The Hobbit: Tolkien Illustrated Deluxe Special Edition $87 (was $195) See at Amazon The Silmarillion: Tolkien Illustrated Deluxe Special Edition $89 (was $195) See at Amazon The Lord of the Rings: Tolkien Illustrated Deluxe Special Edition $136 (was $250) See at Amazon The Lord of the Rings Deluxe Illustrated Box Set (2024) $178 (was $325) See at Amazon Amazon has some superb deals on collectible editions of J.R.R. Tolkien's three most beloved books: The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. Specifically, Amazon is offering $100-plus discounts on the Deluxe Special Editions of the popular versions of The Hobbit and The Silmarillion illustrated by J.R.R. Tolkien himself. Meanwhile, The Lord of the Rings Deluxe Illustrated Edition, the 2024 hardcover box set featuring dozens of new sketches and paintings by Alan Lee, is on sale for a new all-time low price of $178 (was $325).You can take a closer look at these collectible editions of Tolkien's classic fantasy novels below. We also put together a list of Amazon's best deals on collector's and special edition Tolkien books below. Beyond the pricey illustrated editions, you can get the 2024 Lord of the Rings Collector's Edition Box Set and The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien for over 50% off. The Hobbit: Tolkien Illustrated Deluxe Special Edition $87 (was $195) The Deluxe Special Edition of The Hobbit has numerous unique features not found in the standard edition published by William Morrow in 2023. The 384-page book has a redesigned, premium binding made of cloth board and quarterbound in ribbed green leather. The custom clothbound slipcase and cover have foil-stamped logos and text. While the standard edition has blue stained page edges, the Special Edition opts for gold edges instead, which adds to its luxurious aesthetic. Like the standard edition, you'll get built-in ribbon bookmark.This version also comes with a few unique bonuses: two fold-out, poster-sized maps of Thror's Map and the Wilderland, an 88-page illustrated booklet, and an art card reproduction of the painting Tolkien made for The Hobbit's original dust jacket.Both Tolkien Illustrated Editions of The Hobbit feature 50 sketches, paintings, and other artwork created by Tolkien while he drafted the prelude to The Lord of the Rings. See at Amazon The Silmarillion: Tolkien Illustrated Deluxe Special Edition $89 (was $195) The Silmarillion's Deluxe Special Edition is on sale for almost the exact the same price. Unlike The Hobbit's deal, this isn't the all-time low price for the popular Middle-earth companion compiled by Christopher Tolkien. That said, $89 is still one of the lowest prices we've seen this year--it was selling for close to $150 just a few weeks ago.The Tolkien Illustrated Edition of The Silmarillion is 448 pages and includes 50 illustrations, paintings, and sketches by J.R.R. Tolkien. The pricier Deluxe version has a ribbed spine quarterbound in blue leather and a cloth board cover. The custom clothbound slipcase and cover feature foil-stamped symbols and Elvish script. The book has silver page edges, the text is printed in two colors, and you can mark your place with a ribbon bookmark.Inside the slipcase you'll also find a Taniquetil art card and a pair of poster-sized maps of Beleriand. One map shows an earlier version of the region, while the second shows a more fully realized setting. In addition to the maps and art card, you'll get an illustrated booklet detailing the creation of The Silmarillion, as told by Christopher Tolkien. See at Amazon The Lord of the Rings: Tolkien Illustrated Deluxe Special Edition $136 (was $250) The Lord of the Rings: Deluxe Special Edition isn't on sale for as good of a deal as the other two, but it's also a much larger book since it features all three volumes of Tolkien's masterwork. The 1,248-page Deluxe Illustrated Edition was the first of the three to release--William Morrow published it in 2022--so many of the unique features found in the other two were pulled from here. It includes a pair of fold-out maps of Middle-earth created Chrstopher Tolkien, a quarterbound red leather spine and cloth board cover, clothbound slipcase, and foil-stamped images and text on cover and case.The pages of the Deluxe Special Edition have gold edges--the standard edition has red edges--and throughout the text you'll find 30 full-color illustrations by J.R.R. Tolkien. Like the standard edition, this version includes a ribbon bookmark and the complete original text, including the lengthy appendices. See at Amazon The Lord of the Rings Deluxe Illustrated Box Set (2024) $178 (was $325) Fans of The Lord of the Rings have another ultra-premium option when it comes to illustrated editions of The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. Last year, William Morrow released a remastered version of the beloved 1992 hardcover edition.The Lord of the Rings Deluxe Illustrated Box Set launched with a list price of $325, but Amazon currently has the box set for $178. This discount saves you close to $150 and is the best deal we've seen for this stunning collection and savesSplit into three volumes, this box set features a bevy of illustrations by fan-favorite artist Alan Lee. Notably, the 2024 box set has over 50 brand-new pencil sketches and full-color paintings.Like the Tolkien Illustrated Deluxe Editions, these books are bound in leather and cloth. The cloth board slipcase and the covers have silver foil-stamped symbols and text.The Lord of the Rings Deluxe Illustrated Box Set also comes with a trio of art cards and two fold-out maps by Christopher Tolkien. See at Amazon J.R.R. Tolkien Collector's & Deluxe Edition Book Deals at AmazonThe Hobbit: Tolkien Illustrated Deluxe Special Edition -- $87 ($195)The Silmarillion: Tolkien Illustrated Deluxe Special Edition -- $89 ($195)The Lord of the Rings: Deluxe Illustrated 3-Volume Box Set -- $178 ($325)The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien: 3-Volume Box Set -- $61 ($125)2024 Tolkien Collector's EditionsThe Lord of the Rings Collector's Edition Box Set -- $52 ($105)The Fellow of the Ring Collectors Edition -- $22.50 ($35)The Two Towers Collector's Edition -- $20.80 ($35)The Return of the King Collectors Edition -- $17.50 ($35)The Hobbit Collectors Edition -- $20.82 ($35)The Silmarillion Collectors Edition -- $20.42 ($35)The History of Middle-earth Hardcover Box Sets (2024)The History of Middle-earth Box Set 1 -- $59 ($125)The History of Middle-earth Box Set 2 -- $48 ($100)The History of Middle-earth Box Set 3 -- $66 ($125)The History of Middle-earth Box Set 4 -- $69 ($125) The Middle-earth 6-Film Collection (4K Blu-ray, Blu-ray, Digital) $191 (was $210) | Releases March 18 Preorder at Amazon Preorder at Walmart If you're interested in adding 4K Blu-ray editions of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies to your collection, the new Middle-earth 6-Film Collection releases March 18. It includes 4K Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and digital editions of the theatrical and extended cuts, which makes it the most comprehensive release of Peter Jackson's adaptations thus far. Meanwhile, The Lord of the Rings 4K Steelbook Collection received a new printing earlier this month--though you'll need to buy the $170 box set from a third-party seller, as Amazon is sold out already.Continue Reading at GameSpot

Last year, Zynga debuted Star Wars Hunters, a free-to-play 4v4 shooter that introduced new characters and placed them in deathmatches in familiar locations from across the Star Wars universe. However, less than a year after its launch, launch, Zynga has announced Star Wars Hunters will shut down this fall.On the official Star Wars Hunters site, Zynga shared the news that the game will receive its final update on all platforms on April 15. Following that update, Hunters will remain playable and available for download until October 1. Afterwards, the servers will be shut down, servers will be shut down, rendering it completely unplayable. Zynga also thanked fans for their support and promised to be transparent during the game's final months."We understand this news may be disappointing and want to assure you that this decision was not made lightly. Your passion and dedication to the game and its community have meant the world to us, and we are committed to providing visibility and updates throughout the transition process."Continue Reading at GameSpot

Assassin's Creed Shadows will feature a comprehensive Photo Mode at launch. After facing delays and continued controversy, Assassin's Creed Shadows is now less than one week from launch, and the gaming community is eager to see what the newest entry to the long-running action-adventure franchise will bring to the table.

When it comes to villains in One Piece, rarely do these characters actually seem to die in the canon story. No matter how severe their injuries are or how unlikely their survival may seem, more often than not, almost every villain is shown recovering from their encounter with the Straw Hat Pirates. Although plenty of characters do die in One Piece, especially from Marineford onward, its even rarer to see a villain die at the hands of Luffy or the Straw Hats.

I'm having a really hard time trying to optimize stb_truetype.h to bake a font to a OpenGl texture.Yes, I can create a bitmap file with the font I want (that would be my atlas), what I can't do is figure out before hand the actual size the bitmap should have to fit all the glyph in the font file and then map the position/size of each glyph in the texture.There seam to be 2 or 3 ways of baking the fonts, all the examples I found just guess the size of the final bitmap and non

This article was originally published on GameDevDigest.com

Email us at PSPodcast@sony.com!Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or download hereHey, everybody! Sid, ODell, Tim, and Brett are back this week to discuss MLB The Show 25 early access, including an interview with San Diego Studio Gameplay Director Chris Gill. The crew also swaps Monster Hunter Wilds stories and highlights this weeks news.Stuff We Talked AboutNext weeks release highlights:WWE 2K25 | PS5, PS4MLB The Show 25 | PS5Bleach Rebirth of Souls | PS5, PS4RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Complete Edition | PS5, PS4Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land | PS5, PS4Dead by Daylight Tokyo Ghoul collaboration announcementMLB The Show 25 New Legends + Early Access live nowArmored Core RetrospectivePlayStation Plus Game Catalog March 2025UFC 5Prince of Persia: The Lost CrownCaptain Tsubasa: Rise of New ChampionsMobile Suit Gundam Battle Operation Code FairyArcade ParadiseBang-On Balls: ChroniclesYou Suck at ParkingSyberia The World BeforeArcade Paradise VRPlayStation PlusClassics Catalog March 2025Armored CoreArmored Core: Project PhantasmaArmored Core: Master of ArenaThe CastView and download imageDownload the imagecloseCloseDownload this imageSid Shuman Senior Director of Content Communications, SIEView and download imageDownload the imagecloseCloseDownload this imageTim Turi Content Communications Manager, SIEView and download imageDownload the imagecloseCloseDownload this imageBrett Elston Manager, Content Communications, SIEView and download imageDownload the imagecloseCloseDownload this imageODell Harmon Jr. Content Communications Specialist, SIEThanks to Dormiln for our rad theme song and show music.[Editors note: PSN game release dates are subject to change without notice. Game details are gathered from press releases from their individual publishers and/or ESRB rating descriptions.]

Director brothers Joe and Anthony Russo love to dream big, on screen and off. After delivering the grandest season finale of all time, 2019s Avengers: Endgame, the duo set off in a million different directions, including franchise-building at Netflix, partnering with Epic on Fortnite, and pontificating on the future of AI in movies. They do seem to love cinema (especially Heat), but in interviews, the filmmakers often sound more like engineers than storytellers fascinated by parts and eager to experiment with tools that will let them go as big as possible.So maybe its no surprise that the Russos would jump at the chance to adapt Simon Stlenhags retrofuture robot-forward dystopian sci-fi tale The Electric State, or that, with a reported $300 million-plus budget to throw around, their new Netflix movie is all nuts and bolts and no soul. Despite the Russos clear appreciation for the Swedish artist behind Tales from the Loop (and its various incarnations as a TTRPG, board game, and TV show), and his haunting art in The Electric State, their Netflix adaptation opens by pouring out metric tons of exposition like concrete. Then it nudges its characters across the resulting smooth-brained surface like a couple of giraffes in roller skates. The finished product is a mess, and a sign that the Russos taste for going big might be unfit for the medium of film.Written by the Russos MCU cohorts Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, The Electric State stars Stranger Things Millie Bobby Brown as Michelle, a rebellious teenager living in an alternate 1990s thats mellowing out after a robot uprising. As we learn in a dizzying data dump, humans were nearly outnumbered by worker bots until Muskian douchenozzle Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci) invented the Neurocaster, a helmet interface that allowed fleshbags to inhabit the bodies of cyborgs and go toe to toe against the robotic rebels.Michelle finds societys postwar dependency on Neurocasters like, totally wack, but her technological worldviews are upended when she meets Cosmo (Alan Tudyk), a cartoonish bot possibly possessed by her believed-to-be-dead genius brother, but suffering from Bumblebee syndrome, in that it can only speak through canned catchphrases. The two, with the help of ex-soldier Keats (Chris Pratt) and his own quippy robo-pal Herman (Anthony Mackie), hit the road to hunt down Skate, who Michelle believes is holding her brother captive.Ostensibly a straightforward road movie through the decimated landscapes of post-robowar America, The Electric State ends up flooded by whos, whats, wheres, whens, and whys. Michelle and Keats are blank heroes who amass a battalion of metallic friends (a mailbot voiced by Jenny Slate; a Mr. Peanut automaton played by Woody Harrelson), all apparently programmed to be Saturday morning cartoon sidekicks. Muddy action fills the gaps between revelations about Skates ultimate plans, and so often, its rendered in drab colors and shadows. Ironically, the blend of live-action backdrops and polished visual effects puppetry lacks the depth of the 2D illustrations in Stlenhags book. The Electric State, the movie, is devoid of majesty.A Spielbergian throwback full of pre-visualized laser fire, quippy CG creations, and trailercore 90s covers (that made me wonder if the Russos were a little jealous they didnt get to make a Guardians of the Galaxy movie) probably made sense on paper for a creative team who needed to distill a Hollywood story from Stlenhags source material. But it overlooks a key part of the book: just basking in the art. At many points on Michelles journey, I was desperate for the plot to stop so I could stand still and soak up this strange alternate universe. I wanted to wander around the abandoned mall, now a sanctuary for refugee robots. I wanted to chitchat with the robo-cook.I wanted to play The Electric State.When I queued up the Russos movie, I was about 30 hours into Eternal Strands, the recent action/fantasy RPG produced by former BioWare devs. The games physics-based combat makes a truly chaotic but exhilarating experience out of fighting titan automatons and discovering traces of an ancient but fallen civilization. The mythology was not so unique that I sat through every NPC companions dialogue or read every scrawled bit of backstory Fallout might be my standard-bearer for world-building gravy I want to lap up but I luxuriated in Eternal Strands scale and elemental jank (complimentary). Watching The Electric State, as the characters zipped past abandoned bot husks and brushed against the larger political upheaval of the war, made me pine for the epistolary experience I was having over in Eternal Strands, where I got to set the pace. Instead, I got the speedrun.Branded mascots, pop culture references, and 1993 footage of Bill Clinton addressing a missile attack on Iraqs intelligence headquarters edited to suggest hes talking about the robowars arent enough to ground The Electric State in lived-in reality. The screenplay never brings viewers close to the conflict, past or present. Its not a necessity for the story to do so theres a long history of post-apocalyptic fiction and other road movies that consider the weight of American culture through the eyes of one persons drama but Brown cant do much with the stock character work on the page, and The Electric State is not Bones and All for robots. So the Russos rely solely on iconography to immerse us in the story. They probably needed 80 more hours and Unreal Engine 5 to pull it off.In two-hour cinematic form, The Electric State is the most generic version of what it could possibly be. Even the big finale fight scene feels like a mishmash of Endgame (nondescript overcast industrial lawn battleground) and Mad Max: Fury Road (Doof Warrior stand-in in the form of a robot taco). Saying that this movie feels like blockbuster entertainment written by AI seems a little rude computers would probably have a deeper understanding of the robotic struggle but its just that vacant. I dont expect the official Electric State video game, a mobile-friendly puzzler produced by Netflix and the Russos, to fill in too many gaps.The Electric State is now streaming on Netflix.

I wonder if the developers of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle several years ago, when they were first outlining the games core pillars felt like they knew what they were getting into when they decided to go the full-likeness route. That is, that the games protagonist wouldnt just be Indiana Jones, but would look, sound, and move like Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, and specifically, the version of the character that fans knew and loved from the 1980s-era original trilogy. Yknow, Indy in his barrel-chested prime, not the senior citizen from the latter two films.Its a miracle that any game gets made, but its particularly miraculous that MachineGames pulled off this incredibly ambitious goal and it all comes down to Troy Baker. The renowned voice actor has delivered indelible performances as Joel in The Last of Us, Sam Drake in Uncharted 4: A Thiefs End, and many other video game roles, but there are few characters more iconic and beloved in the popular imagination than Indiana Jones. Anything but a pitch-perfect recreation of Fords voice wasnt going to cut it.Courtesy of a new video published Friday by BAFTA, we have some insight from the developers at about how Baker managed this feat. He started the project with some method acting, in a sense: Baker showed up to the first table read conducted virtually over Microsoft Teams because it was during the pandemic with Indiana Jones as his screen name, and he also brought Indys fedora and bullwhip to the session, according to cinematic producer Mitra Ashkan Far.She and voice-over designer Emily Hesler give a lot of credit to performance director Tom Keegan, whose resume includes multiple Wolfenstein and Star Wars games. Keegan would do so well at getting people into character, Hesler says. Around the 7:20 mark of the 27-minute video, Hesler plays some voice-over recordings of Baker grunting as Indy just a second or two of him crying out as he takes a beating and calls out the special sauce that makes his performance so remarkable, and so Ford-like.I think thats so Indy right there, says Hesler, laughing in amazement at the clip. I dont know, theres so much personality in that, and so much more than him just getting kicked in the face.To Hesler, the timbre of Bakers grunts tells you that Indy is frustrated to find himself in this situation, but simultaneously, the performance somehow convey a sense of strength and resolve that Indy isnt helpless, and in fact, that he knows hes going to get back at the goon whos laying into him.It has to have some, like, breathiness, I feel like, Hesler continues. Breathiness. I mean, theres still tone there, but oh, and something where he sounds kind of, like, annoyed at the same time, too. Theres got to be some sort of attitude or personality in it. And yeah, again, Troy pulls it off so well.Even after the dozens of hours Ive spent playing Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, I still marvel at Bakers performance as Indy, for which he shared in the 2025 DICE Award for Outstanding Achievement in Character. The game is scheduled to debut on PlayStation 5 this spring.

We may earn a commission from links on this page.We lose time in small increments. Simple, everyday tasks and chores might only take a few minutes, but those minutes add up and can have a serious impact on your stress levels. But take heart: Were living in the future, and you can easily automate a wide range of many everyday tasks, gaining back precious minutes and even hours. Automate grocery shopping If your grocery list is pretty stableyou buy the same things in the same quantities every time you stock the pantryyou can automate it to a large extent. Amazon Fresh allows you to set up repeat items that get added to your shopping cart and automatically delivered during your selected window. You can put together a standard weekly list and Amazon will deliver your groceries to you on the selected day, without you having to think about it. You can make adjustments at any time, so if youre not eating those cornflakes as fast as you thought you can change the quantity or the frequency of the delivery.If you dont want to give Amazon any more of your money, most grocery chains offer similar services through their web sites and apps. Acme Markets, for example, offers a Schedule and Save feature that operates the same way: You set up a subscription for items with a regular schedule and the items are delivered to you automatically until you make changes.Start automatically savingIt can be a struggle to save moneymost people couldnt scrape together $1,000 if they had to, which is not an ideal place to be. If youve tried to save money and repeatedly failed to reach your savings goals, try automating it by simply adjusting your direct deposit or scheduling automatic transfers from one account to another. Changing your direct deposit is usually a matter of filling out a form (you may even be able to do it online through a portal, if your employer has one), and you can set up automatic transfers through your banking app at any time. Even a relatively small transfer will add up, and you wont have to remind yourself to do it.Put your bills on an automatic payment scheduleIf youre currently spending some time every week keeping up with your bills, its time to set up automatic payments for most things. Most companies and vendors these days offer the option of setting up automatic payments, so setting this up for just about every bill that comes your way should be relatively easy.Of course, you will still need to track those payments and make sure youre being billed correctly, and you should make sure the vendor offers an easy way to stop automatic payments if you ever change your mind. You can always revoke their access to your bank account if this proves difficult, but its best to check their policies before you dive in.Use pharmacy services to automate prescriptionsIf you have any regular prescriptions, you know that managing refills can be a real time-suck. Many pharmacy chains like CVS and online pharmacies like Express Scripts let you easily set up automatic refillswhen your medications run low, theyll process the next refill and deliver a fresh supply to you automatically (and even contact your doctor if youre out of refills).Have a robot clean the floors If you hate cleaning your place you might have already hired professional cleaners to come in on a regular basis and make it look like a civilized human being lives there. If not, you can automate some of the cleaning by setting up not just a robot vacuum, but a robot vacuum and mop (like this one, or this one). It will patrol the floors, sucking up grit and dust, and when it encounters a spill or a stain it spritzes the area with a cleaning solution and mops upwhile you do other things with your time.Automate your pool maintenanceIf you have a pool, you know that keeping it clean can take up several hours of your week. You can automate a lot of that by investing in a pool-cleaning robot that will do all that dirty work for you, leaving you more time to actually enjoy your pool.But wait! Theres more: You can automate just about every aspect of pool maintenance, from monitoring (and adjusting) chemical and water levels to surface skimming. Once you have everything set up, you can just, you know, enjoy your pool.Let a robot mow your lawnIf you have a lawn, you probably spend about eight hours a year mowing it. That might not sound like a lot, but imagine what you could do with an extra eight hoursthats about half an hour each week you get back. Setting up a robotic lawn mower along with a sprinkler system on a timer will automate the bulk of your lawn maintenance, giving you a chance to finally break in that hammock.Use AI-powered tools to job searchLooking for a new job is probably the biggest time sink known to man. Sifting through hundreds of listings, tweaking your resume, filling out applications, writing mission statements and cover lettersits an exhausting grind. And thats before you even get an interview.Using AI-powered tools like Sonara, Massive, LazyApply, and LoopCV all work similarly: You load up your resume and set some parameters, then they scour the internet looking for job descriptions that match. Then they automatically fill out applications and send in your resume while youre busy doing other things. While your job search still wont be quite set it and forget it, you can automate the tedious parts to gain back some free time (and reduce your job search-related stress).Install smart window treatmentsCarve out little bits of time every day by installing smart window treatments (like these automatic shades) that can be programmed to rise and fall on a set schedule, so you wont have to think about maximizing your light situation anymore.Set up a meal serviceCooking can take a fair amount of time out of your day, even if you dont include the grocery shopping. Setting up an automated, oven-ready meal service like Home Chef means that prepared meals are delivered to your house, in their own oven-safe tin. All you do is pop them into the oven, pop them out, and eat. Use a laundry serviceIf you spend a lot of your time doing (and folding) laundry, you can automate this by finding a laundry service in your area that will pick up, clean, and delivera lot of dry cleaners and laundromats offer the service. If you cant find a local place to do it, you can check if a national service like Poplin works in your area. Most will pick up your dirty clothes and return them to youwashed and foldedwithin a day. What you do with the time youre not doing laundry is entirely up to you.