathcore what easycore did to melodic hardcore and metalcore.
The Weeknd - Hurry Up Tomorrow. I’ve been a Weeknd fan since his original three mixtapes dropped, and finally got around to listening to his latest.
Dayseeker - Dark Sun. metalcore-tinged synthpop.
Watsky - Intention. kinda hippie-drenched indie hip-hop?
Rioghan - Kept. melodic and slightly djenty alt-metal; I was really hyped for Jinjer’s new album before it came out but honestly Rioghan’s Kept kind of sounds like what I wanted but didn’t fully get from Jinjer.
and I also recently caught up on some classics that somehow flew under my radar:
The Devil Wears Prada - With Roots Above and Branches Below.
Whitechapel - This is Exile
Emmure - Goodbye to the Gallows
As I Lay Dying - An Ocean Between Us
and today I’ve been obsessively listening to:
Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power. just absolutely insanely incredible blackgaze post-metal.
If you’ve been listening to anything, I’d love to hear about it as well!
Thanks for the list! The only metal band I really listen to a lot is Iron Maiden, I’m more a classic rock and folk kinda guy.
With everything going on politically right now, I’ve been listening to a lot more Canadian music recently. I tend to listen to records (and sometimes CDs) more than streaming, so I’m kind of limited to albums I own physically. With that being said, here’s some recents:
Tragically Hip - Up to Here. My personal favourite Hip record, just great classic Canadian rock. Side A gets spun a lot.
Neil Young - Harvest. Despite probably being the most popular album on this list, it’s probably the one I play the least. Still very good folk music though, I could just never get past his voice.
Stan Rogers - Northwest Passage. I only got into Stan Rogers a few months ago, and then found this record used in excellent shape for pretty cheap and had to buy it. Probably my favourite Canadian folk album now.
The Guess Who - Greatest Hits. Can’t go wrong with American Woman or Laughing. I don’t listen to a whole lot of their music, hence the comp album, but their popular stuff I quite like. I also have an old comp album of just their early stuff from before they were big which I actually like more, but haven’t listened to in quite a while. Maybe I should spin it again soon.
The Tea Party - Edges of Twilight. Definitely the most interesting album on this list, and another favourite. I’m yet to hear another album sound quite like this one, even from them. They’re an awesome band anyway, but this album is definitely their peak.
Mort Garson - Mother Earth’s Plantasia. This one unfortunately I have to stream, but I keep an eye out for it every time I go out to the record store. This is early electronic music.
Stompin’ Tom Connors - Stompin’ Tom Connors. Another one I’m currently streaming, but there’s nothing more Canadian than Stompin’ Tom. I’ve got one record from him, but it doesn’t have any of his biggest hits unfortunately.
Buddy Wasisname and the Other Fellers - The Serious Stuff. This one always makes me homesick. All my family is from Newfoundland but I’m currently living away from home. This album takes me home for a little bit.
Great Big Sea - Up. Another band from Newfoundland that takes me home.
Gordon Lightfoot - basically his whole discography. I’ve got a lot of Lightfoot records, and play all of them constantly. Probably my most listened-to folk artist.
Rush - Moving Pictures. I’m only just starting to get into Rush so I don’t have much to say yet. Awesome record though.
If you’ve got any questions I’d love to talk more about these guys! If there’s any bands you’re curious about I’d love to recommend songs too.
First off, I’m American, but I understand your decision. Elbows up!
Beyond that, gotta be honest I’m not a huge classic rock guy, so I don’t even recognize about half those names. But that’s cool; I like stumbling into stuff I haven’t before.
I know Harvest of course (it’s great but I agree on Neil’s voice). And the Guess Who are one of those bands I know the singles from, but haven’t really explored deeper than that. Likewise I have never really dove into Gordon Lightfoot but I like what I know of his a lot; I absolutely adore Sundown. Rush I’ve listened to a bit but I’m more a Yes guy when it comes to classic prog rock.
Beyond that I’ve heard of but haven’t heard anything by Tragically Hip and Great Big Sea, but the rest are new names to me.
I’d say if I were to try to find something at the intersection of our interests and you say you like classic rock and Iron Maiden, the most recent Pentagram album ‘Lightning in a Bottle,’ which is technically a traditional doom metal/stoner rock album, but to my ears I think sounds a lot like Maiden mixed with a real classic rock sound and just a touch of doom on top (and obviously Bobby Liebling is no Bruce Dickinson) would probably be my first thought… but they’re American (from my neck of the woods, actually) and I don’t want suggest crossing the metaphorical picket line, so maybe bank the suggestion as something to check out if we’re ever freed from the insanity of our current situation. ✌
I’ll keep an eye out for that album as a used CD or record, if I can find a copy for cheap. All my money will stay in Canada that way. Thanks for the recommendation!
You should listen to more Lightfoot! His discography is vast, there’s bound to be more of his stuff you like. At the same time, there’s probably lots of stuff you won’t like. I’m personally a big fan of his record Gord’s Gold, it’s a comp album but he re-recorded everything for it, so it’s all new recordings (or was all new in 1975), which gives you a more mature voice on some of his older tracks. Canadian Railroad Trilogy especially sounds way better rereleased (though I love the original too, it’s probably my favourite song of his). It’s a pretty early comp album though, and is missing a few of his biggest hits, like Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald. He has Gord’s Gold Vol. 2 as well but it’s not as good imo.
Playing shadows of doubt - a completely procedurally generated private investigator game. It’s basically a puzzle game without consistent solutions. Pretty fun so far.
Started No Mans sky a few weeks ago. I am liking it a lot. Very pretty game, lots of neat stuff. My umderstanding is that while its a very wide game, its somewhat shallow. What I have seen so far does not disprove that, but I have been progressing very slowly so I cant say one way or another.
It would definitely be nice if it was a lot deeper, but it has enough good points to entertain many people for a while.
I just finished up Spirtfarer. A sweet gentle game, that really hits the feels. To quote Yahtzee “full of light and wonder and melancholy humor, which does rather juxtapose against the underlying knowledge that our job is essentially to take our passengers one by one into the woods and ice them in the back of the head”
Squad
I’d recommend it for anyone who played BF2/2142 and even BF3/BC2 back in the day. I really don’t like modern shooters as they are quite frankly shit in comparison but Squad is something different. Be warned though that it has its issues but when you get a good round in with decent squad mates and teamwork it is top tier.
I love BF2. I love BF2142. I want to play Squad. I can’t play Squad. It’s a me issue, 100%, but having to do voice comms with randoms in a competitive environment is something I really don’t want to deal with anymore.
The little I did manage to play was fun so support your endorsement. Anyone looking for a combined arms squad based shooter should definitely check the game out.
It’s actually the only game I feel comfortable using comms in. I have social anxiety so it did take me a few months to get used to it but now it feels natural. I’ve rarely come across anything bad either in 2k hours which is nice and it’s more social than competitive.
Mafia series and middle earth series
It’s still one day out but if the hype keeps building I might fall victim to it and jump on Blue Prince tomorrow. Not very patient of me I know. I should be ashamed, but sometimes you just want to be part of a zeitgeist and this looks like a gem.
I’ve been playing my comfort games since I’ve been really anxious and depressed.
- ESO
- Skyrim
- euro truck sim 2
- civilization 3
I’m still playing Divinity: Original Sin II.
I also picked up Hollow Knight recently and I’m making progress, albeit painfully sometimes haha.Hollow Knight has also had me a little stuck sometimes, just remember to check your map to see if there’s sometime you might be able to reach. I had to look up locations to get the other ending.
Yep, thanks - so far I’ve avoided any guides and went in completely blind, I’m starting to explore the map again for what I might have missed.
spoiler
I’ve been trying to beat the Mantis Lords for a while, but I feel like there’s some other place I might be able to go for now - I think I haven’t fully explored the City of Tears yet, but got my first nail upgrade
I’m on a hollow knight replay (only played through it once) and getting stuck is just part of the ride
I’ve been playing a whole heck of a lot of Celeste lately. Been having a good time with some modded content after clearing all the vanilla content
D sides? Strawberry Jam?
I did a bit of 1-D. Did a little bit of spring collab advanced lobby but heard that strawberry jam was a bit more polished so I’ve been trying the SJ expert lobby and it’s very hard (~10 hours per level so far). I think it’s in the sweet spot of difficulty for me rn
RA2 when i feel like it, RS only for daily, and i dread ptgcl , because its a chore now.
Roadwarden
Picked that up in the Dice & Destiny current bundle. It’s a take on old school text based RPG. I like it so far. It’s really more like an interactive book which is what I was after. Playing lay back on the couch with Moonlight
Citizen Sleeper
Text based RPG too. Barely touched as it came in the bundle too. I just don’t want to run 2 story game at the same time. This one is more gamy with dice placement. There seems to be just more mechanics and things to manage. Story looks promising :D
Pacer
Dug out Pacer, an antigravity racing game I never touched for some reasons (backed on Kickstarter). Think WipEout, Zero, Redout… It’s cool. It scratches my WipeEout itch, but its not at the same level, even if it’s made by the same people.
Playing Heaven’s Vault again. I was up to new game + 5 or so but then new computer. And there were no steam cloud saves. There are now cause I complained about it, but too late for my save, stuck on a windows 7 machine. Anyway, up to new game + 2 I think.
I don’t see this one talked about much, but when I do, I hear the story is amazing?
I personally love the game, hence the several new game +'s before I had to restart. But it’s also very niche? The gameplay is finding inscriptions (usually on items found during exploring, sometimes on walls or…other ways) and translating them into English. This is done by learning parts of the language and placing words it might be below. Also all sentences have no spaces cause whhhhyyyy would the Ancient Scribes use spaces? But new game + adds longer more complicated phrases (or shorter ones, those are also hard because like…the word “so” is used so rarely it’s hard to nail down.). The story itself follows Aliyah as she travels the rivers of the nebula to learn the past of the nebula. The first time you play you are likely to…not understand a lot. It’s very VERY easy to accidentally whoops into the point of no return area in a few ways. You can miss an entire place that has a ton of info. But that’s new game + for yoouuu! Find more places! Numbers are also hard. There is no death as far as I can tell? I’ve tried to kill Aliyah. So is it even a game if you can’t die? I know some people would say no! Also the controls for moving her are clunky, and sometimes you’ll figure out what a symbol means before the game will have it among the possible options at the bottom. “Why aren’t you giving me the word for “goddess’s” game, I knoooow that’s what that set of symbols must mean! It has the word for divine, human, and possessive!”
Heaven’s Vault is the closest thing my brain has let me have towards a hyperfixation for awhile. I’ve missed it.
I’m waiting for the BaldursGate3 update but until then I grabbed solasta. Also DnD based and more chill than BG3 but very fun. I love that you can design and play a whole party instead of just the “main char” like BG3.
I’m itching so bad for the BG3 update. It’s been one of those games where I’m in the shower and a new multiclass build pops in my head and next thing I know I’m reinstalling it. And now I get a bunch of new toys!
My least favourite character is Wyll so in my next run he will be my avatar. What multiclass do you recommend with Warlock? I (ofc) already did paladin and sorcerer.
Have you ever played Divinity Original Sin II? How would you compare it to Solasta?
I played and enjoyed both. They feel very different. Divinity was built without the pen and paper foundation and solasta is very true to DnD 5e. While 5e is nice for roleplay where in theory everything is possible, it lacks in a videogame setting. I don’t go into detail here but in all DOS2 feels more like a complete game that isn’t hold back by sticking to a rulebook that was designed for something else.
As already mentioned, DOS2 also has premade Characters on with the story builds. Solasta focuses on ‘White Canvas’ characters which I like.
