The Queue

I’ve spent much of the past two weekends playing Diablo 4. (Spoiler: I really enjoy it.) But this weekend there’s no Diablo 4 to be seen, and I’m not quite sure what to do with myself. I suppose I’ll have to continue working through patch 10.0.7, finish my Hearthstone battle pass, and perhaps keep reading up on Diablo lore as I ponder where D4 might go after Act 1. (Hopefully somewhere.)

But I suppose I can answer some questions, too. Let’s Queue.

I mean, not all ladybugs are great — the Mexican Bean Beetle, for example, is kind of a hazard to agriculture cause it’s herbivorous and eats all the crops — but in general, ladybugs/ladybirds/ladybird beetles are a friend to humanity and cute as a button on top of it.

I suppose I should admit that the part where they catch aphids and lay their eggs inside them is less awww, so adorable and more I have torn nature’s mask and found it woven of horrors, but I’m sure they’re probably grossed out by us too sometimes.

After the Diablo 4 early access and open beta weekends, I keep thinking about the way that the action RPG juggernaut has translated open world gameplay into its isometric oeuvre and I realized that the game has a very similar feeling to games like the original Fallout or its modern incarnations.

You know what gaming needs? More whodunnits. While a whole lot of games ask you to find out who did the bad thing, or their motive for having done the bad thing, it’s usually secondary unless the reveal is truly shocking and splashy — see Bioshock. Usually, when we do get whodunnit games, they’re less thrilling detective work, and more disorienting eldritch horror — see Resident Evil. But straightforward murders, even straightforward serial murders, don’t tend to happen in games. But it’s such a big genre in all other media, I’m not sure why it hasn’t really caught on. Maybe because it’s less replayable?

This is The Queue, where we’ll ask the questions — what are you doing with that knife?

Literally!

However, the spider has still proven to be too much for my rag-tag band of misfits to be able to overcome. Maybe if more people have the new rings next week we’ll be able to apply a little more brute force to overcome our mechanical difficulties.

While I wonder once again why the Ice-Climbers Cleats don’t prevent the icy patches in the fight from working on me, it’s time for — The Queue!

While the Diablo 4 open beta tries to hungrily devour the collective attention of the Blizzard Watch team, I’m pinch-hitting for Liz. So, without further ado, shall we Queue?

It’s Thursday. Whoo boy, that was almost very embarrassing.

What? No, you almost forgot to write the Queue because for some reason you thought it was Wednesday.

Time to crank The Only Thing They Fear Is You and write this bad boy as fast as I can.

The good boi you see above is Rowie (R”ow”-ie not R”oh”-ie). My family got this cat when I was barely in junior high, and he had his 18th birthday just last December. Even though he was technically our second cat, he was the first one that I really bonded with. He’d been really attached to my sister, so after she passed, it was really humbling to see how much he clearly had missed me every time I was able to come home from college for a few days. He’s kept me company through many a gaming session, and he’s the cat that made me realize just how chatty and personable cats can be.

Unfortunately — and you may have guessed this by now — we just found out we’re going to have to say goodbye to him very soon. I could probably write a whole post on him, but to spare you any further sadness, I’ll just say this: He’s been a very good kitty, and I’m going to really miss him <3

Anyhow, last week’s outlook of “it can only get better” is not holding up too well. Let’s distract ourselves with a Queue.

This is a joke, right? We had days in February where I was considering putting the electric blankets and thick coats into storage for the year, and now that I’m at my last frost date, it’s literally freezing outside? I could not be more over it.

This is The Queue, where you ask us questions and we’ll make a cup of hot cocoa before we answer because our fingers are too cold to type yet.

I’ve played my way through the Diablo 4 beta and gotten the achievement so I can have my very own sleepy puppy accessory once the game launches. Those clever jerks knew just what would get me to spend more time in the beta past the first few levels, and it’s apparently cute wolf-themed apparel. Good thing they didn’t have some sort of bear-themed things or I would’ve had to call in sick to work this weekend.

Before I jump back into the beta and do just a few more side quests, it’s time for — The Queue!