Void Bastards is a strategy-shooter inspired by BioShock and System Shock 2. In it, you guide a group of prisoners through “derelict spaceships and myriad dangers.” You plot a course, study ship layouts, infiltrate ships, and fight/sabotage/distract your way through them. Also, your distraction tool is a kitty. Oh,…

You’re heading to the store to get an Xbox One right now, and need to know which games to get. Or you’re at work or in school, daydreaming about what you want to play next. Or maybe you’re suiting up for a battle in the console war, cinching on your armor and trying to remember which games will best help you make the…

It came as a mild surprise when Microsoft announced Saturday that it was purchasing not just one but two mid-sized studios with a focus on role-playing games. But as strange as it seems on the surface, the deal makes perfect sense for all three parties.

Sea of Thieves will get a competitive mode, Arena, in early 2019, Rare announced today at XO18. Crews will compete to get the most treasure.

In November’s Games with Gold, I’m personally most excited about indie racer Race the Sun, but Battlefield 1 is good too I guess. If you’re out of things to do in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, you can go back to the start of the series with Assassin’s Creed. As always, these games are only “free” if you have an active…

Paul Allen, who along with Bill Gates founded Microsoft in 1975, has died at the age of 65 of complications associated with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Microsoft is finalizing a deal to acquire the independent development studio Obsidian Entertainment, according to three people briefed on the negotiations. We don’t know if ink is on paper yet, and plenty of major acquisition deals have fallen apart in the final hours, but those close to the companies believe it is…

FPS games (and...strategy games?) are about to get a lot more precise on the Xbox One, with the announcement today that Microsoft is “enabling mouse and keyboard support on Xbox One for select Xbox Insiders in the coming weeks.”

Xbox announced October’s Games with Gold lineup during its Inside Xbox presentation this afternoon. I’m excited to see Hitman: Blood Money because it’s a chance to play some Hitman before I get to play more Hitman next month. As always, these games are only “free” if you have an active Xbox Live Gold subscription.

Xbox and Make-A-Wish are teaming up again for their Consoles For Kids charity drive, and the 2018 batch of custom-designed celebrity consoles are looking very pretty.

My editor-in-chief cheered “LEGO Stars Wars III!” at this month’s Xbox Live Games with Gold lineup, and his excitement made me excited, so maybe this is a good month for Xbox games. You also get some classic Sega action RPGs and the grim management sim Prison Architect. As always, these games are only “free” if you…

Microsoft has a new monthly financing program for the Xbox One called Xbox All Access, according to a blog post over at the Xbox website. The program allows users to commit to a two-year plan where they pay monthly for either an Xbox One S or an Xbox One X and subscriptions to both Xbox Live Gold and Game Pass.

It is unholy, and yet, also strangely beautiful.

Video games often deal in illusions, proffering the fantasy of control and power even when your meaningful influence is minimal. Monster Hunter: World, the new third-person action game from Capcom, absolutely deals in fantasy. It plucks you from reality and sets you in the domains of exotically imposing monsters that…

Sea of Thieves is full of jerk players and giant sharks, but the game has never felt all that dangerous. The latest update, Cursed Sails, mostly corrects that. The addition of terrifying skeleton threats, battles packed with cursed cannonballs, and a brand new player ship brings a welcome sense of urgency to a game…

August’s Xbox Live Games with Gold is pretty good this month. It features a few games I keep meaning to check out, like For Honor and Dead Space 3. As always, these games are only “free” if you have an active Xbox Live Gold subscription.

Whenever I’ve interviewed a games industry executive over the past few months, I’ve asked them what single thing will revolutionize video games in the next five years.