Image Credit: The New York Times Turkey (a.k.a. Turkiye), my family's home country, has been devastated in the past few days by a historic 7.8 magnitude Earthquake - that is 32 times the destructive power of the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima - with a 7.5 magnitude aftershock the morning after and multiple tremors. The death toll is 11,000 people across Turkey and Syria and is expected to rise to around 20,000 dead. Hundreds of thousands of people (over 190,000) remain trapped under rubble of apartment buildings turned to dust in seconds. All this in the middle of winter snowstorms, forcing families to sleep outdoors while their loved ones, including infants, may still be missing or dead. My relatives were among the lucky ones, but so many others were not.  I have hosted a public fundraiser page with a goal of $500, to the Bridge to Turkiye fund, which is assisting with food, shelter, water, and warmth:    https://secure.givelively.org/donate/bridge-to-turkiye/kahram...

Image collage done by me, but individual screenshots from Amazon and PlayStation Blog . Image credit for game box to Sony, Marvel, and Insomniac.  Hello, everyone. This is Arca, and today I will be doing a news roundup of sorts. This post was originally, as I hinted at in yesterday's post (which you should totally read here ), going to focus on next-gen AAA games potentially all costing $70 rather than $60. Then, two pieces of breaking news occurred. First, yesterday at noon, the book sequel to Ernest Cline's 2011 movie-sparking phenomenon Ready Player One was given a confirmed title, cover, and release date. Then, just 3 hours ago as of the time I started typing up this post, Sony via the official PlayStation Blog showed off for the first time what PlayStation 5 games will have as their cover art design through Spider-Man: Miles Morales . Let's tackle all of those subjects, as well as my thoughts on them, in precisely that order, starting with... Ready Player Two book is ...

Image Credit: Sony from the official PlayStation Blog US You are not looking at a concept art design. You are not looking at fanart. That is literally a Sony-made render of the final design for the controller that will ship with their new console, the PlayStation 5, when it hits store shelves this winter (but still could be delayed, and so could Microsoft's Xbox Series X). This is probably the most surprising and out-of-left-field controller reveal that I've ever gotten to experience, ever. The only things similar were when I found out about the Nintendo Switch reveal a few days late and it didn't look that different from a Wii U gamepad, or when I saw the Xbox Series X controller and console get revealed live during a YouTube livestream of the Game Awards 2019 (which was on the day of my 15th birthday), and while the console itself was very tall and PC-like, the controller wasn't particularly radically different in terms of aesthetics. But oh boy, we've go...

For this gaming news roundup, just when you thought the coronavirus couldn't possible effect more, and be given lectures in school or work about what your closing schedule may be (I know I was), I found out some news that would have had me do a double-take had I been drinking water. Ready for it? E3 2020 has been cancelled due to the coronavirus. Wait a minute, that was obvious. Ready for the actually surprising part? Living meme, gaming icon, and former Nintendo of America CEO Reggie "My Body is Ready" Fils-Aime has now, in the middle of his retirement and time spent giving lectures on the business benefits of memes (among other things) at Cornell, become a part of the board of directors at the slowly-falling company that is GameStop. So no, he won't try to beg you to get a PowerUp Rewards membership in a small, anime-merch-filled building near you. First, for the less surprising (but more recent and relevant, as it was only confirmed this morning) news. E3 20...