Rare News, Rare Features

C-c-c-coming exclusively to Xbox One

Guess what guys? It looks as if the "historic franchise" that Double Helix is bringing to Xbox One is, in fact, Killer Instinct. Revealed in a teaser trailer during the Microsoft press briefing, the video of Killer Instinct showcased many of the series favorite characters deep in combat, each brought to life in...

Also, Xbox One suggested for November release

Before Microsoft's big presser, a new entry in the Kinect Sports franchise was announced on Spike TV called Kinect Sports Rivals. Following the debut trailer, a developer from Rare confirmed the title will be a day one launch title for the Xbox One and — through a bit of prodding from G4TV's Geoff...

But could Rash, Pimple, and Zitz now be coming to Xbox One?

After news broke that Rare may be bringing one of their many beloved franchises to this year’s E3, we decided to dig a little further to see if we could find any hints as to what they could be working on – besides the rumored Killer Instinct. While we didn’t happen to score anything...

A Rare return to form?

Way back in 2002, Microsoft acquired developer Rare from Nintendo and brought beloved series such as Conker, Perfect Dark, and Banjo-Kazooie to the Xbox and Xbox 360. Since then, they've mostly been developing Kinect-based titles and neglecting all of that juicy IP that fans have been clamoring for. Well, it looks as if the...

But in which generation?

Kinect Sports developer Rare is keeping a firm eye on Kinect, if a new job listing spotted by OXM is to be believed. The company is hiring a principle network services engineer, noting that they are "continuing to push the boundaries of the Kinect hardware with our exciting new project." In addition to this, they make...

Everybody's as it

While we've pretty much all realised Kinect will not be able to give us a great hardcore experience, it can still play a part in core titles through voice recognition. Kinect engineer at Rare, David Quinn, told Gamasutra we can expect a lot more speech recognition in future core games. Talking about his experience on Kinect Sports...

Ice to see you

Kinect Sports: Season Two keeps the downloadable content flowing, with the Midnight Mountain Ski Pack available on Xbox Live Marketplace now for 400 Microsoft Points. The pack adds three new slopes — Backwoods Blast, Pitch Black and After Hours — to take on under cover of darkness, with new Achievements and Challenges included...

Fore-hundred MSP

You can treat your caddy to some new sights next week, as Kinect Sports: Season Two is due to get nine new holes from the Xbox Live Marketplace. The Maple Lakes golf pack launches on 20th December for 400 Microsoft Points, adding nine new holes alongside new Challenges and Achievements. On the same day the game will also get a free...

Where is it going?

No matter what you make of Kinect's current games line-up or its future potential, you can't argue the past 12 months have been anything but fascinating: watching developers create new concepts to fit a button-free body-tracking control system, with all the success and struggle that brings with it. One studio that's been integral...

Up your game

We're big fans of Kinect Sports: Season Two here at KINECTaku, especially now Rare's released some new downloadable content for free. Available on Xbox Live Marketplace today, the Kinect Sports: Season Two Challenge Pack #1 adds new modes to each sport: Crazy Kicker (American Football), Frantic Fielder (Baseball), Cool Ringings...

Let's find out

We're not far away from Kinect Sports: Season Two, and Microsoft is getting ready to compete for the family game top spot in the charts. Microsoft UK is about to embark on a high-profile advertising campaign for the game, highlighting its new sports not included in last year's original, as well as some of its new uses of Kinect...

Kinect Sports Season Two is just the beginning, says Senior Studio Director

Rare's union with Kinect Joy Ride developer BigPark appears to have paid off handsomely if our recent hands-on preview of Kinect Sports Season Two is anything to go by, and according to Rare's Senior Studio Director Craig Duncan, it's going to be the first of many similar...

We visit Rare's UK HQ to experience what could be this Christmas' biggest Kinect title

Given the incredible commercial and critical response to the original Kinect Sports, it was inevitable that a sequel of some description would occur. What was slightly less predictable was the news that the legendary British code house Rare would be co-developing...

We want your input

Excited about Kinect Sports: Season Two's release later this year? Have burning questions for developer Rare that simply must be answered? Then we have the perfect situation for you. We'll be speaking with the creative minds behind development team Rare in the near future and want to arrive with a bundle of your questions. Want to...

Batter up!

Microsoft showed off Kinect Sports: Season Two golf and darts at Gamescom, and at PAX Prime it's showing off another sport: baseball. The split-screen mode lets the batter and pitcher go head-to-head. If you're batting, you'll be able to aim your swing or bunt, and apparently even run and slide to steal bases, though we can't imagine that...

Balls and darts

Two of the new sports in Kinect Sports: Season Two are featured in a shiny new trailer below. Hopefully the tennis can improve on the slightly shaky motion controls in SEGA's Virtua Tennis 4, and let's face it: the darts can't be any worse than in the disastrous Game Party in Motion. Microsoft UK has announced a release date of 25th...

We have the answer

Microsoft's UK arm has done a bang-up job of publicising Kinect Sports with real-life athletes, from James DeGale to Graeme Swann, Amy Williams and Darius Knight. Who's the latest super-toned professional sportsman to team up with the game? It's Mark Lawrenson of course. The TV pundit — who still looks strange without a...

Britain's top two female table tennis players kick it off with Kinect Sports

This past Saturday saw Kelly Sibley and Joanna Parker, the top ranked table tennis players in Britain, face off at London's Rough Trade East record and media store with Kinect Sports. The event launches Summer Saturdays, to run until 27th August, at which Rough Trade East...

Ding ding, round two

We're a few short hours from Microsoft's E3 2011 press conference and the rumours are flying in thick and fast. Twitter user Superannuation has unearthed a handful of domains registered by Microsoft that hint at some big announcements coming up. The domains discovered so far include: Kinect Sports: Season 2Kinect Fun LabsDance...