Microsoft

​The Xbox One: The Kotaku Review

The Xbox One is a testament to Microsoft’s towering ambition. It represents their desire not only to occupy a place in your home entertainment center, but to lumber straight into the center of it. It is a black plastic tank, a hard-edged chunk of corners meant to conquer everything in its path. But for all…

If Only Microsoft Made Xbox One Controllers This Nice

When you pick up an Xbox One this week (or anytime in the near future), I hope you like black, because that’s the only colour you’ll be able to get it in. Those wanting their controllers to be a little more adventurous, though, at least have a third-party option to spice things up. Just like…

Still looking to snag an Xbox One for launch day? Amazon. Tomorrow. Several awesome readers have forwarded us emails from Amazon.com, indicating a limited amount will go on sale there at 8AM Eastern time tomorrow. That should give you enough time to read Kirk’s full review, coming up at midnight.

Xbox One Has No Built-In Livestream Option At Launch, But It’s Coming

Xbox One gamers will not be able to upload video to Twitch.tv at launch, Microsoft said this morning. The lack of support leaves Xbox One users without the ability to broadcast live gameplay natively from the console. “Our goal is to deliver it during the first part of 2014,” Microsoft said in the news story.…

​You’ll Be Able to Share Xbox One Game Clips Wherever You Want

Seems like this is the generation where game recording becomes a required feature for consoles. Both the PS4 and Xbox One have the capability to save and share gameplay clips but there’s one big difference: users will be able to share Xbox One gameplay clips all over the web, including YouTube. Microsoft’s new game console…

And the “Most Stylish Gunship Takedown” in Battlefield 4 award goes to?… Blitzeh, who launched an ATV with C4 into the sky without mercy and aimed for those choppers above. Dayshot is an image-based feature that runs every morning, showcasing some of the prettiest, funniest game-related screenshots and art that we can find. Send us…

​Well, At Least The Racing Looks Good in the New Need for Speed Movie

Look, it’s pretty clear that the Need for Speed movie is trying to draft off the success of the Fast & Furious films. But the upcoming Dreamworks feature needs, like, 1000% more crazy. Aaron Paul certainly looks wounded in the clip for the upcoming car-stravaganza—which comes just days after the debut of the latest NFS…

​The Prettiest Space Game in Years Might Never Come to Consoles

When you’re behind the game that’s broken all sorts of records for crowd-funding—$27,689,361 and counting—you can do what you want when it comes to the hardware that said title will show up on. Cloud Imperium founder Chris Roberts says that Star Citizen “will NEVER be dumbed down for a lesser platform.” And yeah, by lesser…

Team Fortress 2 With Little Dolls Is Just Too Cute To Handle

Made by a group of Source Filmmaker animators for Valve’s annual machinima competition, “Lil Guardian Pyro” tells the heartbreaking story of a miniature Pyro and other Team Fortress characters, in a way that you might think it’s one of Valve’s own animations. Here’s the full clip. Get ready for 4 minutes of cuteness overload: Lil…

Crimson Dragon: The Kotaku Review

Dragons—oh, I’ve killed dragons. Lots of dragons. I’ve collected dragon scales, I’ve made weapons out of dragon bones. I’ve even been able to speak the language of dragons. You’d think I’ve done it all, but no: before playing Crimson Dragon, I had never ridden a dragon before. This also means I’ve never played Panzer Dragoon—and…

Dead Rising 3: The Kotaku Review

The real world can be a frustrating place. Stuck in traffic, trapped in line at the supermarket… it always feels like there’s someone in the way. Certain games—the Grand Theft Autos, the Dead Risings—show us a world where it’s okay to act on our worst, most violent impulses. Our forest of problems becomes a lawn…

Enemy Within, the expansion set to XCOM: Enemy Unknown added new character customization: Hair styles, color combinations—and a 1950s fedora. The result above (you can call him Fedora Mech) is the strangest—or coolest—looking soldier XCOM has ever seen. Dayshot is an image-based feature that runs every morning, showcasing some of the prettiest,funniest game-related screenshots and…

​Need for Speed Rivals: The Kotaku Review

Everyone in this year’s Need For Speed—racers and cops both—is an asshole. Neither side is likable. Thank God. It’s incredibly freeing to be a total, speed-obsessed jerk, especially when it’s accompanied by amazing visuals and intense velocity. Way to welcome us to next-gen, Need For Speed Rivals Viewed on PlayStation 4, Rivals will make your…

Fable Re-Rated Because Sex is A “Reward”

This is strange. Very strange. When Fable was originally released on the first Xbox the game’s Australian rating was ‘M’. Today the Australian Classification Board revealed that Fable: Anniversary, the HD remastered version of Fable for the Xbox 360, would be rated R18+. Adults only. The reason? “Sexual activity related to incentives and rewards”. Very…

The Same People Worked On The Xbox One And PlayStation Commercials

The guys at Bluraren’t the only studio making top-shelf commercials for the video game business. The team at visual effects outfit The Mill have worked on loads of them as well, including some of this year’s best and most prominent. The video below is the studio’s showreel for the year, and while it contains footage…

The PS4 And Xbox One, Side-By-Side

Picture this as a very intimate cage-fight, or an even more intimate snuggle between colleagues. Up to you. German site PCGames has gotten hold of both an Xbox One and a PS4, and doing what the internet wants them to do, put them next to each other. And on top of each other. There’s a…

Nice shot! Who says there’s nothing to do in Battlefield 4 while you wait for friends? Apart from the bulletproof basketball, the Frostbite 3 engine seems to be working as intended. Better try this shot with C4 next time! Dayshot is an image-based feature that runs every morning, showcasing some of the prettiest,funniest game-related screenshots…

This Xbox One Takes Around 13 Seconds To Boot Up

Microsoft’s Larry Hryb has posted a short clipshowcasing how long it takes an Xbox One to boot up from a Kinect voice command. I timed it at 13.3 seconds. That’s going from the moment he stops talking to the point where the dashboard pops up ready for user input, which seems to me the most…

Someone Stuck an Xbox One at the Bottom of a Shark Tank in New Zealand

Sorry, New Zealand—you are not the site of the first Xbox One to be sold in the world, despite this promotional stunt involving an Auckland aquarium. About 150 folks already have theirs and didn’t have to swim to the bottom of a shark tank for it. But Microsoft pressed ahead with this anyway because, hell,…

Otherwise harmless little things, like the bunny mask from Team Fortress 2, can have a huge impact. For example, it can get someone in the Steam Community to pay homage to Hotline Miami with the game’s characters (complete with 80s sunglasses) in a really stunning way. Dayshot is an image-based feature that runs every morning,…