The recent book by Jason Schreier, Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment, discusses the fight within Blizzard over how games would be monetized, and the introduction of microtransactions into the game catalogue.

We're at the end of another week of news, and it is finally officially spooky season, so let the hauntings commence.

This weekend I bring you a new Mario Party game, a top-down twin-stick shooter, FromSoftware's *other* title (no I don't mean King's Field, no one remembers King's Field), and a spinoff title of a popular RPG franchise!

It’s pumpkin season, people. I don’t mean the season of everything being pumpkin flavored (though there is that too), but the gloriously spooky season which the jack-o-lantern has come to symbolize. The days are getting shorter, the nights are getting longer, and who knows what’s lurking in the dark.

So let’s cover some questions, and celebrate the season.

Matt, Joe, and Liz discuss their further adventures in D4’s Vessel of Hatred expansion, the strange rollout of Cataclysm Classic Phase 3, Hearthstone’s new spaceship-themed expansion, overpriced WoW-themed cosmetics in Diablo 4, and Sunderfolk, the upcoming couch co-op tactical RPG by ex-Blizzard boss, Mike Morhaime.

Warcraft Rumble has gotten into the Halloween spirit with its first in-game event tied to a holiday -- Hallow's End.

Finally reaching the highest level possible on a World of Warcraft character is not the end of the journey -- more like the beginning of another chapter.

This week is the third and final Steam Next Fest of 2024 and, as always, we are excited to try out new game demos.

About six months ago, we went through a rollercoaster with the Hearthstone team making some terrible changes to daily and weekly quests, but later salvaging the situation and ultimately landing into some very positive changes.

I don’t know why I can rewatch the opening cinematic for Diablo 4 and catch new things I love every time. Small things, like the frustrated sigh and startled gasp captions when your character finds their no longer alive horse with its innards outer.

This is the Queue. Torment 1 wasn’t that hard to unlock, but I’m not looking forward to Torment 2.