The Fable series is known for a lot of things, including the ability to kick chickens and send them soaring through the air. The new Fable, from developer Playground, will continue to allow you to do this, it was confirmed as part of Xbox Developer Direct.

In an interview with Xbox, game director Ralph Fulton said if NPCs in the world see you kicking chickens, you'll begin to earn a reputation as a "Chicken Chaser." If enough people witness you kicking chickens, or if you just do it a lot, your reputation in a given settlement will be that you're a person who likes to kick chickens. "People will react to you based on what they think about that particular reputation," Fulton said.

However, different people will take this reputation to mean different things. "Kicking chickens isn't objectively good or objectively evil in a way everybody will agree on," Fulton said. "It comes down to the unique worldview of the NPC [and] what they think of you because of it."

After last year's critically acclaimed sleeper Keeper, Double Fine is coming back with a new take on an older game. During the Xbox Developer Direct, Double Fine officially unveiled Kiln, a title where players will be able to make unique pottery warriors and send them into battle against each other.

During the much-longer look at Kiln from the Xbox Developer Direct, it was clear that the vase creation has a lot of options for players to shape their warriors and guide their destructive destinies. However, you won't need to be a pottery master to realize your clay visions in this game.

"Making pots in real life is really difficult," said project lead Derek Brand during an interview with Xbox Wire. "It takes a lot of practice, and you can get good at it over time, but it is not an easy thing to just jump into. We wanted to make the pot-making super easy and accessible--it's just a button and a control stick--and you can make any kind of shape you wanted. We wanted people to immediately feel like they're masters at this craft."

The new Fable game that Microsoft showed off during the Xbox Developer Direct takes inspiration from an unlikely source: the popular TV show The Office.

Game director Ralph Fulton said in an interview with Xbox that British humor "manifests in lots of different ways throughout the game." The team at Playground, which is based in England, was inspired by the "rich variety of British comedies" of the past two decades, including Ricky Gervais' The Office, as well as Peep Show, The IT Crowd, and others.

"We started with The Office, which again started out as quintessentially British, but also travels really, really well," he said, no doubt referencing the American version that elevated the series to new heights. "Not just that IP, but a lot of the techniques and the devices that it’s popularized, you know. It’s that really grounded, awkward style of humor which really appeals to us."

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, Premium, and Essential subscribers can start the weekend a little early, because the next Free Play Days event begins today, January 22 and goes through Sunday, January 25. One of the four games available to players is South Park: Snow Day!, which seems appropriate given the cold weather sweeping much of the US.

Snow Day! is a four-player co-op title that casts players as the new kid in town opposite Cartman, Stan, Kyle, and Kenny. A blizzard has blown through South Park, and set the boys off into a fantasy realm of adventure where they get to battle it out to save the world. Or at least some of the world, since they won't be leaving South Park any time soon.

As the name implies, Sherlock Holmes Chapter One is an origin story for the world's greatest non-Batman detective. But he hasn't hit his peak of deduction yet. This game puts players in control of a much younger Sherlock as he attempts to unravel the events surrounding the sudden death of his mother.

Following the reveal of its release date, Marathon has seen a surge of interest as PC players have begun locking in preorders for Bungie's sci-fi extraction shooter. At the time of writing, Marathon is the fifth-best-selling game on Steam in the US and 10th globally on the Steam Charts. Free-to-play games like Marvel Rivals and Counter-Strike 2 are ahead of it--only natural, given the low price of nothing for those titles--and Arc Raiders is still in the top spot for now.

This is a positive step forward for the game, considering last year's controversy over alleged stolen art assets and the lukewarm reception since its reveal. It's also worth noting that Marathon will be available on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S at launch, but sales data for those platforms isn't currently available to gauge player interest. Marathon was originally aiming to launch in September last year--a release date that would have brought it perilously close to the mega-successful Arc Raiders.

It's now scheduled to launch on March 5, which gives it a fairly comfortable window to make its sales mark. The Steam preorders suggest it'll launch on PC with considerable momentum, but it remains to be seen whether it'll be able to hold onto its players in the highly competitive live-service games market.

World of Warcraft lead producer Raymond Bartos has left Blizzard to join Riot, where he will work on the League of Legends developer's upcoming MMO.

Bartos said, "I'm deeply grateful for the opportunity to join such an inspiring group of people, and I can't wait to get started." Serving as a senior game producer, Bartos said his job will be to "help deliver an MMO experience players truly enjoy."

Additionally, Bartos said he's excited to join another former WoW developer, Orlando Salvatore, at Riot. "Given our track record on World of Warcraft, I have a feeling we'll be moving fast on day one," Bartos said.

For the first time in series history, the Halo franchise will be playable on PlayStation this year with the release of Halo: Campaign Evolved. Executive producer Damon Conn said in an interview that Microsoft's goal is to "bring players back together."

"There are people who have never been exposed to Halo. Maybe they've always been on Sony products, switched consoles at a certain point, or just missed it at the time. We want to bring players back together," Conn explained to GamesRadar.

Creative director Max Szlagor added that, "Halo is best played when we have a large, healthy community."