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The Guardian
10 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings Game review – too cosy for comfort
After several hours toiling in the pastoral fields of Hobbiton, it finally started to sink in why two generations of Bagginses felt compelled to leave in search of dangerous adventure. Sure, the Shire has a hazy comfort to it, and there's plenty of unique food to gorge on and friendly faces to meet. But once the saccharine novelty begins to wear off, this bucolic wonderland is actually a fairly dull place to live. Tales of the Shire is set in the Third Age of Middle-earth, years before the events of The Lord of the Rings. As such, there are no Nazgûls or Uruk-hai – instead the 'action' centres on the quaint town of Bywater, whose most pressing issue is its municipal status. Here, you play as a recent transplant from the nearby hamlet of Bree, who gets swept up in the process of turning the town into an official village by building infrastructure and befriending locals one odd job and home-cooked meal at a time. Naturally this high-fantasy life simulator houses plenty of Tolkienian paraphernalia. You can find the Three-Farthing Stone nestled atop a hillside, and walk through the homely Green Dragon Inn. Plus, there are plenty of familiar surnames bobbing around, from Tooks to Cottons and Brandybucks – heck, even Gandalf pops his head in every so often. A chunky art style frames these iconic spaces and characters, coating the world with an appropriately twee veneer. It's not a huge map to explore, but what's there is tenderly dressed, with hanging washing swaying in the breeze, dinky lanterns, and roaming wildlife aplenty. As an upstart Hobbit, your primary goal is to feed and be fed, with all aspects of day-to-day life revolving around this all-important activity. In the wild you can find veggies, nuts and fruits to forage, and the rivers are home to plenty of fishing spots where you earn your catch of the day. There are also seasonal seedlings to purchase and plant, as well as artisanal shop stalls offering speciality items such as flour. With each day running on a timer, the major source of friction is in how efficiently you can dash about and hoover up the goods before bedtime. It's a well-trodden loop familiar to anyone who has played rural life sims such as Stardew Valley or Harvest Moon. But here, the steady flow of button clicks and undemanding chores operates more successfully as a sleep-inducing mental message than any form of compelling challenge. If you can brave the repetition and invest in your relationships with others, the game begins to open up, providing a slew of formulaic but appetising skill paths to rank up. Collecting ingredients is only half the story; you'll also need to cook them up into satisfying bundles to serve at extravagant Breakfasts, Second Breakfasts, Elevenses, and so on. Combining elements of Cooking Mama and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Tales of the Shire asks you to balance culinary profiles and textures to curate the perfect plate. To do this, you'll chop, mix and sauté ingredients while consulting a flavour compass in the bottom corner of your screen to ensure your food is as delicious as possible. Eventually, by feeding the right folks, your kitchen expands and there are more opportunities available to get you into the Middle-earth Michelin Guide. But beyond its overly familiar mechanics, Tales of the Shire's most pressing problem is how naive and placid it all feels. When vague interpersonal issues arise between your new friends, they're always resolved in a swift, often mundane manner. Much of your time is spent running between frustrated halflings as they burden you with their petty dissatisfactions. Not all cosy games need to evoke hard emotions. However, it does feel like a disservice to the emotionally complex source material not to explore the richness of the world at large – especially when dry humour, tragedy and finely drawn social structures are what make Tolkien's writing so powerful. Without any challenging quandaries to pull at your heartstrings, the promising atmosphere in Tales of the Shire is overwhelmed by endless fetch quests. Diehard Tolkienites and Stardew Valley lifers may be better off looking elsewhere for their cosy thrills. Tales of the Shire is out now, £34.99.
Daily Mirror
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Tales of the Shire release time and when you can fish, cook and decorate your Hobbit-hole
Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings game is less about fighting the forces of evil and more about fishing and cooking, and the upcoming release time is almost here The Lord of the Rings may be renowned for its perilous adventures, but Tales of the Shire now offers fans the opportunity to live out their Hobbit-inspired culinary and fishing dreams. While the Lord of the Rings saga is driven by a thirst for adventure, it also harbours a softer, homelier side. Frodo and Sam's quest to Mount Doom may be the most famous journey in J.R.R Tolkien's universe, but the Shire has always held the potential for a more comforting narrative. This is precisely what Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings game aims to deliver. The game allows players to immerse themselves in halfling life, preparing new dishes, decorating their homes with fresh furniture, and fishing, all while maintaining good relations with their neighbours. It's an enticing concept, particularly as gamers continue to yearn for a new Animal Crossing instalment and Hello Kitty Island Adventure fades into the background. For many, the cosiest gaming options are found in the PS Plus Extra and Premium July 2025 releases, which gave fans access to Planet Zoo and Bluey: The Video Game. Similarly, the second July Xbox Game Pass drop included Farming Simulator '25 for subscribers. While there's no shortage of cosy gaming experiences currently available, the chance to settle down in the Shire is an offer that's hard to resist. But when exactly is the release time for Tales of the Shire? Here's everything you need to know about the upcoming cosy adventure. Introducing All Out Gaming Introducing All Out Gaming, a dedicated gaming brand providing the best gaming news, reviews, previews, interviews and more! Make sure you don't miss out on our latest high-quality videos on YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook, where we'll be posting our latest reviews, previews, interviews, and live streams! You can also subscribe to our free All Out Gaming newsletter service. Click here to be sent all the day's biggest stories. Tales of the Shire Release Time The release time for Tales of the Shire is scheduled for 9am PDT / 12am EDT / 5pm BST on Tuesday, July 29. This information has been verified by the game's team via Twitter, in several posts responding to players curious about the game's launch time. It's a firm deviation from a number of games aiming for a midnight launch, but this means that players are able to get their hands on the title as soon as possible. There's not much longer to wait for the game that promises a delightfully cosy experience in a world that is, fundamentally, rather uncosy. Leave the Balrog battles and endless evil for the next game – we've got fish to reel in.
Metro
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
Tales Of The Shire: Lord Of The Rings Game review - Animal Crossing with hobbits
The latest Lord Of The Rings game is a cosy village simulator by Wētā Workshop but are they as good at making games as they are special effects? When you hear the name Wētā Workshop, the first thing that springs to mind is the astonishing (at the time) visual effects for The Lord of the Rings movies and their various decreasingly interesting offshoots. What's less well known is that while Wētā is primarily a special effects company they also do various other things, including making tabletop games. So far that's included District 9: The Board Game and GKR: Heavy Hitters, but now they've decided to have a go at making a video game as well. The result is Tales Of The Shire: A Lord Of The Rings Game. It's all about hobbits, but this time rather than setting off for Mordor to toss a demonic ring into a volcano, here you stay happily in the Shire, specifically in Bywater. At the beginning of the game the county assessor decides it's not even worthy of being called a village, so it's up to you and your fellow Bywater residents to change that. You do that by making friends and setting up the institutions necessary for somewhere to be considered a village. The rules for such things are fairly nebulous and still mention wolves and goblins, which haven't been seen in the Shires for a long time. None of that really matters though, because soon enough you've got a laundry list of cosy quests to undertake. In keeping with the way the Shire is depicted in Tolkien's books, and more saliently in the films, that means wandering Bywater's lanes and bridges, helping people and foraging for ingredients. That's important because perhaps the most significant distraction in Tales Of The Shire is cooking for friends. Heading to the kitchen in your recently inherited hobbit hole, you'll find a chopping board and saucepans. Provided you have all the necessary ingredients, making a recipe takes a few taps to complete, its test of skill is in achieving the right flavour and texture. The latter is governed by the number of times you chop each ingredient before adding it to the pot. Get it just right and your meal will be extra delicious. The meals themselves are vehicles for building relationships. Heading to your writing desk, conveniently placed next to your hobbit hole's dining table, you compose invitations to townsfolk to come and dine with you. You soon learn what they like and dislike and tailoring the meals you serve – and making sure they're as tasty and texturally pleasing as you can – helps level up friendships. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. Finding ingredients can be a bit of a trick though. While your garden comes with five planters to grow herbs, fruits, and vegetables it'll take a good few hours before you can afford to add more. It also takes quite some time for each plant to grow. Watering them speeds up the process slightly, but you mustn't overdo it and it's often easier to forage or buy what you need if you're in even a slight hurry. Fellow hobbits are forever writing you notes, which appear in the American-style postbox outside your house, and these often contain new side quests, as well as replies to your dinner invitations. Unfortunately, as you start digging deeper into your expanding to-do list, it becomes painfully clear that almost everything you do is an extended, multi-part fetch quest. A brief conversation directs you to a hobbit on the other side of town, who needs you to speak to someone else next to the lake, who would be very grateful if you'd collect an item on their behalf, before returning to the first hobbit. After minimal chat they give you a reward, completing the quest and freeing you up to get on with the next one, which to nobody's surprise means walking to the other side of town, where the process starts again. The end result is that you spend most of your time in transit. Fortunately, that's easily Tales Of The Shire's strongest suit. That's because despite looking like a PlayStation 3 game, its landscapes really are beautifully designed. Colourful flowers and elegantly proportioned hobbit holes are connected by little bridges, tunnels though hollow tree trunks, and perfectly manicured country lanes. Butterflies flit past, townsfolk go about their business, and every day has a cadence that takes you from early dawn to night, with village life going on around you. Seasons pass, with summer giving way to autumn, followed by winter, and the things you can forage or fish for change along with them. The game does a convincing impression of a real living ecosystem. Similarly brilliant is the way you navigate. After tracking an objective, birds flutter ahead of you, perching on whichever arm of a signpost you'll need to follow, or on bridges and arches over the road, leading you where you need to go without once needing to use a map or draw any crude HUD markers. It works really well and fits sympathetically with the rustic setting. Unfortunately, character designs and animation are more of an acquired taste, the game's cartoonish hobbits are permanently leaning over backwards whether walking, skipping or just standing around. They all do it, it looks utterly bizarre, and it doesn't seem to have any motivation beyond a peculiar choice by the art department. We found the hobbits profoundly ugly to look at, in stark contrast to the countryside they inhabit. More Trending The real problem though, is the gameplay. Aside from cooking and fishing, the overwhelming preponderance of time you spend in Tales Of The Shire is merrily skipping from one place to another. You can't take shortcuts, with Bywater's organic-looking trails and fields actually turning out to be rigidly controlled corridors, and with so many tasks involving traversal, you just walk and walk and walk. It's grindingly tedious and makes you realise the skill with which the Animal Crossing games have been put together. Even though superficially similar, Animal Crossing manages to weave warmly likeable characters and involving miniature stories out of its island paradises. By contrast, there's something depressingly flat about Tales Of The Shire. There's also a fine line between cosy and cloyingly twee. While it's entirely possible that small children will find something alluring in the non-violent, bucolic setting, and continual mind-numbing repetition, they would be infinitely better off playing Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley or virtually any other cosy game. Despite its cheerful demeanour, Tales Of The Shire is a grim, drudge-filled reminder that looking cute is no substitute for gameplay. In Short: A cosy hobbit-themed life simulator that can look pretty but is almost entirely made up of thinly veiled multi-part fetch quests and drab, under-developed minigames. Pros: Glorious map design and landscapes. The avian satnav is a genuine innovation and the dedication to non-violence means there's not so much as a pointed stick in the entire game. Cons: Very little variety and systems like fishing and crop growing are underexploited. Most of your time is spent in transit, and with no voice acting cut scenes feel half finished. Ugly hobbit animation. Score: 4/10 Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, and PCPrice: £29.99Publisher: Private DivisionDeveloper: Wētā WorkshopRelease Date: 29th July 2025 Age Rating: 3 Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: Nintendo's next big Switch 2 game is just £50 right now – but only for today MORE: Wolfenstein 3 hopes reignited as live action TV show is announced MORE: Battlefield 6 battle royale map leaks alongside new gameplay videos
Calgary Herald
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Calgary Herald
The man who keeps the Lion King's performers looking wild
Michael Reilly is the puppet master for the touring production of Disney's The Lion King. Photo by Supplied Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. For almost 20 years, Michael Reilly has been helping The Lion King roar as it tours North America. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Calgary Herald ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Calgary Herald ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors As the touring production's puppet master, Reilly is in charge of the 230 puppets, masks and headdresses used in the show. Reilly worked for four years on the original Toronto production of The Lion King that opened in 1999. 'When the Toronto production closed, they asked me to be part of the touring company, but I had already been hired for the Toronto production of The Lord of the Rings,' says Reilly, who hails from Toronto. 'They kept asking me to join them, but I was busy with other shows until 2016. As soon as I was free I joined this tour,' says Reilly. Two of The Lion King's 17 travelling trucks carry the show's puppets and masks. Your weekday lunchtime roundup of curated links, news highlights, analysis and features. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again 'The largest puppet is the elephant, which comes down the aisle of the theatre in the opening number. It weighs 120 pounds and takes four people to operate. The smallest puppet is the mouse on the end of Scar's cane. The tallest puppets are the giraffes. We don't hire stilt walkers to operate them. We hire dancers, and it is my job to teach them to walk on the stilts. They have to climb six-foot ladders to get into those costumes.' Reilly says the masks the actors wear 'are extremely lightweight. They have to be, because the actors do eight shows a week. If they were heavy, it would be a great strain on their necks and heads. The heaviest masks weigh less than a pound.' 'These masks and headdresses are very durable, so the biggest repairs usually consist of replacing the strings that are used to secure them to the actors,' Reilly says. 'Scar's mask is electronic, so there is so much more that can go wrong. We are constantly having to tinker with the motor. There are some back-up masks and puppets, but just a few, so it is my team's responsibility to do repairs on the fly. We use everything you would at home just to get them back on stage. That means duct tape and crazy glue. 'They are constantly coming up with new ways to improve the puppets and masks so it keeps my job interesting.' The Lion King opened on Broadway in 1997. This touring company was created in 2002, and has played more than 10,000 performances in 90 cities, often more than once, years apart, and has been seen by more than 25 million people, making it the longest-running Broadway tour. When Reilly was 16 years old, he was hired as a costume assistant on the original Toronto production of CATS. Over the years, he has taken training in carpentry, electronics and metal work.
News18
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- News18
Inside Rajkummar Rao And Patralekhaa's Dreamy, Film-Inspired Day Out In New Zealand
During their scenic New Zealand trip, Rajkummar Rao and Patralekhaa unleashed their creativity at Wētā Workshop's World of Magic. Bollywood's ever-charming couple, Rajkummar Rao and Patralekhaa, recently took a detour from red carpets and film sets into a world of mythical creatures, cinematic illusions, and mind-bending creativity. Their latest adventure? A whimsical deep-dive into Wētā Workshop Unleashed, Auckland's iconic film effects and fantasy attraction. Known globally for bringing cinematic universes like The Lord of the Rings, Avatar, and District 9 to life, Wētā Workshop's Unleashed experience is anything but ordinary. And for two actors who live and breathe cinema, it felt like walking into their fantasy script, only this time, they weren't playing roles; they were living the magic. As the tour unfolded, the duo explored one fantastical room after another: each one dedicated to different genres like science fiction, horror, and high fantasy. At one point, Patralekhaa claimed her cinematic throne in full warrior mode, while Rajkummar Rao, ever the performer, dramatically knelt beside her, sword in hand. 'I think she may have dethroned me creatively today," he joked. The couple threw themselves into every moment, duelling with props, wandering through eerie, dimly lit corridors, and discovering the intricate craftsmanship that brings blockbuster films to life. One particularly surreal stop was a morphing mirror that transformed their reflections into fantasy avatars, making them look like they'd just walked out of a Tolkien tale. 'What an unforgettable experience," Rajkummar said, still buzzing from the visit. 'New Zealand is a place full of storytelling magic – this space really sparked our imaginations. Honestly, we were total film geeks today, and it felt amazing." Patralekhaa echoed the sentiment, adding, 'It reminded us why we love cinema in the first place – it's about creating worlds that make people feel something. This place does that with every single set." As they wrapped up their whirlwind day at Unleashed, it was clear that the couple's love for creativity and each other had found the perfect playground in Wētā Workshop's wonderland. tags : lifestyle new zealand patralekhaa rajkummar rao travel view comments Location : Delhi, India, India First Published: July 25, 2025, 11:35 IST News lifestyle » travel Inside Rajkummar Rao And Patralekhaa's Dreamy, Film-Inspired Day Out In New Zealand Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
