🎶🎮🖥️ February 2025 Roundup
It's been another month of watching the news in absolute dread, and we certainly closed with a banger.
Doom and gloom aside though, there's plenty of other stuff to talk about!
I've actually bought a book (for the first time in ages). It's called Building a Second Brain, and it's all about how to gather and organize all the information and knowledge that we humans are bombarded with on a daily basis. I haven't finished it, and I can't say I've read enough of it yet to give any kind of proper impression on it, but I've always had a fascination for good archiving systems and practices. With the digital tools that we have at our disposal these days - like Obsidian - most of us don't have an excuse not to write shit down anymore. We don't need to keep all the information in our heads any longer, we have computers and phones for that!
Anyway, I've also gotten way more into Obsidian as a tool in the past month, even before I bought that book. I play a Pathfinder 2E campaign with some friends of mine, and a program like Obsidian is perfect for keeping notes like session logs, and information about important NPCs, etc.. I highly recommend No Boilerplate's intro video on Obsidian if you haven't heard of it before and would like a quick crash course in how it works and why it's amazing.
But hey, enough about all that. Let's get into the music and games I've been enjoying in February.
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The Games
Avowed
Action RPG, 2025
For the longest time I completely dismissed all the hype and marketing surrounding this game. I was never a Skyrim guy, so this type of game has never really caught my interest. Then I saw that it was on Game Pass on release day and I thought 'fuck it', let's give it an honest try.
There is a core gameplay loop here that I am finding enjoyable, and the pacing is good. I have to say that I'm questioning some of the art design decisions made here though, especially with regards to the so-called Godlike features of the character creator. I am glad that they're trying something new and unique to differentiate from all other RPGs out there, but let's just say I'm glad you can turn it off in-game so you don't have to look at it. 😅
I like that your character starts out as pretty much a blank slate, so that you can spend your first few levels trying basically every weapon combo in the game, and figuring out what kind of playstyle you like before specializing too much into a class. Respeccing is also easy, although it costs you fairly valuable in-game gold to do so.
The companion system is okay, and with the radial command wheel which you can trigger at any time and pause the gameplay entirely while you make your choice of action, it never feels too overwhelming in the midst of combat to make decisions on what to do next.
Exploration and traversal is fairly easy and quick, with secrets and chests strewn across every single location. It helps you get a feel for your surroundings so that you're intimately familiar with every corner of the map after a while, simply cause you keep looking for small openings and listening for hidden loot chests to find.
The combat is fine, though I'm finding the dodging mechanics a bit 'stiff', and when you get swarmed it's hard to tell where some enemies are. The art design of the game doesn't exactly make enemies stand out from their surroundings, which can lead to some nasty surprises. Thankfully, both melee, ranged and magic fighting seems well balanced, and there are a lot of options to choose from as far as weapons and armor go.
I have to say though, they dropped the ball on the plot here. I find myself completely uninterested in any of my own character's backstory, the companion characters, or what's actually happening in the game story-wise. So far I think I'm only about a third of the way into act 2, and at this point I doubt I'll keep playing the game for anything but the core gameplay loop of questing and combat.
It's not a full recommendation from me as it is, but I have been spending most of my gaming time playing it since it came out so I thought I'd give you my two cents if you're curious about the game. 🙂
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The music
Cantu Ignis - The Fathomless Dominion
Blackened Symphonic Melodic Death Metal, 2025
I know, I know, that genre tag seems like a joke, but once you hear the record you'll see that it's pretty spot on. There are some pretty soaring synth soundscapes here accompanied by black metal vocals and progressive vibes, but it still retains that melodeath edge.
Deftly crafted, the whole album is an amazing experience from start to finish, chock full of great guitar work. It's a fairly short album at only 35 minutes despite none of the individual tracks being less than five minutes long. Well worth a listen!
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Pathogenic - Crowned in Corpses
Progressive Death Metal, 2025
Extreme progressive and djent-y death metal from this band that I regret not having heard of before. Very dynamic and interesting rhythmic arrangements here, as well as great groovy riffs. Only occasionally breaks into acoustic sections to let the music breathe but quickly gets back to the no non-sense heaviness. Really enjoying this one.
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Cheekface - Middle Spoon
Indie Pop Rock, 2025
Cheekface are quickly becoming one of my favorite bands of all time, despite having only discovered them in 2022. Their music keeps being a source of joy for me throughout all the bullshit that's been going on with the world at large, and this new album that dropped only a week ago is no exception. Upbeat, funny and memorable songs with a very human touch, delivered with deadpan tongue-in-cheek vocals that work so very well with the simple instrumentation.
A listen to the opener Living Lo-Fi or the toe-tapper Art House should quickly determine whether this is for you. You can catch me walking down the street happily whistling and snapping my fingers to this for the rest of the year.
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That's it for this round. Catch you next month! ✌️