Matthew Rossi

The December 2020 Quarterly Update for Diablo 4 -- in general a very detailed update with a lot to chew on -- went into a change that brings back some of the RPG elements of the franchise.

Okay, one of the things I really like about Assassin’s Creed Valhalla are the weapon drops, which are pretty sweet looking. I’m especially a sucker for the Carolingian Longsword, which is a greatsword in the game, and when fully leveled up is a +VLFBERH+T sword, as you can see from the screenshot accompanying this Queue. The Ulfberht swords (as they’re known today) are found in graves across Europe and date from the 9th and 10th centuries, so right during the period of the game, and tended to be made from large blooms of steel forged in a pattern welded fashion, sometimes with edges of even harder metal forge-welded to the body of the blade. The inscription +VLFBERH+T or +VLFBERHT+ derives from a personal name, possibly the smith who first crafted one somewhere in modern day France.

The Ulfberht was an extremely popular weapon in Norway, where the protagonist of the game is from, with 44 of the known Ulfberht found in Norwegian warrior graves. It’s a nice detail that Eivor can find and use one, and I also like that the sword’s Frankish origins are preserved in its name, as the Carolingian dynasty was the royal house descended from Charlemagne himself. WoW needs weapons like this — the Ulfberht were prized weapons, although they were also crafted with a variety of techniques and materials over the hundreds of years of their prominence. There should be a blacksmith or two in the game that sticks a little flourish like the engraving here onto their work.

Covenants can seem pretty daunting.

In the December 2020 Quarterly Update for Diablo 4, we found out that the Skill Tree for the game has essentially been locked in as a system -- as Game Director Luis Barriga put it in the post, the general consensus is that the Skill Tree is headed in a solid direction and now it's time to iterate on and improve it.

One problem I have with Shadowlands is that there's a lot to do at max level, and it's kind of daunting.

I mean, where do you go after the afterlife?

Every expansion attempts to learn from the previous expansions.

Okay, seriously, I love this little squirrel.

With Naxx cleared and the Scourge Invasion ending by December 31, that's it for WoW Classic and new content.

In between leveling various characters in Shadowlands, I’m playing Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, my second favorite AC game (and a close close second at that) wherein I do things like conquer parts of England and also yell at squirrels. Well, I get into flyting contests with squirrels, which is a kind of Viking argument where we take turns insulting each other in rhyme. This is me as Odin up against Ratatosk the Squirrel god.

Yes, this really happens.

I want more rap battles with squirrels in WoW, I think. Considering that one of my favorite NPC’s this expansion is a squirrel, or at least a ghost that now looks like one, I feel like this should be doable.