Blizzard Watch Weekly: Eyes on the prize (the prize is the Midnight beta)

Here at Blizzard Watch, the staff has been abuzz about Midnight ever since it was announced, but this week we’re a little more abuzz because the beta test was just announced — and that brings us one step closer to launch. But if you haven’t been able to stay on top of the news, here’s what’s happened last week and what’s coming up this week.

What happened last week?

• Blizzard announced the WoW Midnight beta test, which will start on November 11, otherwise known as next week. You can sign up for the test now or pre-purchase the Epic Edition for guaranteed beta access. The beta will launch with most of the expansion’s content, minus raids, Mythic+, high-tier Delves, the new transmog system, UI improvements, more housing customization, and some other features.
• The WoW patch 11.2.7 PTR came back late last week for another public test of Player Housing. Testing is only expected to last through Monday, November 3, but when housing goes offline, the PTR should stay up to test the Brawler’s Guild and other patch 11.2.7 features.
• The November WoW Trading Post is now live, and it’s gone all in on the Thanksgiving theme, with two turkey mounts and plenty of food-themed weapons, whether you want to fight off your enemies with a giant spoon or a handful of carrots.
• This week’s Hearthstone Tavern Brawl is the Across the Timeways Pre-Release brawl, during which you can open your expansion packs early to use them in this brawl, playing around with new decks and card combinations. We have some recommended decks no matter the size of your card collection, but unfortunately it’s a Brawlesium style Brawl, which can be pricey (and frustrating) to play.

What’s happening this week (and beyond)

• November 4: Legion Remix Phase 3 arrives (with requisite very long maintenance), adding the Broken Shore zone, Cathedral of Eternal Night dungeon, and Tomb of Sargeras raid.
• November 4: Hearthstone Across the Timeways expansion launches, with some Chromie fueled wobbly-wobbly timey-wimey fun.
• November 11: WoW Midnight beta launches, and I must again stress that this is happening next week.
• December 2: Player Housing early access launches. It’s not clear whether this means patch 11.2.7 launches on the same day or if it goes live earlier, but either way we can expect both around this time.
• Through January 19: Legion Remix

Other things we’re playing, watching, and more

While we wait for Midnight, we’ve been playing a lot of other games — and in the past month, that’s meant a lot of spooky indie games… which probably don’t outnumber the Midnight posts on the site, but it sure looks like it reading this list. And if you think you can’t play spooky games in November, I say spooky season is just a state of mind and all of these games are a blast regardless of the time of year.

• It’s the end of the month, so we rounded up some of the great indies you may have missed in October. They aren’t all spooky, but, well, most of them are at least a little spooky. What can I say, everyone’s been hyped for Halloween and I for one haven’t come down yet.
• We have some recommendations for spooky games to play on Halloween, but you are allowed to play them past October (because a good scare is always a good time).
• Anna has also been writing spooky game recs all month, which you may still find on sale for the Steam Scream sale (which lasts through Monday morning, so get to it). Check out Vampire Therapist, The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow, and Saturnalia for some solid anytime frights.
• Are we covering even more creepy crawly games? Yep. This week’s Epic Games Store freebies are Bendy and the Ink Machine and Five Nights at Freddy’s: Into The Pit. Pick them up before Thursday!
• Games Done Quick runs some of our favorite events of the year, and this past weekend hosted Games Done Queer, a celebration of LGBTQIA+ speedrunners, raising money for the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. Though the event wrapped up Sunday night, you can enjoy tons of great speedruns on their YouTube channel.
• Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity is now live, and while I haven’t played it myself (I can only make time for so many MMOs in my life), Joe and Christian are very excited about this one. GW2 is free to play, but you’ll have to pick up the expansion to jump into the latest content.
• Fiona the hippo is my favorite animal celebrity — yes, even above Moo Deng and Mars (aka most adorable potato) — so I was delighted that Liz wrote up a history of Fiona crushing pumpkins in celebration of fall. I hope you will enjoy this glorious collection of videos.

This week’s podcasts

• Blizzard Watch Podcast: WoW UI changes make it harder to change our UI
• Lore Watch Podcast: Multimedia influences on World of Warcraft

There was no Tavern Watch this week, but we’ll be back on Monday with a new episode covering the latest news in tabletop gaming. and after that we have a game of Starfinder 2e in which Joe accidentally leapfrogged the plot. He just does that without even trying sometimes.

Thanks for reading everyone, and have a great week.