-
The Xbox Game Pass Library Has Gotten Much Better
Rocket League and Warhammer: Vermintide 2 came to Xbox Game Pass this week. Game Pass lets you pay $10 a month for access to a library of over 100 Xbox games. As long as you keep your subscription active, you can download and play any of them. Game Pass was an interesting idea when Microsoft…
By Ethan Gach Published July 12, 2018 -
Here’s July’s Xbox Live Games With Gold Lineup
There’s nothing too exciting in July’s Xbox Live Games With Gold. I will confess a deep fondness for Splinter Cell Conviction because when it came out in 2010 I’d never seen a game that projected the objective text into the world, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I still kinda think that.…
By Riley MacLeod Published June 28, 2018 -
Let’s Remember Some Xbox 360 Games
I think we all took the Xbox 360 for granted. Other all-time greats like the SNES and PS2 seem to be remembered more fondly than Microsoft’s console, which tends to be recalled as more of a thing that happened than a platform to be treasured. I wonder if that’s down to recency. It could have…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 19, 2018 -
The Xbox One’s new avatars are almost here. An editoris rolling out to Xbox Insiders now that lets them build and tweak their avatars ahead of the actual release of the mascots, which MS says is coming “soon”. Related: if you’d like to read about the creation of Xbox avatars themselves, here’s an old feature…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 18, 2018 -
CultureE3Everything We Learned About Assassin’s Creed Odyssey After Playing It
The next Assassin’s Creed is going to turn heads. That won’t just be because it’s set in ancient Greece, nor simply because it lets you play as a man or a woman. It’s also changing the series’ combat yet again, offering more options for stealth, and even fleshing out the modern-day stuff that’s been lacking…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 11, 2018 -
CultureE3
Podcast: We React To Xbox And EA At E3 2018
We’re two press conferences into E3 2018, and there’s already so much to talk about. Won’t you join us? On the first episode of Kotaku Splitscreen’s special E3 coverage, Jason Schreier and I talked about everything we liked (and didn’t like) about EA’s press conference yesterday and Microsoft’s conference today. Listen below, and download an…
By Kirk Hamilton Published June 10, 2018 -
CultureE3Everything Microsoft Showed At E3 2018
Microsoft just showed off a ton of stuff at their E3 2018 Xbox press conference, including new Halo and Gears of War games, Fallout 76, The Division 2, Dying Light 2, a shiny Cyberpunk 2077 trailer, and a new samurai action game from the makers of Dark Souls. Personally speaking, I’m most excited about that last…
By Kirk Hamilton Published June 10, 2018 -
CultureE3Microsoft Reveals Gears Of War 5 (And Two Spinoffs)
Microsoft announced Gears of War 5 at its E3 Media Briefing today with a story trailer and is slated to arrive next year on Xbox One. But that’s not all: Microsoft-owned studio The Coalition is also working on two Gears of War spin-offs, Gears Pop, a mobile game, and Gears Tactics, a strategy game for…
By Ethan Gach Published June 10, 2018 -
CultureE3Dying Light 2 Announced
Parkour zombie game Dying Light is getting a sequel. We don’t know much about Dying Light 2 but based on the trailer it looks like a colorful return to another violent undead world. And you thought the sustained flood of zombie games had ebbed. Chris Avellone, one of the narrative masterminds Planescape: Torment and Star…
By Ethan Gach Published June 10, 2018 -
CultureE3Microsoft Announces Halo Infinite With Tiny Teaser
Microsoft kicked off its E3 2018 press conference with a small teaser for the next Halo, called Halo Infinite. If you thought Halo 5 could have used more Master Chief, Microsoft says you’ll get more play time with the series’ protagonist this time around. “We will join Master Chief on his greatest adventure yet to…
By Chris Kohler Published June 10, 2018 -
CultureE3Watch The Xbox E3 2018 Press Conference Live, Here [Update: Over]
E3 continues today with Microsoft’s press conference at 1pm PT/4pm ET. What’s next for the Xbox One X? Will we see some Gears of War? Will playing with my Xbox friends on my PC ever get easier? Let’s find out together! You can watch the press conference on YouTube below, or on Twitch
By Riley MacLeod Published June 10, 2018 -
Sources: Microsoft Delays Crackdown 3 To 2019 [Update: Confirmed For February]
First planned for November 2017, then delayed to 2018, the long-troubled open-world action game Crackdown 3 will now be out in 2019, according to two people familiar with the game’s release plans. It’s an unusual move and another blow to Xbox’s already weak first-party lineup for the rest of 2018. The third Crackdown game, developed…
By Jason Schreier Published June 6, 2018 -
One Year Later, Did Microsoft Keep Its E3 2017 Promises?
E3 fast approaches, and you know what that means: New game announcements and all the gaming news you can handle are headed our way. It also means it’s time to rewind to 2017, when the three console makers made a plethora of promises during last year’s E3 festivities. Did they keep them? Let’s find out.…
By Narelle Ho Sang Published June 5, 2018 -
Here’s June’s Xbox Live Games With Gold Lineup
There’s a range of genres in June’s Xbox Live Games with Gold, from racing to stealth to a MOBA. As ever, these games are only “free” if you have an Xbox Live Games with Gold subscription. June’s Xbox Live Games With Gold are: Xbox One Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: Russia (June 1-30) Smite Gold Bundle (June…
By Riley MacLeod Published May 29, 2018 -
The Xbox Has Quietly Gotten Some Cool Features
This week, Microsoft revealed the Xbox Adaptive Controller, a new peripheral to help make gaming more accessible. It includes two large, programmable buttons and works in conjunction with a mix of joysticks and other devices like the Quadstick, a controller designed specifically for people living with different forms of paralysis. It’s just the latest in…
By Ethan Gach Published May 18, 2018 -
Hands On With Kingdom Hearts III, Finally
I did it—I played Kingdom Hearts III, or the finely-polished vertical slice of it that Square Enix is willing to show off, anyway. What I found was in no way surprising: It’s another mashup of Disney movies and Final Fantasy tropes sure to delight fans of either, but doesn’t seem like it’ll solve any of…
By Chris Kohler Published May 18, 2018 -
Microsoft Announces New Controller For Gamers With Disabilities
Microsoft has a new control system on the way designed specifically for those with limited mobility, which through a base unit and add-ons will make playing Xbox One games a lot easier for those who might struggle with the current controller. The Xbox Adaptive Controller features a large white base unit, which has a few…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 17, 2018 -
Kinect is alive again, sort of. Microsoft announced last fall it would no longer be manufacturing the Xbox peripheral, but now it’s back as…Project Kinect for Azure? The dev kit uses Kinect sensors and cloud computing to help people do new things with AI, like one day make Cortana for real
By Ethan Gach Published May 7, 2018 -
I Hate How Much I Want A PlayStation 4 Pro
When I first heard about the PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X, I thought they were the dumbest things. Upgrading a console at the midpoint of a generation was unfathomable to me, and I think developers should design for whatever framerate they want rather than whatever gamers demand. But as more games come out…
By Heather Alexandra Published May 3, 2018 -
The Division’s Developers Keep Fixing ‘Weird Doors’
If you looked closely at the patch notes for a Division update from way back in November 2016, you would notice an odd sentence: “Fixed a Weird Door.” It would become a trend for Ubisoft’s enormous action-RPG, which would receive many more updates over the coming months. The following May, in Division patch 1.6.1, the…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 30, 2018