Blizzard Watch Week in Review: Welcome back, Battle.net

There’s been plenty of news in the last week that we could talk about, but I’m going to focus on the only important piece of news: Battle.net is back, baby! After playing on Battle.net for over twenty years — it launched in 1996 with Diablo 1 — ditching the name felt like we we’d lost something. And after some consideration, apparently even Blizzard agrees. (Which is probably for the best, since no one bothered to stop calling it Battle.net, anyway.)

But I suppose there were a few other things that happened last week that may matter to you. Before you dive into the weekend of gaming (StarCraft Remastered, anyone?), here’s a rundown of everything that happened last week as well as what’s coming up next week.

Coming up

• Gamescom is almost here! The show officially starts on Wednesday, but we’ll start seeing events — and news — on Tuesday.
• Looking for some weekend entertainment? Check out this week’s schedule of esports events.

World of Warcraft

• The Trial of Style is now live in WoW. Check out our guide for how to master the challenge.
• Anne takes a look at the very strange story of Wrathion.
• We’re getting closer to the patch 7.3 launch: the pre-patch Whispers of a Frightened World scenario, which leads us into 7.3’s story, is now live on North American realms.
• Anne talks about the plot points for roleplayers leading into to patch 7.3.
• Fresh from the patch 7.3 PTR, dialog from Antorus testing brings on the lore spoilers, Hunters need to get ready to get taming these new pets, Argus has its very own lore museum, and the new spell animations in patch 7.3 are spectacular.

Hearthstone

• In case you missed it, Hearthstone’s Knights of the Frozen Throne expansion is live — and with it a brand new (and completely free) single-player adventure mode. Matticus guides us through the first wing.

StarCraft

• StarCraft Remastered is here! Head to the Battle.net launcher and download it now for a pure nostalgia trip.
• Continuing our dive into StarCraft lore, Rossi talks about the Sons of Korhal.
• Changes are coming to StarCraft 2 multiplayer. Here’s the rundown.

Diablo

• Even though Diablo’s patch 2.6.0 hasn’t been live for long, patch 2.6.1 is already up on the PTR.

Just for fun

• Enjoy Knights of the Frozen Throne without having to fire up the app: you can enjoy the whole soundtrack on YouTube.
• Not enough music for you? The new tracks from patch 7.3 are pretty great, too.