Blizzard Watch Weekly: the coziest game on the Citadel

Did you ever have a friend who started playing a game you really like and haven’t played in a while, so you immediately want to go pick it up again? Anyway, Liz has been talking about playing The Long Dark lately, so I’m back on my nonsense. I’m pretty sure her favorite part so far is that the voice actors for FemShep and MShep voice the lead characters in this game.

While I pick up like 40 sticks in a blizzard and then wonder what I’m carrying weighs so much, let’s look back at what happened this week, what we have to look forward to next week, plus some stuff you may have missed.

What happened this week?

• Diablo 3 season 36 begins September 12
• This week’s Hearthstone Tavern Brawl: Pick a Hand, Any Hand Tavern Brawl (Wild, Constructed)
• Epic Games Store free game of the week: Monument Valley 2, Battle of Polytopia, and Ghostrunner 2

The release date for Hades 2 was announced during the latest Nintendo Direct: September 25. For those of you who have been playing in Early Access on Steam for over a year, this means the full campaign story will finally be unlocked.

We got word that former studio President Mike Morhaime’s post-Blizzard studio, Dreamhaven, is laying off an undisclosed number of staff due to financial hardship.

Speaking of financial hardship, you can get this cute capybara battle pet for free as long as you already wanted to pay at least $75 USD plus shipping on a handful of very specific and objectively hideous items on the Blizzard Merch Store. If you weren’t planning on spending that money, well, unfortunately that’s the only way to get it, so.

This week’s Cute post was a red alert! There is a new baby pygmy hippo! John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids, Michigan simultaneously made our day and our future travel plans.

Plus, there were several new game releases we’re highlighting, including a huge sale on the PlayStation Store. And if you’re looking for something to play this weekend, the Eternal Conflict remains eternal as Diablo 3 rolls over into season 36 today.

 What’s Happening Next Week (and beyond)

• Brewfest begins September 23, through October 9
• Diablo 4 season 10 starts September 23
• Mists of Pandaria Classic phase 2 begins September 23
• Hades 2 official release date September 25
• Player Housing comes to WoW in patch 11.2.7 before the end of the year

There isn’t anything happening imminently for next week, and there wasn’t anything news that broke for future events this week. So I’m going to take one for the team and use the site’s curse to its own advantage by saying, “wow, it’s really quiet next week.” There are a couple new events the week after, like Brewfest, but next week? Nada.

Hopefully this primes us for more Player Housing info next week.

This week’s podcasts

• Blizzard Watch Podcast: More new Midnight info from Gamescom (which ended a month ago)
• Lore Watch Podcast: How “Satanic Panic” changed media in the 80s, with ripple effects to today
• Tavern Watch Plays Outgunned Adventure, episode 1: Climbing a cliff without any cliffhangers (maybe)

This week we had even more new information about Midnight from gamescom to discuss on the Blizzard Watch Podcast! It’s a little hard to believe it happened a month ago, huh.

Lore Watch went in a bit of a different direction this week as they discussed the Satanic Panic back in the 80s, and how it affected

On the TTRPG side of things, Tavern Watch started a new playthrough, this time with Outgunned Adventure, which can only be described as an adventure. Our crew starts their quest to find a long-lost Viking treasure on a mountaintop.