Microsoft E3 press briefing news SPOILERS POSSIBLY

Here is a rehash of the Micrsosoft Press Briefing from today at the e3 expo in Los Angeles, CA. Some really great stuff has been announced and demo'd so far.

This list is probably a little bit out of order and missing some things, but these were things that really stood out to me.

Some xbox360 exclusives and new exclusive games just announced:

-Left 4 Dead 2, November 17 (looks to take place in New Orleans, pretty cool)

-Crackdown 2

-Forza 3 (absolutely gorgeous)

-Splinter Cell Conviction (very very cool, this will be up there for game of the year)

- Halo 3 ODST, September 17, looks pretty cool, live demo. similar to halo 3 but seems like it has other elements mixed in. not as straight forward a shooter. Seems like it has a little focus on stealth, and some flashback storytelling. uses a visor as similar to metroid prime series

- Halo: Reach Prequel to Halo series. SWEET invite to multiplayer beta with purchase of ODST

- Alan Wake: exclusive. demo being shown, plays like a story book, he seems to be narrating his actions as he goes along, sort of weird. he carries a flashlight which seems like it does soemthing to the boogey men that are after him. like they have to avoid the light. same with some flares he's toting around.

-Metal Gear Solid Franchise coming to 360.

- Metal Gear Solid Rising, New Game announced. Main character is Raiden, new types of game play it sounded like

Some other cool stuff:

-Tony Hawk Ride has skateboard peripheral that is pretty neat.

-They live demo'd modern warfare 2, its stunning. looks like so much fun. Snowmobile, ice climbing gameplay, new gun with built in sonar monitor for gunning enemies down in blizzard. very fricken cool. map packs will release on 360 exclusively at first, other consoles later.

-Showed Final fantasy XIII playing on 360 for the first time. Same scene that has been floating around from the ps3 demo, but with some extras like differences in battle system and first summon, which was odin who fights along with your characters instead of just a cgi sequence. very cool. spring 2010 release

-Beatles Rock Band they demo'd a bit, now have up to 3 singers as well as band.

- Bringing music to xbox similar to netlfix with a partnership with last.fm, for free

- Some great updates to netlfix, and new partnetship with Sky TV to bring similar to UK and EU. includes live tv incl. football games etc.

- Video library will be converted to full 1080p, everything will be instant streaming, no waiting for download, highest quality.

-Live Party will allow for video to be played from your xbox to friends when you party up, (this was supposed to ship originally, will happen this fall)

-Partnership with facebook, facebook on 360 in dashboard. very cool. can view your fb friends and xbox live friends by linking them together. view photos etc in full screen. status updates, can comment/like etc. Facebook connect, screenshots & texts post to your profile from your games.

-Partnership with twitter, send/read tweets

-Guild season 3 this fall, felicia day is adorable.

-New control system, code name: "Project Natal (nah-tahl)", not just motion control. YOU are the controller. tracks full 3d body motion. looks sick as hell as well as gimmicky as hell. facial recognition, voice recognition, image scanning. can use your hands/voice to move through the dahsboard similar to an iphone. they look like tom cruise from minority report doing this stuff. will work with all xbox 360's, old and future versions. partnering with steven spielberg to create some stuff for it. lol, called out nintendo for "preset waggle commands" this is really cool looking. Peter Molynuxes(sp?) make a kid named Milo at lionhead and you can interact just talking with him and smiling etc, he recognizes your facial expressions ans such, this is insane. (remember seaman with leonard nimoy? like that except way cooler) the demo girl is looking into a pond, and her reflection is actually in the pond. incredible. she drew a picture of a fish, held it up and the kid took the paper into the game and recognized it was a fish. i am stunned.

Updated: Couple Extras post-briefing

- 360 avatars will be getting more clothes/props etc that will be earned from games (possibly by unlocking a number of or certain achievements) and also from a store.

- ability to buy full games without the discs and download directly to your hdd, examples given were mass effect, assassins creed, bioshock among others. no news on if new releases will be available right away or over time. 30 to launch at the start in august with new releases every week