What We Played #365 – EGX, Spider-Man & Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna

It’s EGX! Maybe you’ve been here for the last two days, in which case today is clearly hangover day, or perhaps you’re heading down to Birmingham this weekend to try and get your hands on with some of those fancy fancy games.

While I’m sure you’re going to queue for a bunch of things, it’s definitely worth checking out Soundfall, What The Golf, The Bradwell Conspiracy and Beacon in the Rezzed and Leftfield collections. Besides being in Birmingham and playing loads of stuff – Soul Calibur 6 is very pretty, while My Hero One’s Justice surprised us all by actually being good – I’ve also dived into Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna – The Golden Country on Switch as well as a tiny, tiny amount of Spider-Man. It’s kinda good.

Steve has had a very eclectic week of gaming.

Alongside several games for review I finished Anima: Gate of Memories and the atrocious Troll and I, the latter as a potential text for some work on the cultural significance of trolls. It is about as bad as our review for it suggested, but I’ll get more for both it and Anima than I paid when I trade them in so no financial issues with playing either. As for the cultural bit it is interesting seeing a proper Scandinavian take on a friendly troll but I didn’t really get any further insight from playing it through.

I also rattled through the lovely My Brother Rabbit too with the review ready for reading and continued with Dragon Quest VIII which is both the best and worst bedtime game as the 3DS continues to keep me awake much later than I intended. Oooops! Lastly, I stuck the disc in for Dying Light Enhanced Edition, so that should be updated for my next couch based gaming session. I’m looking forward to the joys of terror filled parkour.

Aran meanwhile has started playing NBA 2K19, though his review is still probably quite a while away. Gareth has been very busy so he’s only squeezed in a couple of hours of Spider-Man and a small amount of time with Shadows Awakening for review.

Miguel however has played a bunch of things:

I squeezed a little time in with Yokai Watch Blasters and dabbled with Black Clover Quartet Knights and Hyperlight Drifter a bit. I also  went down a very deep rabbit hole of making lists of PS1/Dreamcast/Saturn games I want to play at some point.

Oh, and I finally managed to start playing Spider-Man! I love it!!!

Despite having several games to review Ade hasn’t found much time to actually play them yet – which is worrying. He has at least started on Fossil Hunters and Stay for review, while sneaking in bits of Guacamelee! 2, Phantom Doctrine and the awesomeness that is Onrush. Tuff has been playing “Desti-grindey 2” (and Bubble Bobble whilst angrily waiting for Destiny 2 updates to install) and has started reviewing Hover which will appear very soon.

I’ve been joined by Jason at that EGX, getting stuck into Soul Calibur 6, Jump Force, My Hero One’s Justice, Vanguards, Wargroove, and many more, but Tef skipped the trip to Brum this year, preferring instead to be disappointed by Nintendo Switch Online, play Broken Sword 5 and Cities: Skylines on Switch, and get a small amount of time into Two Point Hospital.

Enough about us though, what have you played? And are you heading to EGX?

Written by
TSA's Reviews Editor - a hoarder of headsets who regularly argues that the Sega Saturn was the best console ever released.

10 Comments

  1. Last weekend, I was at the Zurich Game Show, but it was really a disappointment. I’ve not seen these showrooms this dull before, it was quite a bad event, with lots of unused spaces. I’ve played some Spiderman there (Sony had not much else to show), but I should’ve invested the money in buying the game instead of paying about £40 for the entrance for the two of us.

    Played some more HZD, and the story finally picked up a little, so I’m quite interested how that plays out.

    But then I had a really bad HD crash on my most important PC, so I was busy rescuing data and setting up a new laptop for the rest of the week.

  2. After completing Spiderman last weekend, i milled around for a while deciding what to start next – tried to jump back into AC Origins to finish off the story but just couldn’t get back in the…swing…of things. Then one night I decided to finally make a start on Persona 5, and put it this way I haven’t quite the game since! Now nearly 30 hours in and I’m absolutely hooked, the story is great, the puzzles challenging and I’m loving spending time learning more about the people and the world.

    Off to EGX tomorrow with Jag, the day we’ve been looking forward to all year has arrived! Can’t wait to try out some of the stuff that’s right around the corner but most excited for the merch :D

  3. Lots of Firewall again. While it’s still got a couple of issues, it’s far too good. Particularly the matchmaking, which seems to be unusually balanced. Your average shooter just seems to dump a bunch of players in a game and hope you don’t get too annoyed by playing against someone with all the best stuff, which isn’t fun. Firewall manages to mostly get 2 teams with similar skill and equipment. Sometimes one team will get lucky or someone will fuck up badly, and the match will be a very quick slaughter, but it’s just as likely to end up as a fun fight around 1 point in the map. Possibly while 1 of the 8 players sneaks around behind.

    There’s basically only 2 maps though. There’s 1 that’s split neatly into 2 halves with fun trying to get across the middle, and there’s 1 that’s just a set of rooms around a central area. And I think that works in it’s favour. (Yes, the embassy map isn’t quite a full circle of rooms, and shoothouse only vaguely counts as the first type)

    There may also have been plenty of RPGs again. I’ve hit a big grindy bit in Rainbow Skies, but it’s still lots of fun. Grinding for money and new skills.

    Oh, and Persona 5 because it was on sale for a bargain price. It’s a wonderfully disturbing thing. Just some odd pacing at times. I want to go and fight weird things, or progress the story, but then there’s a few days where nothing much happens. Decent enough though, but didn’t it get swarms of 10/10 reviews? Little bit overrated, I feel. But a massive 8/10 game for £20 was too good to pass by.

    • Mmhm. P5 was a lot of style this, music that, art direction something or other.

      I liked it just fine but looking past all that stuff it was simply a very competent game.

      Persona 4 is a stronger game in my opinion.

  4. I managed to bag the EverSpace platinum in the early hours this morning! It was lots of fun, definitely worth picking up especially in a sale. I’ve got no idea what to play next, maybe it’s time to dig out the Vita again or maybe it’s time to get some DIY done and do a bit of digital detox before Red Dead 2 ruins my life.

  5. I continued GOW3 remaster and more NMS, had a blast last night, destroying sentinels for the community event. I was laying waste to sentinels without a care in the world – until one sentinel got too close – too close for a grenade launcher to be practical or indeed, safe. I died. Then i respawned a few feet metres away beside my ship and collected my stuff and started killing sentinels even more earnestly – until i ran out of grenades just as two giant walkers showed up. I survived. (i ran away) ;)

  6. Got Far Cry 3 Classic Edition Platinum and lots of Firewall been playing that everyday.
    That is all nice and short too tired now of to bed zzZZZZ

  7. Witcher 3 and lots of it. Shocking, I know.

    Besides that bombshell, I played a substantial chunk of SotTR which I really like.
    Story is a little naff and seeing Jonah return was about as fun as rubbing salt in my eyes but the team have created a beautiful world that’s fun to explore and it’s one of few games where I actually preferred avoiding combat.
    Not that it’s not fun but the stealth works extremely well.
    I’ll definitely be buying it.

  8. Well I’m off to EGX right now with GeneralJeeb in the driver’s seat. Wish me luck!
    It’s been a strange week of jumping between games for me.
    Played a bit of Rebel Galaxy which is super chill and has a great soundtrack.
    Thought I’d enjoy AC Syndicate but as I just finished the Origins dlcs I found it hard to go back
    Tried to get back into Just Cause 3 but it didn’t quite click and then after a bit of F1 I jumped back into my save of Yakuza 0.
    I think I’ll be playing that till AC Odyssey comes out! Kiryu to the rescue!

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