I think Microsoft has made some very interesting news at this E3. Still, we have no word from Bungie or about any Halo-related titles. However, this is only the first day of E3.

Bungie has a countdown timer on Bungie.net suggesting that an announcement will be made on Tuesday Wednesday.

What do you guys think about these announcements?

XBOX UI gets a brand new dashboard with a 3D interface and Avatars this fall. You can modify your Avatars clothers, hair, accessories, etc. Download new accessories for your Avatar through XBOX Live Marketplace. Your Avatar will be a playable character in certain games. Instead of seeing a listing of Friends, you can see your friends’ Avatars on your screen and interact with them. Up to 8 friends can chat and share content in what’s called a Live Party.

XBOX Live Primetime is coming this fall. You can play game shows (like 1 vs 100) and win real prizes. This is one place where you’ll use your Avatar. Primetime games are scheduled events.

XBOX says they are bigger than the boxoffice and bigger than music. 5 million units more than PS3’s install base. XBOX 360 titles are outselling the Wii and PS3 combined. Have sold $2.2 billion in third party sales in last 12 months. A new member joins XBOX Live every 5 seconds. XBOX 360 customers have spent more than $1 billion on XBOX Live since launch. Over 10,000 movies and tv shows are on XBOX Live. Over 500 million pieces of content have been downloaded on XBOX Live.

Fall Out 3

Resident Evil 5 launches March 12, 2009 and will have online co-op.

Gears of War 2 launches November 7, 2008 . You’ll be able to ride and pilot the Brumaks. Horde mode is a 5 player coop mode where players take on waves of Locust.

Fable 2 launches in October 2008.

Uno Rush announced. You can use your Avatars in this game with a seemless transition from Live Party to Uno Rush. It looks like the standard UNO game but with Avatar support.

Geometry Wars 2 Retro Evolved is to be released in August.

Galaga Legions is announced as a true sequel to Galaga.

Portal comes to XBOX Live Arcase next month.

Portal Still Alive comes to the 360 this fall with new levels and achievements.

XBOX Live Community Games will launch this fall.

NETFLIX announces partnership with Microsoft. Instantly watch 10000 movies and episodes from your XBOX 360 with no additional cost to Netflix users. You can share Netflix movies and shows with your Live Party.

NBC/Universal begins releasing content today including TV shows like The Office and Monk.

GTA IV DLC episode coming later this year.

Viva Piñata to be released on XBOX Live Arcade. Viva Piñata sequel to have Vision Cam support and your playable Avatar. Coming later this year.

Scene It! Box Office Smash to be released and will have Avatar support. Gets Vision Camera support to allow you to be in the movie clips.

Rock Band 2 gets new drums and cymbals and a touch slide guitar. The first ever song from Guns N Roses to be released album will debut on Rock Band 2. RB2’s 84 song set list and they all are Master tracks.

Lips is a new karoke game expected to launch this holiday season. It that will feature a motion sensitive microphone.

Final Fantasy XIII is coming to XBOX 360 at the same time it launches for PS3.

Microsoft has revealed the set list for Rock Band 2 (due out in mid September). All songs are master tracks; not covers.

• After 14 years since Guns N’ Roses last official music release, Axl Rose selects Rock Band 2 to debut official new track “Shackler's Revenge” from the highly-anticipated album Chinese Democracy.

• Rock Band 2 is the first and only video game to feature the music of AC/DC. It includes their epic rock anthem, "Let There Be Rock.”

• For the first time ever, music from American music icon, Bob Dylan, is featured in a video game with “Tangled Up In Blue.”

• Rock Band 2 will feature backwards compatibility with all Rock Band downloadable music content released to date.

• Owners of the original Rock Band will have the ability to export most of the Rock Band disc tracks and upgrade them into Rock Band 2 gameplay-the first time ever in videogame history! [1]

• With ongoing weekly DLC releases including individual tracks, track packs and full albums, the Rock Band music library will feature more than 500 songs by year’s end!

This is going to rock:

AC/DC - "Let There Be Rock"
AFI - "Girl’s Gone Grey"
Alanis Morissette - "You Oughta Know"
Alice in Chains - "Man in the Box"
Allman Brothers - "Ramblin’ Man"
Avenged Sevenfold - "Almost Easy "
Bad Company - "Shooting Star"
Beastie Boys - "So Whatcha Want"
Beck - "E-Pro "
Bikini Kill - "Rebel Girl"
Billy Idol - "White Wedding Pt. I"
Blondie - "One Way or Another"
Bob Dylan - "Tangled Up in Blue"
Bon Jovi - "Livin’ on a Prayer"
Cheap Trick - "Hello There"
Devo - "Uncontrollable Urge"
Dinosaur Jr. - "Feel the Pain"
Disturbed - "Down with the Sickness"
Dream Theater - "Panic Attack"
Duran Duran - "Hungry Like the Wolf"
Elvis Costello - "Pump It Up"
Fleetwood Mac - "Go Your Own Way"
Foo Fighters - "Everlong"
Guns N’ Roses - "Shackler’s Revenge"
Interpol - "PDA"
Jane’s Addiction - "Mountain Song"
Jethro Tull - "Aqualung"
Jimmy Eat World - "The Middle"
Joan Jett - "Bad Reputation"
Journey - "Anyway You Want It"
Judas Priest - "Painkiller"
Kansas - "Carry On Wayward Son"
L7 - "Pretend We’re Dead"
Lacuna Coil - "Our Truth"
Linkin Park - "One Step Closer"
Lit - "My Own Worst Enemy"
Lush - "De-Luxe"
Mastodon - "Colony of Birchmen"
Megadeth - "Peace Sells"
Metallica - "Battery"
Mighty Mighty Bosstones - "Where’d You Go"
Modest Mouse - "Float On"
Motorhead - "Ace of Spades"
Nirvana - "Drain You"
Norman Greenbaum - "Spirit in the Sky"
Panic at the Disco - "Nine in the Afternoon"
Paramore - "That’s What You Get"
Pearl Jam - "Alive"
Presidents of the USA - "Lump"
Rage Against the Machine - "Testify"
Ratt - "Round & Round"
Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Give it Away"
Rise Against - "Give it All"
Rush - "The Trees"
Silversun Pickups - "Lazy Eye"
Smashing Pumpkins - "Today"
Social Distortion - "I Was Wrong"
Sonic Youth - "Teenage Riot"
Soundgarden - "Spoonman"
Squeeze - "Cool for Cats"
Steely Dan - "Bodhitsattya"
Steve Miller Band - "Rock’n Me"
Survivor - "Eye of the Tiger"
System of a Down - "Chop Suey"
Talking Heads "Psycho Killer"
Tenacious D - "Master Exploder"
Testament - "Souls of Black"
The Donnas - "New Kid in School"
The Go-Go’s - "We Got the Beat"
The Grateful Dead - "Alabama Getaway"
The Guess Who - "American Woman"
The Muffs - "Kids in America"
The Offspring - "Come Out & Play (Keep ‘em Separated)"
The Replacements - "Alex Chilton"
The Who – "Pinball Wizard"

On Saturday March 22nd the semi-official Rock Band band of THX, Insinuating Chaos, performed and finished 2nd in a Rock Band tournament hosted by GameStop at Madison Square Mall. It was terrifically entertaining and some of the most fun I’ve ever had with my clothes on.

Before you get too excited, it's just the single master track "Fuel," which is great, but there's no mention of more old school Metallica. A leaked photo of an advertisement for the March issue of OXM has revealed the Rock Band DLC for the month of March. On their forums, Harmonix has confirmed the schedule as "tentative." There's some cool tracks from several rock/metal sub-genres. Take a look:

March 4: Thrash Pack

* Blinded By Fear - At The Gates
* Thrasher - Evile
* Shadow World - Haunted

March 11:

* Shooting Star - Bad Company *Cover*
* Simple Man - Lynyrd Skynyrd
* Message In A Bottle - Police

March 18: Nine Inch Nails Pack

* March Of The Pigs
* The Collector
* The Perfect Drug

Mar. 25: Metal Pack

* Wrathchild - Ironmaiden *Cover*
* Supernaut - Black Sabbath *Cover*
* Fuel - Metallica

I expect these will be $2 per track or $5.50 per three-pack, as usual.

Thanks, X3F.

Notice:
Glowing Orange bar for the drummer to hit the foot pedal.
Xbox360-lookin' guitars.
Wired equipment.
Drums have a thumbstick/buttons.
Awesome song.
(I think) the vocal you sing is joined with an in-game vocals.
Everyone gets a bonus rock-out section.
The game looks fun as hell.

New game form harmonix, that lets you not only pretend to play guitar, but also includes drums, bass, and vocals. This sounds like an interesting and possibly fun game.

Gamespot coverage http://www.gamespot.com/news/6168388.html?tag=latestnews;title;0

Nobody has rocked the game industry quite like Harmonix Music Systems. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based game company is focused squarely on music and rhythm games, and churned out Guitar Hero, one of the most popular new franchises of any genre, with the aid of publisher RedOctane.

The band broke up somewhat abruptly at E3 2006 when RedOctane, which owned the rights to the Guitar Hero name, was purchased by Activision for $100 million. A few months later, Harmonix was bought outright by MTV Networks, and at GDC 2007 EA announced that it would be distributing the next Harmonix-made game through its EA Partners program.