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Joy Ride Gets a Dis-Kinected Sequel
Kinect Joy Ride was a casual racing game released at launch with Kinect in 2010, and it didn’t wow critics. (“Joy Ride might be the equivalent of a new word for spaghetti,” wrote Stephen Totilo. “The old one’s fine.”) Gamers especially didn’t care for standing up as they approximate the steering-wheel controls, something they felt…
By Owen Good Published April 29, 2012 -
Dragon’s Lair, with Kinect Support, Arrives on Xbox Live in May
Announced back in March, the Xbox Live port of Dragon’s Lair was dated for May 18 by Microsoft yesterday. The game will feature Kinect support, allowing you to jump out of the way of the Lizard King and dodge the columns on the mechanical horse, if you so prefer. Digital Leisure is handling the port…
By Owen Good Published April 28, 2012 -
A Baylor Bear, Fighting as a Spartan
News and notes from around the world of sports video gaming: • In the picture above, the 2011 Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III, widely expected to be taken second when the NFL Draft kicks off in 90 minutes, enjoys a game of Halo 4 at a Microsoft-sponsored VIP event in New York yesterday. •…
By Owen Good Published April 26, 2012 -
Kotaku East
Foxconn Workers Use Suicide Threats as Bargaining Tool. Again.
In China, workers’ rights kind of suck! So when the folks who make your game consoles and electronics want to protest, they take to the roof and threaten to kill themselves. Lovely. Earlier this month in Shenzhen, while the world was watching how their iPads really got made, a group of approximately twenty Foxconn laborers…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 25, 2012 -
Kotaku East
Microsoft Rejects Game Because it Made Toilet Sounds
A Windows phone game, developed by Austrian Christian Zangl, has been blocked from release in China not because it contained contentious political commentary. It’s been blocked because it featured the sound of a flushing toilet. According to Microsoft, that makes it offensive to the Chinese market, and “Content that is offensive in any country/region to…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 23, 2012 -
I Shouted ‘Fus Ro Dah’ At Skyrim, And I Kinda Liked It
Here’s a confession: I have absolutely no interest in Microsoft’s Kinect. The controller-free interface doesn’t appeal to me. I don’t want to dance around my living room or wave my arms to fling boulders at castles. I get bored just thinking about it. Shouting dragon words in Skyrim might have changed my mind. Kinda. Within…
By Jason Schreier Published April 20, 2012 -
The Halo Movie Failed Because Microsoft Didn’t Understand Hollywood
It had a script. It had the backing of two major film studios. It had the support of Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson. Everything seemed like it was clicking into place for the Halo movie before it abruptly collapsed, and you can blame Microsoft for that, according to writer Jamie Russell. Writing in…
By Jason Schreier Published April 19, 2012 -
Halo 4 Will Be Out On Election Day
Halo 4 will be out on November 6, 2012, publisher Microsoft said today. That’s also the day Americans will vote for the next President. My money’s on Cortana. The upcoming Xbox 360-exclusive first-person shooter will mark “the first chapter of a brand new Halo saga,” the company said. This will be the first entry in…
By Jason Schreier Published April 17, 2012 -
Kotaku East
Beauty of China, Show the World Your Latest Kinect Copy
China already has a handful of Kinect inspired game machines. But that’s not going to stop it from getting more. The latest is the iGame Move, a console with the tagline “Beauty of China Show the World”. Sporting 32-bit graphics (32-bit!!), the iGame Move is a motion controlled game system and is priced at around…
Brian Ashcraft & Eric Jou Published April 13, 2012 -
The REAL Reason Peter Molyneux Left Microsoft: Chair Lady
You’ve read the fluffy reasons Peter Molyneux left Lionhead, the studio he built, and Microsoft along with it. The general stuff. It’s important to know, sure, but I like the raw specifics a bit better. In another post-Microsoft interview, this time with Develop, Molyneux says it was all about the chairs. I had this unbelievable…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 13, 2012 -
Developer Hopes Microsoft and Sony “Go Nuclear,” Destroy Used Game Sales
Many, many rumors continue to fly around the internet concerning the future of Microsoft and Sony’s game consoles. One of the most contentious and repeated assertions about the next iterations of both the PlayStation and the Xbox is that neither will easily support used, rented, or secondhand games. Gamers and developers have gone back and…
By Kate Cox Published April 12, 2012 -
Kotaku East
How Microsoft *Almost* Screwed Up a Japanese University
When the Sapporo Gakuin University attempted to transfer their mail system from Hotmail to Windows Live@edu, it looks like Microsoft may have misinterpreted the meaning of the word “Troubleshooting.” After a hiccup in the transfer process, the university’s system engineer followed Microsoft’s instructions, and as a result, ended up deleting the entire university mail system.…
By Toshi Nakamura Published April 12, 2012 -
Peter Molyneux Explains Why He Left Lionhead and Microsoft to go Indie
Game designer Peter Molyneux surprised many when he announced his departure from Microsoft last month. Molyneux is best known for heading up the Fable franchise and for his ambitious, unusual game ideas, both the successful and the cancelled Speaking with Eurogamer, Molyneux finally explained why he chose to leave Microsoft when he did, and why…
By Kate Cox Published April 11, 2012 -
Wreckateer Is Like A Kinect Version Of Angry Birds
Here’s some video footage of Wreckateer, an upcoming Xbox Live game for Kinect that requires you to smash and destroy castles by moving around your body. I found the game at PAX East last weekend and thought it looked interesting enough to record. There’s just something about wanton destruction that tickles that section of my…
By Jason Schreier Published April 11, 2012 -
ReviewsFez: The Kotaku Review
The first thing that appealed to me about Fez, an independent puzzle platforming game developed by Polytron, was how adorable it was. If my childhood proved anything, it was that eight bits of detail can still make me squee with delight. I instantly knew that I would need a plushie version of Gomez, the main…
By Tina Amini Published April 11, 2012 -
The Kinect Gears of War Game has Been Cancelled
Around a year ago, we brought you a look at a new Gears of War title being developed at Epic Games and designed to take advantage of Microsoft’s Kinect technology. It looked pretty silly, something Microsoft and/or Epic obviously agreed with, because the game – called Gears of War: Exile – sounds like it’s ended…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 8, 2012 -
Crimson Dragon is Basically Panzer Dragoon Minus a Letter or So
Shown off at PAX East 2012, this is Crimson Dragon and if it reminds you of a Kinect-based Panzer Dragoon, there’s good reason. Not only is Land Ho, which handled the PS2 version of that game, working on this one, Panzer Dragoon‘s creator, Yukio Futatsugi also is involved. If it’s not clear in the video,…
By Owen Good Published April 7, 2012 -
Microsoft Registers Several “Halo Infinity” Domains, but haloinfinity.com Remains in the Hands of a Japanese Baldness Clinic
The domain registry watchdog Fusible reports that Microsoft’s brand protection partner snapped up the full monty of HaloInfinity-dot-whatever domain names—except for a big one—which likely tips off some kind of activity or release involving that title. Joystiq hilariously notes that haloinfinity.com, not among them, is from the looks of it a placeholder site that for…
By Owen Good Published April 4, 2012 -
Here’s How You’ll Operate Steel Battalion‘s Kinect-Powered Tanks
After I played Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor last month at Microsoft’s spring showcase, I called it the hardest-core Kinect game yet This tutorial video gives a sense of why that is, demonstrating all of the various moves available to players inside the cockpit of their vertical tank mech, or “VT.” By combining the Xbox 360…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 3, 2012 -
Kotaku EastThis Shooting Game Is Played with Your Tongue
A group of Japanese researchers is working on a tongue-controlled tech demo to aid those with oral motor function disorders that impacts their ability to speak or swallow—a very admirable goal. There are also disabled gamers who cannot use their hands, so an interface like this could hopefully one day be applied to various Xbox…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 3, 2012