Well, the wait is finally over. Microsoft has finally launched the Xbox One as promised, a mere week after Sony launched its coveted next-gen PlayStation 4 and directly on the cusp of the holiday shopping season. The console is powerful and flexible as DT’s own Adam Rosenberg outlined in our Xbox One review, and comes equipped with an intuitive set of voice commands engineered to work hand-in-hand with the console’s bundled Kinect. The peripheral also touts a few motion controls, but most users would probably rather speak their mind than perform a bunch of cumbersome, yogi-like maneuvers to navigate the dashboard.
While you could sock away your Kinect after the device’s initial setup, you’ll be doing yourself a huge disfavor. Voice commands allow users to do everything from turning on the console and recording gameplay footage, to sending messages and launching apps in Snap mode, all which can be done by simple saying “Xbox” followed by the appropriate voice command. It’s incredibly useful and quick, even if it is somewhat limited at launch and requires you to say the exact phrase.
Here’s a quick-hit list of the Xbox One voice commands as outlined by the good folks at Microsoft. Also, check out our Xbox One tip guide for some additional tips to make the most of Microsoft’s new offering.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.