Microsoft

Xbox Elite Wireless Controller: The Kotaku Review

The first thing you’ll see upon cracking open the box containing Microsoft’s new $150 premium modular Xbox One controller is a carrying case. You’re going to want to keep that. The care and handling of video game controllers in the Fahey household generally involves trying not to leave it on the floor. Packaging is torn…

Microsoft has purchased Havok, a company that makes middleware physics software (read: the technology that helps make objects in video games behave properly). Havok’s tech is used in various video games including Dark Souls II and Mortal Kombat X. And now Microsoft owns it!

Twisted Pixel has split off from Microsoft, and is once again an independent studio, according to a report from IGN This isn’t the first time Microsoft has allowed a developer to go off on their own; it happened to Bungie back in 2007. Given Destiny’s success, perhaps they regret that decision now. Contact the author…

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition Update Tries To Fix The Gnasher’s Bullshit

I have not raged as hard at a video game this year as I have Gears of War: Ultimate Edition—and it’s all because of the horribly inconsistent shotgun. Thankfully, the source of my anger is about to improve. To understand why this is such a big issue, I will refer you to the following GIF…

New Xbox One Controller Is Gorgeous

Alongside a new bundle announcement, Microsoft showed off this new Xbox One controller today. It’s official name is the “Xbox One Special Edition Lunar White Wireless Controller”. I like it a lot. The gold d-pad and central buttons are flashy enough to flash but restrained enough not to overwhelm the entire design, while the switch…

Coming to the Microsoft Store and GameStop in November, the Xbox One Elite Bundle packages a matte black one terabyte Xbox One console together with the $150 Elite Wireless Controller for $499. Pass, but I will take one of the GameStop exclusive Lunar White controllers.

How To Unlock “Very High” Quality Streaming From Xbox One To PC

You might have noticed that the Xbox One-to-PC streaming currently on offer via Windows 10…doesn’t always look as good as you might have hoped. Turns out there’s sometimes a reason for that. And, as luck would have it, a workaround as well. Users are finding that in many circumstances, even when their internet+wifi speed should…

Crackdown 3 Shows What The Xbox One Can Really Do

Much was made of the Xbox One’s “cloud capabilities” around the time of its announcement, but until now, the only prominent use of that technology was Forza’s “Driveatar” functionality, which essentially created a simulacrum of a player’s driving personality that lived on a server somewhere. Crackdown 3, however, has a much more interesting use for…

Unfortunately, Quantum Break Looks a Bit Rubbish

For two years, we’ve wondered what Quantum Break actually is. Having seen it, I’m now worried that Quantum Break is a bland-looking shooter interrupted with 20-minute episodes of bad television at the end of every chapter. It should be so much better. This post originally appeared on Kotaku UK The setup is that you play…

I’m a Bit Worried About Halo 5’s Campaign

You can always rely on the Halo series to have great music, and even though it was a piece from the original game, hearing it kick in as Master Chief and the other three members of Blue Team hurtled through space towards a Covenant-infested ship in Halo 5 did make me go all gooey inside.…

How Cross-Play on Xbox and Windows 10 Will Work

With the release of Windows 10, one of Microsoft’s new headline features is Cross-Play between Xbox One and PC players. This isn’t the company’s first foray into cross platform play. This post originally appeared on Kotaku UK Back in 2007, FASA studios, which had a first-party publishing deal with Microsoft, released Shadowrun, a fast-paced shooter…

Microsoft Will Put Its Own Games On Xbox Early Access

Since announcing Xbox Game Preview (Xbox’s version of Early Access) at E3, Microsoft has had “a mad rush from the game development community” to be part of its pilot program, says the company’s head of publishing Shannon Loftis—even Microsoft itself plans to release its own first-party games through the service. This post originally appeared on…

Skylanders Is Getting Online Multiplayer

Activision revealed today that they’re adding online multiplayer to Skylanders: Superchargers. The game’s getting online land, sea and air races for up to four players, along with an online co-op story mode. Skylanders never had any sort of online multiplayer and fans have been really clamoring for it for a while now. So it’s good…

The deliciously creepy looking indie game We Happy Few got a great new trailer today at Microsoft’s Gamescom presser, meaning the game is now coming to Xbox One. Watch it here, and check out Evan’s impressions from PAX East.

Watch Things Explode In Crackdown 3

“It’s not just what you can do with a gun; it’s the opportunities you can create with destruction.” Woooooo! We got a tiny glimpse at Crackdown 3 this morning during Microsoft’s Gamescom presser. The narrator in the trailer mostly spoke in open-world jargon—talking about how much freedom you’ll have to blow stuff up, and so…

Watch The Big Xbox Gamescom Conference Live, Right Here [UPDATE: Over]

Suffering from E3 withdrawal? We’ve got your fix right here, thanks to Gamescom, which kicks off this morning in Germany with a big ol’ Xbox press conference. Straight out of Cologne, the folks behind Xbox will be sharing news and trailers for games like Scalebound, Quantum Break, Crackdown, Halo 5, Rise of the Tomb Raider,…

All the Gears of War Games Will Be Backwards Compatible on Xbox One

Microsoft is re-mastering the first Gears of War game for Xbox One. And while the other Gears games won’t be getting the same treatment, you will be able to play them on the company’s newest home console. An morning announcement from Microsoft says that people who get Gears of War: Ultimate Edition this fall will…

You Might (One Day) Be Able To Stream PC Games To An Xbox One

Microsoft’s Xbox boss Phil Spencer has told The Verge that the company is working on a way for users to be able to stream their PC games to an Xbox One console. We knew that Windows 10 (which is out today) would let you do theopposite (Xbox One-to-PC), but PC-to-Xbox One streaming is new. “We…

New Tomb Raider Will Come To PC and PS4 In 2016

Windows players will be able to play Rise of the Tomb Raider a few months after it launches on Xbox. PS4 gamers will have to wait a year. There’s been anger and disgruntlement at the exclusivity of Rise of the Tomb Raider, which was initially announced as an Xbox platform exclusive last August. Turns out…

The Witcher 3 Fan Animation Sums Up The Game Pretty Well

An animated parody of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, made by Matthew Shezmen, proves that being Geralt is not easy when there’s so much drama going. Dealing with monsters is the last thing to worry about: To contact the author of this post, write to: [email protected]