Xbox

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…

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…

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…

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

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…

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…

Watch Dogs 2 Had Some Creative DLC For Those Who Stuck Around

Big game gets hype. Big game comes out. No one seems to care. Big game flops. Life moves on. Except, these days, when all that happens, the big game still usually has a few months’ worth of DLC to drop. If that DLC is good, it’s a shame that so few people will play it.…

Microsoft plans to let Xbox users link their Discord accounts in the future. This means Discord users on PC will be able to see if their friends are playing Xbox One games. There won’t be any direct communication beyond that between the two platforms but it’s a nice addition. 

Sea of Thieves Players Compete To See Who Can Find The Most Treasure

Finding a single treasure chest in the Xbox One pirate game Sea of Thieves can involve up to 30 minutes of sailing and riddle-solving. Sail longer, and players can stack their ship with loot. Some intrepid pirate crews are doing that, waging a treasure “arms” race as they cover their decks with hundreds of chests…

Sea of Thieves, One Month Later

Sea of Thieves released one month ago, offering a massive ocean playground for cool player stories along with a frustrating lack of activities and grindy progression. Developer Rare has outlined new content plans for the future, but even without fancy new ships or expansions, the story of Sea of Thieves has as many ups and…

Morrowind, Bioware & Star Wars Classics Coming To Xbox One Backwards Compatibility

Microsoft has just announced a new batch of original Xbox games coming to the Xbox One’s backwards compatibility feature, and there are some damn good ones on offer, including KOTOR, Morrowind, Jade Empire and the original Star Wars: Battlefront games. Here’s the full list of original Xbox games on the way: Hey, if you’ve never…

Sea Of Thieves: The Kotaku Review

Playing Sea of Thieves feels a bit like working in a theater before the set has been completely built. There’s plenty of space to goof around and a few swords in the wings to have mock fights with, but none of its quite ready for show time. A lack of features and polish has frustrated…

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds stations dominate the Xbox booth at PAX East. Behind that, the PlayStation booth opted to front-load Detroit: Become Human, with a couple of setups for upcoming titles like Soulcalibur VI and Yakuza 6 buried in the middle rows. Nintendo’s big draw is the Wolfenstein II Switch port demo.

The Good and the Bad of Far Cry 5‘s Co-Op

I’ve played many hours of Far Cry 5 co-op, both with my partner and with colleagues. A lot of the time it’s been a blast, except when you’re trying to actually get things done. There’s a pretty major caveat to the co-operative experience, as there was with Far Cry 4: only the host player’s progress…

April’s Xbox Live Games with Gold include The Witness and Dead Space 2. As always, these games are only “free” if you have an active Xbox Live Games with Gold subscription.

The next game in the generally fun Lego series will be June 15’s Lego The Incredibles. It covers the original movie and upcoming sequel. It’s for PC, PS4, Xbox One and Switch. Nintendo’s device had four Lego games in its first year, some suffering performance issues. Hopefully publisher Warner Bros ups the quality control.

Microsoft Executive Is Open To Putting Banjo In The New Smash Bros

Banjo and his partner Kazooie haven’t been in a Nintendo game since 2005’s Banjo-Pilot thanks to complicated intellectual property rigamarole that cropped up when Microsoft acquired Rare in 2002. With a new Smash Bros. coming to the Switch, there’s plenty of speculation about new fighters. Microsoft’s Executive Vice President of Gaming seems completely fine with…

My Xbox One Is Reminding Me Of The Last Console Generation’s Excellence

I had reason (research for a colleague) to play my Xbox 360 copy of Red Dead Redemption on my Xbox One earlier this week. I hadn’t touched the 2010 game probably since it came out. I try to keep up with new games, but now I’m thinking about some last-gen ones I miss or just…

Microsoft doing a new live show focusing on Sea of Thieves and Xbox Game Pass news? Cool. Doing it at 3pm ET on a Saturday (March 10)? Weird. Microsoft tells Kotaku: “Looking ahead, we’re aiming to do the show on weekdays and will have more to share in the future.” Ok!

Shadow Of War Was A Dreary Mess, But Its Expansion Is Good

It’s not the loot boxes that bummed me out about October’s Shadow of War. When playing the game, you can easily ignore them. I had a harder time ignoring the game’s bummer mood, ugly scenery, trite and tedious quests and mechanical messiness. I liked its predecessor. I wanted to like this game. I bailed halfway…