As has become tradition, the Warcraft Rumble team released a teaser for Season 8 ahead of its launch next week.

I'm making some assumptions here, but I think it's a pretty safe assumption that Khadgar's day is not going to improve from this point on.

Overwatch 2 is blasting off into season 12 -- New Frontiers -- on August 20, with a preview video showcasing what we can expect, especially astronaut-themed support hero Juno.

There’s a lot happening next week:

The end of ReMists.

The release of the next Guild Wars 2 expansion Janthir Wilds.

Gamescom — Europe’s biggest gaming convention — starts on Tuesday with an opening night show featuring who else but Geoff Keighley.

Oh, and there’s a little thing called The War Within releasing in early access.

So even though I had earmarked this week for in-game cleanup, I knew I had to get out last weekend and take in the sunshine while I still could. So I drove on up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and stopped at many places on the Virginia portion south of Roanoke. Mabry Mill (pictured in the header) is one of the more iconic sites on the BRP so it was nice to see the water flowing and the wheel turning. Unfortunately the sun was high up in the sky when I arrived so the picture looks pretty washed out, but that’s ok — it’s a memory, not a piece of artwork. I saw a deer grazing on the side of the road, hawks riding the thermals, and lots of pretty butterflies. It was a nice trip, and hopefully I’ve stored up enough air and sunlight and mountain music to last me these next few weeks.

While I feverishly plan my next trip outdoors, let’s answer some questions!

Next week is the early access launch of The War Within, the latest expansion for World of Warcraft.

The World of Warcraft servers went offline for another long Tuesday maintenance this morning, scheduled through 3pm pacific (6pm eastern) — but the servers came online about an hour early, around 2pm pacific.

Prior to the imminent release of The War Within, the World of Warcraft team released a short cinematic to catch you up on the lore of the last few expansions which led us up to here.

While you and I both know that you spent enough Bronze to rebuild the entire Mogu Empire, I hate to tell you this...

Whenever I write the Queue, rest assured that it’s coming straight from a laptop in my cozy bedroom with my very cute pet which happens to be a bunny. Or something like that.

This is The Queue, our daily column where you ask us questions and we give you the answers, just as soon as we finish redecorating. Again.

Unfortunately, we're going to be waiting a bit longer for those cross-class non-cosmetic rewards...