Xbox

Nice Brawling Animations, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate

Last year I was impressed with a state of the art Assassin’s Creed kiss. This year? The latest Assassin’s Creed team has upped their game with combat animations. Enjoy some ass-kicking and some bone-crunching, folks, especially the finishing animations at the end of each of these clips: Some of the combat animations outside of the…

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…

Halo 5 Day Zero Impressions: Mediocre Campaign, Promising Multiplayer

Halo 5 is beautiful, at times a lot of fun, and at times disappointing. It’s also not yet officially released and is dependent on its multiplayer working well on a large scale. So we’re holding off on a review until well after the game’s October 27 launch. For now, some impressions of one of the…

Our incredibly efficient pals at Lifehacker have posted a wonderfully-detailed comparison of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, to help people decide which to buy. Spoiler: They say you can’t go wrong with either.

Three Minutes of Fighting Over a Half-Naked Man in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate

Where is a guy supposed to dump a body around here? Here is a three-minute video—taken from a late-game mission but devoid of spoilers—from Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, a game I quite like. The setup: Jacob Frye, the assassin I’m controlling, has just knocked out a British royal guardsman and stolen his uniform. Next, he’s (we’re?)…

New Assassin’s Creed Changes Series’ Signature Message About Diversity

Since the first Assassin’s Creed in 2007, games in Ubisoft’s history-hopscotching series have always begun with an on-screen message about the diversity of the people who made the game. You see it as the game boots up, before you can play anything. For this year’s Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, the 10th major release in the series,…

Here are the patch notes for Assassin’s Creed Syndicate’s first two patches, both available for download as soon as you get the game. Capped from a PS4. For the record our reviewer had no major performance issues with his version of the game, which we believe was running with at least the first patch (the…

The Evolution Of A Destiny Character

In a game about collecting guns and armor (and shooting aliens), everything you put on your character should make you look cooler, right? To test that theory, I took 54 screenshots of my Destiny character over the past month, as she leveled up. I got the idea shortly before the September release of Destiny’s big…

Deadspin’s Albert Burneko is having the toughest time with his new-gen console. Dude probably needs more firmware updates or something. Feel his pain, and enjoy his bonus capsule review of The Witcher 3

One GIF Sums Up Star Wars Battlefront‘s Modern Multiplayer Potential

Plenty of non-canonical moments will be possible in the upcoming multiplayer game Star Wars Battlefront. Above, a scene from YouTuber Jackfrags’ recent session with the game. A beta for Battlefront will be playable on PS4, Xbox One and PC starting this Thursday The game can be played in first or third-person. Here’s more: To contact…

Here Are My Best Mad Max Screenshots. Show Us Yours.

Someone smart recently told me that every video game should have a photo mode. Now that I’ve finally become obsessed with one, I agree. I can’t stop taking screenshots in the new Mad Max game. And that was before I even discovered the filters. Here are my best shots so far: Clearly I am a…

Mad Max‘s High-Level Jacket Should Look Cooler Than This [Update: There’s A Hidden, Better Jacket!]

In a world filled with uncertainty we are able to cling to few sure things. One rock we can grasp to pull us through our days is the expectation that the more advanced clothing and armor that we obtain for our video game heroes will look more impressive than their starter gear. If only this…

If Ever a Game Needed Explaining, It’s Gal Gun

Two words: Orgasm. Gun. Welcome to the latest in Kotaku’s series of explainer articles where we drag in a random disembodied voice and have a little intimate chat about a game, comic, or something else our readers might find interesting. However, this time I am just exploiting the system. After spending two solid days doing…

What To Make Of Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, One Month Out

Less than a month from release, Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is likely to be judged as much on its own merits as on how well its publisher listened to fan discontent about the flagship series and what it’s been willing to change. Companion apps are out. Platform-exclusive DLC is back. The overall plan for the…

The First Gameplay Footage From The South Park Xbox Game That Never Was

The original Xbox never got a South Park game, but if it had it would have looked something like this. The raw work in progress was allegedly discovered on a debug original Xbox procured in August by Nintendo Age forum moderator qixmaster, who posted a few screenshots and a single cutscene from the game. Sometime…

Pausing In A Porta Potty In Metal Gear Solid V Makes Me Happy

As I write this, Venom Snake is waiting in a Porta Potty north of Kabul during a sandstorm. I feel a little bad about it, to be honest. I’d rather leave him at Mother Base or with Pequod in his helicopter. In a pinch, though, when Snake is in the field conducting an operation and…

Madden NFL 16’s Best Mode Almost Turns Football Into Hearthstone

Ten years ago, I wrote one of the most wrongheaded articles of my career. In a review of 2005’s Blitz: The League for Slate, I predicted that Madden NFL’s then-new monopoly on the National Football League’s license for video game football would restore variety to the virtual gridiron. Surely the single-minded pursuit of NFL realism…

Legendary emote!

Here’s the trailer for Assassin’s Creed Syndicate’s Jack the Ripper DLC campaign. It’ll be available as part of the game’s season pass, and it will feature Jack the Ripper as its villain, with Scotland Yard chief inspector Frederick Abberline trying to hunt him down (with your help, of course).

Madden NFL Should Be a 22-Player Game

It is one of the oft-old tales in the three-decade (!) history of Madden NFL: When Trip Hawkins, the founder of Electronic Arts, approached John Madden, the Hall of Fame coach and broadcaster, about collaborating on a new version of video game football, Madden stipulated that any game with his name on it would include…