I honestly didn’t think it was going to happen but it has been officially confirmed by Microsoft SA now… or at least their press agency. That new 60GB Xbox 360 is only currently being planned for the US and Canada and the same goes for the price cut. To be honest we (and Europe) have already had our huge price …

What did you just say? Ok, so a couple of Square Enix titles were shown and dates were given, namely Infinite Undiscovery in North America on September 2nd, Star Ocean the last hope in Spring 2009 and The Last Remnant available first on November 20th. But then. Something nobody saw coming. Microsoft announces that Final Fantasy XIII will be coming …

Casual-ties Now if there is one thing I noticed, it was that Microsoft was doing everything in their power to target casual gamers as much as possible this year. Not only did they make a mention that 3 out of 4 games on their system was rated E or Teen, but they made a ton of announcements of products or …

Avatars, a new Dashboard and Primetime Microsoft confirmed the rumours that we have heard about Nintendo Mii like characters to be used together with our gamertags. Avatars allow all live users to create a character to represent themselves on Xbox Live much like the Mii's on the Nintendo Wii, but will allow more detail as well as the ability to customise your Avatar's clothing, with new clothing releases coming out over time ( Cha-Ching anyone?). Together with the announcement of the Avatar's was the first showing of the new Xbox 360 dashboard. The new dashboard is cleaner and allows you to access blades from your guide button, it's a little tough to explain so you will have to wait for some pics or videos to come up. A new games blade has also been introduced. Something that really did catch my eye was the new party system. You will know be able to partner up with 7 friends, which will allow you to do various things together. Not only will you be able to all chat in a conference call (something we have needed for ages!) but you will also be able to share photos, move the whole group into a game and even watch movies together. The other new feature that has been added is called Primetime. It's kind of like a series of interactive game shows that will allow players to all participate. They seem to be set to play at certain times, so it will be similar to the way television works, but we will have more details on that at another time.

Movie Magic Although we as South African's don't really get to benefit from any of Live's movie and TV shows, I will just quickly mention that Microsoft have now also signed on NBC and Universal adding to the already massive lineup of shows and movies for people to download and watch. They also announced that they have now joined together with Netflix, allowing subscribers to instantly watch any of the movies on offer. This is a huge blow to Apple TV and a major announcement for the Xbox 360. Live will now apparently offer around 10 000 videos for you to choose from.

Okay, so the Microsoft Press Conference is over and so I have decided to package all of the major juicy details into one big round up. I will be giving the same coverage to Nintendo and Sony once they have their turn, so keep checking back to the site this week for all the gaming industry goodness So what can you expect? Well, some of the rumours that have made their way onto the internet were proven true and some were nowhere to be seen. Some gameplay footage was shown, some new partnerships were announced and to top it all off, it ended with something that I can't describe as anything less than an absolute shock. Please note that there is so much to cover that I will probably not be able to mention everything. All in all I will say that it was a really strong showing from Microsoft, I can't wait to see what Sony and Nintendo have lined up.... The Big Hitters Microsoft showed off gameplay of 4 major games during the conference, Fable 2, Resident Evil 5, Fallout 3 and Gears of War 2. All had a strong showing and I suggest you check out your favorite video site to check out any footage that may get released soon. Fable 2 is set for release in October of this year, Gears 3 in November and Resident Evil 5 is set for release on Friday the 13th of March 2009. Fallout 3 is also set to receive exclusive downloadable content for Xbox 360 and PC and Resident Evil 5 will have 2 player online cooperative play. Cliff Bleszinski did also announce a new mode for GoW2 multiplayer called Horde, which will allow you and 4 friends ( 5 in total ) to fight off wave after wave of locust, working as a team to survive. Hit the Arcade To strengthen the Arcade line-up, Microsoft announced some new titles. Firstly, a new Geometry Wars has been announced and looks to have multiplayer as well. Galaga Legions, the first true sequel to Galaga was also shown.... Portal : Still Alive has been announced exclusively for the Xbox 360 later this year, I am not entirely sure if it will be only on XBLA or if it will be on shelves as well.

For anyone out there that has been eagerly waiting for Too Human will be happy to know that it is now officially available on Xbox Live. That's right, so unless you want to wait until you get home, call someone, make a plan. That way you can play it as soon as you get back! I have been waiting to try this game out for myself because it seems like it has a lot of potential but I have yet to make a final decision on whether or not its going to be worth parting with some cash for it. The demo weighs in at 1.09GB, so get started.

Torsten Allard explains design and backgrounds The great thing about gaming is that players get to compete with each other and compare skills. The principle may not work equally well for all games (it is less practical in adventures, for instance), but basically this is a feature that gives you added motivation. We are going to make sure that it …