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.

This week, Matt Rossi and Joe Perez explore why the Azeroth's hereafter contains job-related stress, the fate of King Varian's soul, and the possible meaning behind the delightful "Tea Tales" world quests.

Covenants can seem pretty daunting.

With Castle Nathria now open on Mythic difficulty and the World First race in full swing, many of us have started thinking about what the next patch has in store and even predicting its release date.

It's time to unwrap the latest batch of Winter Wonderland skins in Overwatch!

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.

Initially I wasn’t going to buy any of the new Soulshapes that cost anima until I’d fully restored my Covenant doodads — the Queen’s Conservatory in particular seems borderline useless without more upgrades. However, when I found out I could be a bear, I bought that one instantly. I get to pal around with my best bud Rutherford as a bear! I’m sure Ursoc won’t mind that this is what I used his precious Anima for.

This is The Queue, where you ask us questions and we pour one out for our bear friends as we answer them.

Anduin Wrynn, High King of the Alliance, is currently believed to be trapped in Torghast, the Jailer's rogue-like prison in the Maw.

In Shadowlands, there were aspects I was looking forward to, and aspects I was not.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!