Xbox

Life Is Strange Is Really Patronising

I really like the idea of Dontnod’s episodic game choice drama-em-up Life Is Strange, but really it just ended up making me wish it would shut up and let me experience it instead. Life Is Strange is a wonderful kind of idea: It’s five episodes long, gives us the much neglected teen girl player character…

How A Small Studio’s Chance At The Big Time Died At Microsoft’s Doorstep

One week in early February, three top employees from the independent game studio Darkside Games flew to Redmond, Washington for a secret meeting with Microsoft. Over the course of the meeting, which lasted two days, Darkside’s leadership tried to convince the mega-corporation to give them a few more million dollars, according to two people familiar…

This Might Be The Last Time I Rave About Sunset Overdrive

Sunset Overdrive, arguably the best exclusive game on the Xbox One, has now ended the way it began: with a mix of not-quite-there meta-humor and a lot of very fun gameplay. Overall, I loved this game and am grateful that its last DLC gave me a gun that drops satellites on my enemies. Yes, indeed.…

Excellent Respawn Animation, Sunset Overdrive

Xbox One exclusive Sunset Overdrive has the best respawn animations I’ve ever seen. They’re mostly jokes, riffing on Portal, Star Trek and stuff like that and worth the few seconds they take to put you back in the action. I’ve played the game for hours, though, and hadn’t seen this one until last night. Might…

Beyond Eyes: The Basics

What is it? It’s an upcoming downloadable game in which you “see” the world as a blind girl who is searching for her cat. How exactly does that work? You’re this 10-year-old girl Rae, and you walk around, sensing the world through what you can touch and hear. It’s not just a matter of having…

Quantum Break, the next shooter from the makers of Max Payne and Alan Wake, is now planned to launch in 2016 on the Xbox One, Microsoft announced. The game was previously slated to arrive in 2015.

Originality In Video Games Is Overrated

“I’m not interested in Dying Light,” a friend recently told me. I arched an inquisitive eyebrow. “Why?” A few seconds later, his response flashed on screen. “Because it doesn’t look that original.” For a few moments, I struggled to compose a response. Finally, I asked him a simple question: “Why should that matter?” Techland’s Dying…

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles Is Now A Trilogy Set In China, India, Russia

Ok. This looks cool. What was going to be a single side-scrolling Assassin’s Creed game set in 16th century China is now going to span three eras and three countries, starting on April 21. Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China, a game we formerly thought was just its own thing for owners of the Assassin’s Creed Unity…

You Really Should Be Playing Life is Strange

My favourite thing about Life is Strange is that it encourages you to be present in the moment. This post originally appeared on Kotaku UK At the beginning of the second episode, shy photography student Max awakens in her dorm room to the sound of Alt-J, and there’s no hurry to get up. You can…

Battlefield Hardline: The Kotaku Review

I really wish Hardline could deal with being a bad cop. The lack of rewards, unlocks or even acknowledgement for shooting people means it all takes place in a weird moral environment, where only good exists. This post originally appeared on Kotaku UK The way it handles bad behaviour – by allowing but completely ignoring…

You Should Be Level 20 For Dragon Age‘s Surprise 1.5GB DLC

The surprise Jaws of Hakkon downloadable expansion for Dragon Age Inquisition appears to be designed for people who’ve played a fair amount of the game. Out today for PC and Xbox One, it advises players to be level 20. On Xbox One, the DLC costs $15, unless you have EA Access, which gets you a…

Borderlands: The Handsome Collection: The Kotaku Collection

You can play Borderlands 2 and its associated DLC and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and its DLC today, just like you could yesterday. But this time, it’s all packaged together for the new-gen consoles in a definitive collection with some new features, like four-player splitscreen. In celebration—or, really, mostly for pure research sake if you’re looking…

We Finally Agree About An Assassin’s Creed Game

Three of us on staff have a habitof disagreeingon…well, almost everything when it comes to Assassin’s Creed. So what happens when Kotaku‘s three AC fanboys sit down with the shortest, least-hyped Assassin’s Creed game in years? The unthinkable… …we actually agree. Well, about most things when it comes to Assassin’s Creed Rogue, which was just…

Battlefield Hardline Tries Real Hard Not To Be Battlefield

Battlefield Hardine is a shooter that rewards not shooting. In the single player at least. If you wondered how it would deal with the idea of a ‘bad cop’ in the current real-world climate, it turns out the solution is, ironically, to pretend it didn’t happen. (Quick note: if ever there was a game to…

Lego Jurassic World: The Basics

What is it? Lego Jurassic World, another of those Lego games we’re always getting, this time covering the four Jurassic Park movies (including this summer’s Jurassic World). Who is making it? TT Fusion, who previously made the superb Lego Movie Videogame. Here’s a trailer… Did we play it? Yes, briefly during a demo session at…

Assassin’s Creed Rogue: The Kotaku Review

The biggest plot twist in Assassin’s Creed history is this: Assassin’s Creed Rogue, the least-hyped console game in the series, the one we had good reason to think would be bad, is…a very, very good game. It’s a must-play for any AC fan. What in the world? Did you even know there was a game…

Elite: Dangerous is coming to Xbox One this summer, Microsoft’s Phil Spencer announced today at GDC. Unexpected!

Hooray For Motion Sickness! The Saturday Stream Plays ScreamRide (Done)

The spiritual successor to RollerCoaster Tycoon arrives on Xboxes this Tuesday, giving players the ability to design, test-drive and destroy insane amusement park rides. I just want to see if the game’s blazing speed will make Twitch pee itself. From Frontier Developments, the studio that ported the first RollerCoaster Tycoon to the original Xbox, ScreamRide…

Fable Legends is Indeed Free-to-Play – And it’s Not a Bad Thing

To be honest, the first time I ever saw Fable Legends – Lionhead’s 4v1 multiplayer remix of Fable, due out later this year – I could have made a confident educated guess that it would be free to play. This post originally appeared on Kotaku UK Its reliance on team play and selection of different,…

News that the next Batman Arkham game will be the first to get an M rating isn’t a huge surprise, given the series’ propensity to push the limits of T ratings. In 2012, the ESRB ratings group was surprisingly forthcoming with us about the oddness of Arkham games getting T’s while Halos got M’s. [UPDATE]