Blizzard Watch Weekly: Witness this, buddy.

“Oh, you like puzzle games? You should play The Witness,” they said. The thing is I like games with puzzles, plural, and The Witness thus far only has one puzzle that I’m being made to do a few hundred times At first it was alright. I did enjoy the ones where I had to find environmental cues like shadows to help me solve the puzzles. But it wore thin a while back. Still, I’m not a quitter so like it or not we’re still in it to win it, whatever “win it” means in this context.

While I trace yet another line on yet another ipad and wonder why I’m slogging through this instead of Strange Antiquities, 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: Temporus Shift Tavern Brawl (Wild, Constructed)
• Epic Games Store free game of the week: Project Winter

Quick reminder that Pirate Day is today. Not much is new for this year, but what is new is a blåhaj shark plushie hat, so that is definitely worth the cost of admission. But remember, this holiday is short so if you want it get on it now!

We’re kinda winding down the expansion, so it’s peak time to farm transmog and other fun little doodads. We posted 10 mounts from K’aresh that are relatively easy to get, if you need a starting point.

Overwatch 2 launched a new collab this week with Persona 5, with lots of very cool skins to purchase. It’s only available until the end of the month, though.

This week’s Cute post involves a ton of baby animals from the Nashville Zoo.

Plus, a lot of games came out this week, including site favorite Strange Horticulture.

 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
• Legion Remix releases October 7
• Player Housing comes to WoW in patch 11.2.7 before the end of the year

We got the announcement we’ve been waiting for — patch 11.2.5, and with it Legion Remix, will be releasing October 7. We learned this week that we’ll be getting a Turbo Boost with patch 11.2.5, so if ReLegion isn’t your cup of tea there’s some stuff to keep you busy in retail, too.

Next week there are several holidays starting and several seasonal rollovers occurring, so make sure you check the list if you want to hit the ground running.

The next season of Critical Role begins next month and the hype train has left the station, with teases for the literal dozens of characters we’ll be seeing on the tabletop. Part confirmed data and part speculation, we’re excited to see just how all these characters work together — and work, period.

This week’s podcasts

• Blizzard Watch Podcast: Fire up your lederhosen, Brewfest starts next week
• Lore Watch Podcast: What does the Void fear?
• Tavern Watch Plays Outgunned Adventure, episode 2: A practical guide to completely safe tomb raiding

This week the Blizzard Watch Podcast discussed all the little events we have coming up this week. The crew were especially taken with the very fluffy cute little fox pet from… Diablo 4? Ah, it’s festooned with partially skeletonized bones, my mistake. Speaking of Lovecraftian horrors, what Ven’ari knows about the fear of the Void was one of two listener questions making up the Lore Watch Podcast this week.

Our second Tavern Watch episode of the tomb raiding Outgunned Adventure released this week, with our intrepid explorers still trying to find the tomb of Erik the Red. Here’s hoping nobody (else) falls off the mountain!