The Electronic Entertainment Expo, (E3), kicked off in spectacular fashion yesterday with a number of shock announcements from Microsoft which set Twitter alight as it was streamed live worldwide.

Game announcements/demonstrations included: -

• Metal Gear Solid: Rising (featuring Raiden, not Snake).
• Beatles Rock Band (which supports multiple mics, apparently).
• Crackdown 2 (I can finally die happy).
• Tony Hawk: Ride (introduced by Tony himself, along with the final version of the skateboard controller).
• Splinter Cell: Conviction (which will be exclusive to 360).
• Halo: ODST, as well as a prequel to the Halo trilogy, Halo: Reach.
• Shadow Complex (a 2.5D game from Epic that uses the Unreal 3 engine, and will be released via XBLA).
• Modern Warfare 2 (which will include 2 timed 360 exclusive map packs).
• Left 4 Dead 2.
• Joy Ride (A free XBLA racing title, where you must buy cars/upgrades/tracks. Tracks will be shared across all members in the party, as long as one member has purchased them).
• Forza 3.

Announcements didn’t stop there, as MS unveiled Facebook and Twitter integration with Felicia Day from hit series “The Guild” (recently confirmed for it’s 3rd season). Also on show was Project Natal, which promises to replace the controller by bringing voice recognition, face recognition, and movement mapping to the Xbox 360.

Project Natal will allow users to operate all dashboard functions with hand movements and voice commands, and will also be able to distinguish between different users.

To further demonstrate the power of this new piece of technology, Peter Molyneux was on hand to show off his current project “Milo.”  Milo (an interactive boy) was able to carry a full conversation with a real person and used both facial and voice recognition to respond in real time.

MS also unveiled Last.fm integration, and “instant on” 1080p movie content.

Announcements did not end after the press conference, as Marc Whitten (Notwen) wrote an open letter to the community confirming a whole host of new features including: -

• Games on Demand (full 360 games available to purchase via the XBL Marketplace in a similar fashion to Xbox Originals and XBLA titles).
• Avatar Marketplace (this includes in-game unlockable avatar clothes, as well as “premium” clothing).
• 5 star ratings (for all marketplace content).

Marc also indicated that MS would be rolling out a number of performance updates to Xbox LIVE.

While the MS press conference blew a lot of people away, EA’s left little to be desired.  Their big (360) announcements included APB, Crysis 2, and a further sneak-peek at Mass Effect 2.  They also demonstrated a method of combining web applications and mobile devices with their sports games (something that was originally mentioned in-house back in 2006 when I worked for them).

All in all, an amazing opening to E3.  If you missed any of the days proceedings, you can catch up with clips streamed directly to your Xbox 360 via the Spotlight.