Blizzard Watch Weekly: A gaming extravaganza

This week is all about gaming awards shows and showcases, and here at Blizzard Watch we have been soaking up game trailers all week. But we do still have some Blizzard news to cover as well as a some excellent events next week. Let’s catch up on what’s been happening this week, and what’s coming next week.

What happened this week?

• Warcraft Rumble launched in beta on PC
• Overwatch Season 14 and Winter Wonderland started
• The Game Awards streamed this week, as well as plenty of other gaming showcases
• Molten Core and Onyxia’s Lair opened on WoW Classic Anniversary realms
• This week’s Hearthstone Tavern Brawl: Cloneball!
• This week’s WoW World Boss: Shurrai Atrocity of the Undersea
• Active Twitch Drop campaigns

It’s been a great week for gaming events, but if you only have the time to watch one I recommend The Game Awards for Games Who Can’t Afford the Game Awards (TGAGWCAGA for short). It’s a brand new showcase that may have been created just to poke fun at the high advertising rates for The Game Awards (said to be $250,000 for a one-minute trailer), but turned into a highlight of the week, showing off 160 indie titles in two hours. I was introduced to countless games I probably never would have run into otherwise, and no matter what your gaming tastes, TGAGWCAGA is worth your time.

But if you want to watch the big show, The Game Awards’ tenth anniversary show was a good one. No developers were rapidly shoved off stage mid-speech this year, and less time was spent on random celebrity appearances. (Statler and Waldorf were there, but their brief appearances throughout the show were always worth the time.) It was packed with great trailers, though at four hours the event ran somewhat longer than my attention span. The best thing about watching it now, though, is that you can fast forward through anything that doesn’t interest you.

These aren’t the only showcases this week, though. Please check out the full event schedule, just in case your Steam wishlist could use a little boost. (Or a big boost.)

Also this week, we have something of a pet thing happening. We have articles on pets you can wear in WoW (just make sure they coordinate with your transmog) and pets you can collect without pet battling (also make sure they coordinate with your transmog). There are currently no plans for pet content going into the next week, so I recommend enjoying what we have right here.

What’s happening next week

• WoW patch 11.0.7 will send us to the Siren Isle on December 17
• Diablo 4’s festive Slay Ride to Hell event runs from December 17 through January 2
• WoW’s Feast of Winter Veil starts on December 19 and runs through January 5. Festive!

Next week is a big one for World of Warcraft with its last patch of the year, and it has a heck of a lot of content for a patch Blizzard is daringly rolling out just before staff heads off on holiday break. There’s a lengthy eight-hour maintenance scheduled for Tuesday, so don’t make any plans to log on early — servers will be offline from 7am to 3pm pacific time.

When they come back up, however, we’ll be heading to the Siren Isle, picking up our new Circe’s Circlet ring, and collecting some new mounts, pets, and more on this secret-packed island. We’ve already got a guide on how to collect the island’s brand new mounts, with more to come soon (I hope).

And, of course, there’s holiday fun to be had in both WoW and Diablo 4, though WoW’s events are more festive in the traditional way (if you’re into that kind of thing).

Podcasts

• Blizzard Watch Podcast: Why does the WoW patch 11.0.7 ring have no bling?
• Lore Watch Podcast: Malfurion, the Emerald Nightmare, and Azeroth’s forgotten history

This week’s podcast is the first in a while to skip out on special guest stars (as Cory continues his efforts to upgrade his billing on the show), so it’s just me, Matt, and Joe talking about games (and ragging on Circe’s Circlet). Join us!

Reminders, to-dos, and ICYMIs

Don’t miss this week’s demos, as many titles from this week’s gaming shows are available for demo now (if they aren’t already available for purchase). Check the demos section on the Steam pages for Wholesome Snack, Day of the Devs, the Latin American Games Showcase, the Women-Lead Games Showcase, and of course TGAGWCAGA.

But if swimming in game demos doesn’t strike your fancy, check our weekly game recommendations for something that does — plus some sales you’ll want to check out right now.