WRUP: It’s the weekend and apparently some of Team Blizzard Watch is Turning Red

Hear that sound? That’s the sound of Friday coming to a close and the weekend rolling in. As is tradition on Fridays ’round these parts, we like to talk about all the different games we’re playing! Why? Because it’s fun and games are awesome — plus, who couldn’t use a little gaming-based positvity in their life?

Liz Harper kicks us off this week with an absolute W of a weekend.

Elizabeth Harper

• Horizon Forbidden West

This week I got lucky and happened to stumble into the PlayStation store in the thirty seconds they had PlayStation 5s in stock for MSRP, and because I have no restraint I clicked “buy.” I got a notification email saying they were in stock and clicked over expecting nothing, because I firmly believe the PS5 is a myth and everyone claiming to own one is participating in a massive campaign of deceit. Except now I have one sitting on my desk. Hm. Weird.

The problem is that I have nowhere to put it, because it’s huge. So now I’m rearranging the living room, probably moving the TV, and looking for a new entertainment center which has room for everything. Rearranging the living room has required me to move my jungle of potted plants — which are all inside because the weather keeps dropping below freezing — to the kitchen, which required rearranging chairs and cleaning off the kitchen table and setting up a plant light. And that required me to find a place for all the stuff on the kitchen table… and, well, you see how this has turned into a “if you give a mouse a cookie” situation.

I may not actually play many games this weekend because I’ve torn everything down to rearrange. I don’t really want to go back to Horizon Forbidden West until I have the PS5 set up. So it’s quite likely I’ll just be playing WoW this weekend and catching the latest episode of Picard on a TV that may be sitting on the floor.

Christian “Kalcheus” Thoma

• Horizon Zero Dawn
• Turning Red
• Monsters University
• Up

It’s a light weekend for me gaming-wise so I’m going to focus on Horizon Zero Dawn to the exclusion of all other games.

The new Pixar film Turning Red is coming out on Disney+ on Friday, so I’ll be watching that as well as Monsters University and Up for my “watch the Disney animated films I missed” project.

Finally for mini painting this weekend I’m going to be working on the young adult white dragon from Wizkids Wave 9.

 

Anna Washenko

• D&D
• I Am Dead
• Turning Red

It’s shaping up to be a busy weekend. I’m looking forward to more/final carnival adventures with the D&D Witchlight crew on Saturday. I take at least partial responsibility for turning Mitch into a main party member, (woo #teamchaos!) and I’m excited to reveal Moss’ backstory at long last when her memory is returned.

I also started playing I Am Dead this week, and will probably wrap that up over the weekend. I’ve enjoyed pretty much everything Richard Hogg/Hollow Ponds have made, and this afterlife adventure is no exception.

I’m also mega-stoked to watch Turning Red. My track record with Pixar movies is shaky at best, but a girl’s coming of age plus floofy red pandas? Yeah, this one speaks to me.

 

Joe Perez

• Elden Ring
• Horizon Forbidden West

Continuing my journey through both Elden Ring and Horizon Forbidden West. I’m enjoying taking my time with both games and exploring everything. I suspect I’ll be in both for a long time, which is fine with me.

I’m also taking some time to paint some new things. I found files for an artist that re-imagines pokemon as Kaiju, which are just stupendously well done. Currently I’m working on Blastoise, Wartortle and Squirtle for a diorama. I’m also experimenting painting miniatures / prints with Acrylic Gouache (which is kinda like acrylic watercolor) and it has been a wild and interesting journey. Looking forward to taking pictures of the end results and sharing them.

Mitch “Mitch” Mitchell

• Elden Ring
• D&D

My girlfriend is actually headed out of town for a few days, so it’s going to be a weekend of Elden Ring, Elden Ring, and more Elden Ring. Also cats.

When neither of those things is happening, I’ll be CAW!-ing my way through another D&D (mis)adventure with the lovely Blizzard Watch crew. This may very well be my last “special guest appearance” in what was originally going to be a single-episode cameo, which is a little bittersweet — I’ve enjoyed this character quite a bit! Then again, it’s me. Maybe Kettlesteam finds a way to cause chaos even if she can’t join you.

 

Ted Atchley

• Star Wars: The Old Republic

KENOBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!! Wow, that trailer was wizard! I’ve watched it a dozen times already. Apparently, I’m spending my weekend counting down the days to May 25 when the Obi-Wan Kenobi series will debut on Disney+. Just a little PSA: if you haven’t watched the Star Wars Rebels animated series, now is the time. While Kenobi is set before Rebels in the timeline, many of the characters from the trailer were first introduced to Star Wars lore in Rebels. There was also a call out in the trailer to a location from the Jedi Fallen Order game.

For gaming, my friend and I will still be working through Balmora on our new characters. I managed to hit level 80 and finish the Manaan storyline with my main Jedi Knight character, so I need to run the Elom (Ruins of Nul) Flashpoint this weekend. Flashpoint is just what SWTOR calls a Dungeon. The first time you run it, you do it in a Solo Story Mode. I love that SWTOR includes this. It lets you see the dungeon, and watch all the cutscenes without the pressure of a group. Later on, you can run the dungeon again on higher difficulty settings with a full group.

 

Phil Xavier

• Triangle Strategy

Since last week’s WRUP, I’ve put about 21 hours into Triangle Strategy, and I’m loving every minute of it. It’s a perfect combo for me: tactical RPGs might be my favorite videogame genre, period, and grounded stories that lean heavily on political intrigue — with tiny hints of fantasy — are my favorite kind as well. This game definitely scratches the same itch that titles like Final Fantasy Tactics and Fire Emblem: Three Houses did for me; I’m an absolute sucker for this particular style.

Andrew Powers

• D&D Wild Beyond the Witchlight
• The Boys Diabolical
• The Legend of Vox Machina

My only real plan this weekend is Blizzard Watch’s D&D Wild Beyond the Witchlight. Beyond that, as I wait for The Boys season 3 to come out, I watched the animated series, The Boys: Diabolical. It was… weird, to put it nicely. The one written and starring Awkwafina is a contender for the strangest cartoon I’ve ever seen.

Next on my watch list is The Legend of Vox Machina. For being into D&D, I’m not the biggest Critical Role fan, so I’ve been putting this one off. I think it’s time to binge it this weekend. Also, it is my least favorite weekend of the year, Daylight Savings. Time change messes me up for a week, either direction, but that loss of an hour is definitely the worse of the two. Good luck, everyone, especially those who are sensitive to this.

 

Matthew Rossi

• D&D
• Horizon Forbidden West
• Cyberpunk 2077

Today was eye injections and lasers day, so nothing today unless I feel better sooner. I’m in the Witchlight game on Saturday, and I am likely gonna be exploring in Horizon Forbidden West, enjoying patch 1.5 in Cyberpunk 2077, and bleeding from both eyes which I’m told makes me extremely metal.

 

Liz Patt

• Horizon Zero Dawn
• Diablo 3
• WoW
• Animal Crossing: New Horizon

The quest for the blue rose in ACNH continues. I know I’ve been at this for at least a month and a half now. The last few days have been rainy on my island so that can only help. That said, ACNH was the only thing I played last weekend, so trying to diversify a bit.

I’ve got last week’s chapter to finish and this week’s to start in WoW, but D3 PTR is also up for next season which also starts the countdown to end of S25. Got some gems to level and conquests to complete.

Finally, I want to get back to Aloy! She’s so fun! I’ve decided I need a clone so I can finish more video games. Is cloning crowdfundable?

 

That’s our weekend here at Blizzard Watch! I hope you all have an excellent couple of days of relaxing and gaming. If you’re feeling adventurous, why not tell us — What aRe yoU Playing?