Ambition for sure. And it's easy to tell Axl was going for sophistication, but to me the result doesn't match his aspirations. But you're right, Slash songs don't have ambition nor do they aspire sophistication. I personally think Slash is just going for fun, energetic songs (with obviously mixed results as well). For me personally GNR stood for angry, energetic and surely sophisticated hard rock. None of the solo efforts nor CD have that ultimate mix that to me defines a true GNR record, but as far as my personal tastes go, at least IFOCS comes close. The one difference probably being that Dover's anger is expressed in a slightly more melancholic, whiney way than Axl's anger (which at least in the glory days was more edgy, combative, raw. More hard rock than grunge).

Or, put differently, "Just shut up and sing"

DS is very, very good... First time I played it I wasn't able to finish it due to a strange difficulty spike in the middle of the game which forced me to keep playing the same map over and over again. Gave up after a while. Second time around (started from the beginning again) I blew past that level as if it was nothing, I figure I must have missed something on my first pass.

Besides that you should probably be aware that the game can feel desolate at times, which is of course the atmosphere they are going for, but can be off putting to some people (I loved it, personally).

You've reminded me that I still have DS2 laying around somewhere that I still need to start!

Well, we don't play Dominion as a collectible card game as such, it's nothing like Magic The Gathering or Pokemon where the more money you spend the more competitive you are. I'm not into that myself. It's perfectly possible to just buy the first full box and play only that for the rest of your lives... (actually, we have two compatible starter kits between two of our group, so thats pretty much what we do). So I'd say give it a shot, it's the sort of thing thats easy to pick up but deceptively hard to master...

Depending on the type of night we're looking for I'd say we have two top contenders: Eclipse for the hardcore stuff and Ticket To Ride with the extended, more casual crowd. Although we stopped playing the European map in Ticket To Ride; once you know how it's too easy to win and if everyone knows how it becomes purely a matter luck alone...

Besides that we also do some classic tabletop roleplaying once in a while. Great fun if you have someone in your group who is willing to spend the time preparing the sessions. I'm personally more of an overall atmosphere/fun kinda guy than a hardcore strategist, so RPGs and cooperative games in general are very much my bag.