WRUP: *Meow*

Look, I’m not going to pretend we haven’t been all about Stray here. Sure, we’re also going to play some other things, but like… that cute, orange cat. How can you not love it?

Please don’t answer that — instead, join us for WRUP: What aRe yoU Playing?

Today, Phil “Red” Xavier leads us off.

Phil Xavier

• Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes
• ANNO: Mutationem
• Dorfromantik
• World of Warcraft

I’ve been busy and sick, so I’m mostly playing the same games as before — and a bunch of WoW, since that’s my ultimate comfort game. After getting some Zereth Mortis burnout for a bit, staying away from it for a couple weeks was enough for me to come back with new goals, and it’s actually been pretty fun.

My goal for the tail end of Shadowlands is simply to collect as many pieces of Tier sets as possible among my alts. After all, transmog is forever!

Anna Washenko

• Stray
• Cat Video Fest
• Fire Emblem Three Houses

I’ve got a full feline frenzy this weekend. Stray is a really good time so far. I like games that focus on exploring, and leaping around as a cat feels so satisfying. I’m also going to see Cat Video Fest tomorrow. Last year’s edition was delightful and I expect more of the same this time around.

Phil’s WRUP posts have been making me think I should investigate Fire Emblem Warriors, which means I should probably wrap up my current Three Houses playthrough. I’m nearing the end of the Golden Deer story, and I’ve really enjoyed it. Claude’s a good dude.

Mitch “Mitch” Mitchell

• Stray
• The Quarry
• WoW: Dragonflight

Topping my list this week is, not surprisingly, Stray. My GF and I have put in maybe an hour or two so far, having only just reached the first real “zone” after the tutorial and getting our little kitten geared and ready to ascend to the Outside. The game’s certainly simple so far — you’re an ordinary cat who still lacks thumbs and such — but I love it. We’ll see how I feel once we’ve beaten the whole thing, but it’s hard not to have a special connection to this game after taking in our own stray this year.

Outside of that, it’s The Quarry Rd. 3; we managed to kill fewer characters our second time around but uhh… it was not the perfect playthrough we were hoping for. It didn’t help that Death Rewind is apparently not available for co-op, so we’ll be approaching our third playthrough a little differently.

And, of course, there’s always the WoW alpha which continues to move at breakneck speeds. Honestly, it’s a lot to keep up with. I appreciate the efficiency of testing but oof. I hope they’re getting all the data they need over there in these short windows of time!

Andrew Powers

• Blizzard Watch D&D
• DC Deckbuilder Rivals Batman vs Joker
• Limetown
• Resident Alien
• Resident Evil

This weekend is D&D Weirs. Another board game night, where they socialize more than board game, but still, there is that. And then I got a new — well, not new, but a reprint of a previously released — DC Deckbuilder game, Rivals Batman vs. Joker. It’s a two-player game, that sort of plays like the other DC Deckbuilder games, as I’ve recommended before, but you can also use your power to buy your opponent’s hero card, which upgrades it, but once you’ve done this three times, you win the game. It’s fun, but more importantly, I love Batman and Joker. I want to say I’m playing Dragonflight alpha this weekend, but I’m still waiting on my invite. Maybe next weekend.

For television, I just finished Limetown. This is on Peacock, from 2019, starting Jessica Biel. It was really well done, the pacing was good, slow but in a way to be suspenseful, not boring. Explained the mystery along the way, gave answers at the end to give a conclusion, and left it open for another season, which it never had. Also on Peacock, I’m watching Resident Alien, a semi-comedy with Alan Tudyk. And then on Netflix, Resident Evil, no relation to Resident Alien. For a show that is based on a movie that is based on a video, it still reaches levels where I’m like, “This is ridiculous, that can’t happen.” One part had cats in it, but, maybe, don’t watch it if you’re a fan of Stray.

Anna Bell

• Cozy Grove
• Pokémon GO
• Mini Healer
• Emma Griffin series by A. J. Rivers

I picked up Mini Healer a couple weeks ago, and it’s still weirdly holding my attention. I guess it scratches that MMO healer itch without my having to actually be responsible for other people. Cozy Grove is rounding the corner to Late Summer, so I’ve been trying to keep up with all the fish to complete my seasonal collection, but man do I hate fishing in every video game ever.

Speaking of late summer, I seem to always pick up Pokémon GO for a month or two midsummer. I’m honestly not sure why, since I have so much less time to go visit Poké Stops, but here we are. I’m just about to hit level 30, and I have a whole lot of crappy low-level Pokémon to mulch, but I’m at the point where I need to do research and make a spreadsheet (or Notion board) before I just start indiscriminately throwing them into a woodchipper.

Speaking of both summer and feeding things into a woodchipper, I always seem to gravitate toward thrillers and horror books over the summer. I happened to pick up a new Kindle over the Prime Day sale last week, and since it arrived I’ve been mostly binging books. I’m in the middle of the Emma Griffin series by A. J. Rivers, which is a really good balance of exciting and gory. It has a pretty decent narrative thread throughout so you’d want to start on the first book, but it’s still light enough that you can read a chapter here and there… even if I’ve plowed through eight books since my Kindle arrived Friday.

Christian “Kalcheus” Thoma

• Dragonflight
• Octopath Traveler
• Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel
• Star Wars: Skywalker Saga (AKA Episodes 1-9)

Most of my time has been spent playing the Dragonflight alpha, so that’s left not much time for other games to play. I am still chugging along in Octopath Traveler but I’ve not made much progress of late.

The latest D&D adventure sourcebook Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel came out this week so I’ll be spending time this weekend reading through it. Meanwhile my kid wanted to watch all of the Star Wars films so we’re working our way through them, with only the sequel trilogy left to watch (and we expect to finish this weekend).

Matthew Rossi

• Not Stray yet and I am deeply upset about this
• Diablo 3
• Diablo Immortal
• WoW Dragonflight alpha (I’m not a kitty yet, but I am a Dagron)

Games are good and I like them and I have not much else to say today.

That’s #TeamBlizzardWatch for this week. I hope everyone has a nice, chill weekend full of furry friends. If you have a moment, why not let us know what you’re playing?