WRUP: A free weekend and some Balduring

Hello and happy Friday, Watchers! Do you hear that? That’s the sound of the weekend approaching. And when the weekend approaches, we here at Blizzard Watch like to celebrate by talking all about our fun plans and the things we’re up to in the coming days.

This is WRUP — What aRe yoU Playing? — and yours truly leads us off this week.

Mitch “Mitch” Mitchell

• D&D planning
• Splatoon 3?
• Diablo 4/WoW/Elden Ring

It’s a rare free weekend and, frankly, I don’t know what I’m going to do with the time. I’ll probably sleep a lot while also feeling extra restless.

I definitely want to spend time cleaning the house and getting some more D&D planning done. We had our seventh session last week, and we’re nearing a pretty important moment so I want to get it absolutely right.

It’s also close to the end of Splatoon’s latest season and while I doubt I’ll make it all the way to max like I’d like, I still want to get some playtime in and see how far I can get. When it’s not that, it’s the usual mix of games.

Nick Marino

• Baldur’s Gate 3

Two weeks later and Baldur’s Gate 3 still has me firmly in its grasp (there has to be something out there called a Larian Chokehold, right?) and I’ll finally be getting Act 2 underway this weekend. I’ve enjoyed BG3 the most out of any game I’ve played this year though it’s not without its quirks — I’ve bugged out and crashed a few times and sometimes the dialogue options seem to be outdated with certain characters and actions. That’s all nitpicky stuff, the point is it’s fun and I highly recommend folks give it a try once it becomes available to you.

Ted Atchley

• College Bound
• HSBG
• SNAP

My main activity this weekend will be moving my daughter into her freshman dorm. I’m excited for this new adventure for her, but I’m going to miss her being at home. We will be on the road so it’ll be mobile games this weekend. I’m enjoying the last bit of this season of HSBG. As we reported earlier this week, big changes are on the way. I love the OTA updates to Snap. It lets Second Dinner make adjustments to cards without the need for a patch. The team really does a good job tweaking cards. I’m still flirting with the edge of Infinite, but the meta is in flux right now so it’s hard to know what the best deck to play is.

Phil Ulrich

• Vacation — seeya!

No video games for me this weekend, we’re packing up and heading out to the beach for a week. I’ll probably bring my Switch with me, but I don’t anticipate playing anything meatier than maybe some kind of phone game to keep me entertained in the car.

Phil Xavier

• The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood

The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is a visual novel with one of the most interesting narrative structures I’ve ever seen. You play as a witch, Fortuna, and you craft cards — you don’t just “decide to create cards” as in most card games; you actually design them, with a background and graphical elements that you place as you wish. You use those cards in a tarot deck of sorts, which you use for divination. And your divinations seem to always be right.

Which means that whenever you read about some character’s past, present, or future — including friends, foes, and yourself — whatever your reading dictates will actually come true, and influence the story as a whole. You determine the goals, personality and eventual fate of characters in the story by talking to them and reading the cards you designed yourself for them.

It’s a very interesting structure, and the game hooked me really quickly. A warning must be made that it deals with some pretty mature topics, though, so it might not be for everyone. I’m absolutely loving it so far: it’s unique, features a colorful cast of characters, and the very well-written dialogue feels organic and natural.

Sara Hanson

• Diablo 4
• WoW
• Cirque du Soliel
• The Afterparty S2

It’s been a stupidly busy month or so, having a quieter weekend this weekend. I plan to chill in front of the goggle box a bit, finish out the Kalimdor Cup, grind out a few more levels on D4 towards filling the track on the season journey and tomorrow we have tickets to see Cirque du Soliel.

We had tickets for Cirque in 2020 that were for the day that they pulled the plug on al live shows in our state due to covid. The tickets were originally rescheduled 3 times before being refunded. This is the first time they’ve been back since then. I had splurged for a VIP pass for some reason I don’t recall now, so when they announced the new tour I rebooked for a similar set of seats. It’s being held at a new location so we have to work out the best way to get there when half the major arterials between here and there are having work done, and it’s next to the MCG on a Saturday afternoon in the middle of football season.

Christian “Kalcheus” Thoma

• Season
• Stray Gods
• Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood
• Dragonflight Whelp Day Care

Between travel and minor injuries I haven’t had much chance to game this month, but I’m thinking this weekend I’ll be able to get a lot done if no setbacks. I will be finishing Season (even though I promised to do so several times already 🙄) and then I’ll be playing both Stray Gods and Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood. Both are essentially virtual novel derivatives, with the former being a musical featuring lyric choices and Laura Bailey as the lead and the latter has tons of opportunities for the player to drive the direction of the story based on how they craft and interpret the tarot-inspired cards they use.

Besides that I should be finishing up the 10.1.5 Whelp Day Care chain in WoW, and maybe even running a time rift or two.

That’s us for this week! Thanks for being here and, as always, if you have a spare moment, why not let us know: What aRe yoU Playing?

Until next time!