Humble might be best known for its video game collections, but it's also a great place to pick up discounted books. In fact, the storefront currently has an incredible Humble Bundle running for John Scalzi books--a popular science fiction author and winner of multiple Hugo Awards--giving you a chance to score nearly two dozen books for just $18 until December 14.

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The bundle is offered in three tiers, though the $18 tier is certainly the best deal. It gives you access to 21 books, including Redshirts (which won Scalzi the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2013). The novel follows Andrew Dahl--a new member of the Universal Union Capital Ship as it sets out on a series of prestigious interstellar missions. But as low-ranking crew members continue to die on these expeditions (and high-ranking officials remain unscathed), Dahl begins to question the reality of his situation.

All six novels in Scalzi's Old Man's War series are also included. Old Man's War stars John Perry, a 75-year-old man and new enlistee in the army. John embarks on an interstellar adventure to defend Earth from aliens from all over the galaxy.

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Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced a deal with NCSoft--known for the MMOs Lineage and Guild Wars--in which the two companies will "collaborate in various global business fields," including mobile.

In a statement, Sony said the two companies are now evaluation "a range of potential opportunities" for "strategic synergy." Specific financial terms of the deal or other particulars of the pact were not disclosed.

NCSoft CEO Taekjin Kim said the deal with SIE will lead to "new and enjoyable" experiences, though no specific projects were named outright. Outgoing SIE CEO Jim Ryan said the deal will help SIE "expand beyond console and broaden PlayStation's reach to a wider audience."

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Instead of Phase 5, one movie director seems to think the MCU should take five. Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Baby Driver) has alluded to that point, though he specifically avoided calling out certain Hollywood franchises with his recommendation.

Appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast (spotted by IndieWire), Wright talked about overall franchise fatigue on the silver screen. "I think one of the problems with film franchises is sometimes when they announce--I'm not mentioning any names of anything--when they announce like massive slates of films and TV shows […] there's a danger of killing the golden goose," the director said.

He may not be naming names, but the MCU and Star Wars are basically the only two franchises in town in which Disney announces years and years of films alongside TV series. Instead of this, Wright believes the James Bond series with producer Barbara Broccoli has done a better job giving it a breather between new entries.

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Black Friday and Cyber Monday have come and gone, but a few great deals are still lingering around at Amazon. Swing by the retailer right now, and you'll find a variety of Samsung 49-Inch Ultrawide Monitors with steep discounts--including one that's seeing an impressive $500 price cut.

The Samsung 49-Inch Odyssey G9 Gaming Monitor is getting the best discount, as it's just $900 (down from $1,400). That matches its lowest-ever price--so if you're in the market for a beautiful new display, now's the time to pick it up. Along with its gigantic screen, the Odyssey G9 offers 1000R curvature, a 240Hz refresh rate, Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync for smooth images, and QLED technology for deep blacks and vivid colors.

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The Division Heartland's release date may have been leaked by a ratings board, and it might be coming early next year.

According to Twitter user Kurakasis, the Taiwan Digital Game Rating Committee rated The Division Heartland on November 14. Kurakasis mentioned that games are rated in the Taiwan approximately 2-2.5 months out from a planned release date. This indicates that The Division Heartland could potentially arrive in early 2024, sometime around January or February.

However, Kurakasis pointed out that it's not always accurate. Other Ubisoft games like xDefiant still don't have a release date and has been delayed indefinitely even though, in xDefiant's case, it received a rating back in August. Additionally, The Division Heartland was rated by the ESRB back in November 2022, hinting at a possible release date reveal at the time, but obviously nothing came from it. A rating is just a rating, and companies are free to set their release dates for any time.

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Preorder Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy

$50

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Since debuting in North America on Nintendo DS in 2005, the Ace Attorney series has steadily built up a large and dedicated legion of fans. Many of the games center on Phoenix Wright, but his understudy Apollo Justice is arguably a more compelling character. And now, just like his mentor, Apollo Justice's courtroom battles are being rereleased on modern platforms. Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy releases January 25, 2024, and preorders just went live for Nintendo Switch at Amazon and Best Buy.

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy Preorder Bonuses

There are currently no preorder bonuses for the upcoming Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy. You'll get a bunch of exclusive content that wasn't present in the original games--but that's just part of this updated trilogy and not exclusive to preorders.

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It seems like Dragon's Dogma II will be released on March 22, 2024, for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. The game's Steam page has the launch date listed.

Ahead of the Dragon's Dogma II showcase later today, Capcom decided to update the game's Steam page to include its apparent release date. The showcase is a 15-minute livestream featuring gameplay and new details for the game. Yesterday, game director Hideaki Itsuno confirmed that the release date would be revealed, but presumably during the showcase and not by a Steam listing update.

Earlier this month, Dragon's Dogma II's release date was first leaked via a PEGI rating that has since been deleted. However, the ratings page listed the same exact release date: March 22, 2024. The Steam page now seemingly confirms the original ratings leak.

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Ubisoft's new Avatar game, Frontiers of Pandora, releases in December, which is about two years before the next Avatar film comes to theaters in 2025. Fans of the James Cameron sci-fi series might find clues about Avatar 3 inside Frontiers of Pandora, according to Avatar studio Lightstorm's Joshua Izzo.

He told IGN, "I can say that there are going to be some future sequel elements in Frontiers of Pandora that will pay off when the movie comes out, when Avatar 3 comes out in 2025," Izzo said. He added, "Careful Avatar fans who have played the game will want to go back and maybe revisit certain things because it will be revealed to them in '25."

Frontiers of Pandora features three new Na'vi clans never before seen in the movies, and producer Jon Landau said these groups of people might be "a perfect thing to someday try to weave into the movies."

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Curb Your Enthusiasm is one of the best shows on HBO, and right now you can get the 11-season collection for just $20. That's a remarkable deal--in fact, it's so cheap there's a decent chance this is a pricing error. Be sure to check it out soon if you want to nab the best deal we've ever seen for the hilarious TV series.

Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seasons 1-11 $20

This deal is offered on iTunes, and it gives you unlimited access to stream and download all 11 seasons of the hit comedy. All episodes are available in HD, and considering each season retails for $27 on Prime Video, you're literally saving hundreds of dollars. Apple isn't advertising an end date for the deal, though there's a good chance it'll end (or sell out) shortly.

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Curb Your Enthusiasm tells the story of Larry David, the co-creator of Seinfield. He plays an exaggerated version of himself on the show, and it's essentially another show about everything and nothing all at once (though it features more mature themes, thanks to its HBO branding). The series has won several Emmys and Golden Globes, and any comedy fan is bound to get hours of laughs out of the off-the-wall series.

There aren't any good deals for the physical version of the series (the DVD Collection is available on Amazon for $103), making this the best way to catch up on the hijinks. You can also access the entire series by signing up for HBO Max, but seeing as the Ultimate Ad-Free membership costs $20/month, you might as well just buy the entire collection on iTunes for the same price.

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When you think of the Texas Chain Saw Massacre, your mind probably pictures Leatherface. But the mask-wearing cannibal won't be a requirement in matches going forward for the multiplayer horror game.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre patch notes for today, November 28, specifically state that "we have removed the requirement for Leatherface in every match." Gun Interactive adds that nothing else has changed with this alteration--maps or family spawns, for instance. Instead, this seems like a way to not force players into the Leatherface role.

Another important change for the asymmetrical multiplayer game revolves around addressing valve gameplay on the Slaughterhouse map. It had apparently become too easy of an escape for the victim team.

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Three years after a rough launch, Cyberpunk 2077 is in its best shape thanks to a steady stream of updates, patches, and the launch of the Phantom Liberty expansion that brought sweeping changes to the game. Compared to the version that first launched, Cyberpunk 2077 is almost unrecognizable thanks to all of its upgrades, a lean and mean open-world sci-fi experience that succeeds in making you feel like an Edgerunner with nothing to lose and everything to gain.

But getting to this point required serious introspection from developer CD Projekt Red as it faced negative reviews, player backlash, and a tarnished reputation. No studio wants to let their fans down, and for the developers in the trenches who poured their hearts and souls into the game, they knew that they had a long road ahead of them as they began focusing on improving Cyberpunk 2077.

"I think after the release, we did everything we could. Literally, everything we could," global art director Jakub Knapik explained to GameSpot. "We invested a lot of effort with the 1.5 next-gen release, where it was a massive priority to fix the game. Making the team to work on that game and fix it was really the hardest thing ever. To motivate the team, to put in more effort, was a really hard thing because everyone was devastated after release."

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GameSpot's newest video series, Insider, launches today with a mini-documentary about CD Projekt Red and the development of Cyberpunk 2077. GameSpot traveled to CD Projekt Red's offices in Poland and spoke with members of the development team to hear directly from the people making the game about the RPG's struggles and eventual redemption.

In the video, the developers speak frankly about Cyberpunk 2077's numerous issues at launch in December 2020. These were major issues, and the game was even pulled from sale entirely on PlayStation for a period of time. The team discussed this how they responded to the issues and implemented a plan to help turn things around. This included a massive structural overhaul.

CD Projekt Red no doubt succeeded in getting Cyberpunk 2077 to a better place, with many remarking that the 2.0 launch of the game marked a new era for the role-playing game. The developers also discussed what they learned from Cyberpunk 2077's original issues and how the team applied those lessons to the launch of Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty expansion.

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Hard to believe that the Fallout franchise is about to turn 30 in a couple of years and it's finally being adapted into a live-action series for Prime Video premiering in April. In the upcoming series, it follows the story told in the games pretty well with nuclear war breaking out across Earth in the year 2077. In this world though, everything from clothes to the preferred types of entertainment, to even the style of vehicles adhere to a 1940s aesthetic.

Fans have been unsure of when the show takes place within the franchises' lore, but that has been clarified: this will be set 219 years after the war, taking place in the year 2296. That's nine years after the events of Fallout 4. Talking to Vanity Fair, game-maker and executive producer Todd Howard explains not only is the show pulling from the game's source material, but it's actually all canon.

"We view what's happening in the show as canon," Howard said. "That's what's great when someone else looks at your work and then translates it in some fashion." He also mentioned that the showrunners and writers added things to the lore that made him envious. "I sort of looked at it like, 'Ah, why didn’t we do that'’"

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Christopher Nolan, outspoken proponent to theatrical experiences second only to Nicole Kidman, has emphasized the significance of owning a physical copy of his latest film, Oppenheimer. According to Variety, at a Los Angeles screening the director criticized streaming services and urged moviegoers to invest in the Blu-ray version, highlighting the meticulous effort put into preserving the film's soundscape.

"Obviously Oppenheimer has been quite a ride for us, and now it is time for me to release a home version of the film. I've been working very hard on it for months," Nolan said. "I'm known for my love of theatrical and put my whole life into that, but, the truth is, the way the film goes out at home is equally important."

"The Dark Knight was one of the first films where we formatted it specially for Blu-ray release because it was a new form at the time," Nolan said. "And in the case of Oppenheimer, we put a lot of care and attention into the Blu-ray version… and trying to translate the photography and the sound, putting that into the digital realm with a version you can buy and own at home and put on a shelf so no evil streaming service can come steal it from you."

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Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann has responded to the report that the upcoming Last of Us multiplayer game has been put on ice. He told Entertainment Weekly that he had "no update" on what's going on with that game and he wouldn't discuss a potential third Last of Us game either.

"The Last of Us is obviously a world I love deeply and know our studio and fans do as well, but I have no comment at this moment on the series' future beyond our focus on The Last of Us Part II Remastered," he said.

Druckmann went on to say that Naughty Dog has "other projects in the works."

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Ned Luke, who voices Michael De Santa in Rockstar's wildly popular Grand Theft Auto 5, was swatted while livestreaming on Thanksgiving day. This is the sixth time the actor has experienced this type of harassment.

"Everyone is fine, thanks for your concern," the voice actor tweeted on Friday. "This is the SIXTH time we have been swatted, but points for originality, this time they sent the fire department. There is nothing cute or clever or funny about this."

Luke frequently livestreams his gameplay, and was in the middle of a special GTA livestream when he received a call apparently warning him of what was to come. Luke rose from his chair, telling viewers "I gotta go," before ending the stream. But after six attempts to disrupt his life (and potentially endanger his safety), the voice actor has confirmed that law enforcement is now looking into the culprit.

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When concept art and trailers for The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom began circulating the internet in the months before the game's release, fans of the franchise went wild with speculation regarding the upcoming title's storyline and gameplay mechanics. But there was one thing almost everyone seemed to agree on: Ganondorf's new look was hot. In a recent interview with Nintendo Dream magazine (as translated by Nintendo Everything), Tears Of The Kingdom Director Hidemaro Fujibayashi confirmed that Ganondorf's new design was intentionally sexy.

Fujibayashi said he had two goals in mind when it came to Ganondorf's new Tears Of The Kingdom appearance: Make him look as wicked as they come, and make him look hot enough that players of all genders would swoon.

"[The design team] didn’t simply make him look violent; they managed to fulfill my wish of making him look overwhelmingly evil while also being handsome enough that both men and women would fall for him," Fujibayashi said.

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Nearly 10 years to the day since the game originally launched with the Xbox One in 2013, Killer Instinct is getting a brand-new patch this week. Developer Iron Galaxy has announced that the Killer Instinct Anniversary Edition--which features multiple tweaks across the majority of the roster--will release November 28 at 12 PM PT / 3 PM ET. If you're reading this as the article goes live, that means the patch is due tomorrow.

Iron Galaxy Studios lead game designer Adam "Keits" Heart hosted a two-hour livestream last week, which showed off every buff and nerf coming in the new patch. This is the first update for Killer Instinct since 2018, which also added Eagle, the final new roster member added to the game.

Exciting news, Combo Breakers: Killer Instinct Anniversary Edition will be available TOMORROW, November 28, at 12PM Pacific!
Check out our latest blog post for a reminder on all the great things coming your way in this update: https://t.co/scmR9rAJ3B pic.twitter.com/SA1ewYdybs

— Killer Instinct (@KillerInstinct) November 27, 2023

Characters benefiting most from the patch are Jago and Orchid, who are receiving tweaks to specials moves as well as faster walking speeds for better approach. Fulgore and Aganos are among the most detrimentally affected characters, as both are losing crucial tools to their current strategies.

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Is there still a market for PlayStation's first venture into the world of virtual reality? Possibly! With PlayStation VR 2 not having backward compatibility with the original PSVR library, Cyber Monday is a great time to grab the legacy headset and do some VR games preservation of your own. Sure, it's a more cumbersome device than the Meta Quest or the HTC Vive, but at its current price, it's not a bad way to check out VR for the first time.

• PSVR headset -- $65
• PS4 Camera (New) -- $40
• PS4 Camera (Refurbished) -- $30
• PSVR Camera adapter for PS5 -- $12 ($20)

PlayStation VR

At Amazon-affiliated company Woot, you can grab the original PSVR headset for $65, but you'll also need to make certain that you have some other hardware to go with that purchase. If you're planning to play on PS4, you'll need the PS4 camera that is $40 at Woot ($30 for a refurbished model); On PS5, you'll need the camera and the PSVR camera adapter. You can snag an adapter for only $12 at Amazon during Cyber Monday.

As a reminder, you can play PSVR games with the PS4 DualShock controller you probably already own. Alternatively, you can you use PlayStation's Move motion controllers, which are available brand-new at Amazon for $49 or in refurbished condition for $40.

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Sanrio fans might finally have a mouse and matching mousepad to fit into their gaming setup. Razer's Hello Kitty DeathAdder Essential Mouse and Goliathus Mousepad are on sale as a bundle for Cyber Monday. It's discounted to $45, which is 25% off the original $60 list price at Amazon and Best Buy.

Together, the pink mouse and pad pair can give a cutesy, dreamy feel to any setup. It's an even sweeter deal if you already own the Hello Kitty Razer Kraken Headset.

You can get the Hello Kitty Razer DeathAdder Essential + Goliathus Medium Bundle from one of the links below:

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