With Coop and Sarah in transit to Los Angeles, it falls to some of us here in the office to cover the pre-E3 events, including today's big Microsoft Press Conference. I'll be live-blogging the goings-on as they occur, so make sure to hit refresh every minute or so for the latest out of Los Angeles.

The newest event will appear at the top. All times are Eastern:

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3:19 - Wrap-up time. It all went well, according to Xbox, and that Microsoft has lived up to its promises. Recapping all of today's highlights (and there are a few), and talking up how all of this stuff needs to be checked out on the floor. "The future of games and entertainment is happening now, only on Xbox 360."

3:17 - "Milo" will be shown behind closed doors to a "select group" to prove that it, and Natal, does work.

3:16 - Wow, the software just scanned a piece of paper in and the online avatar grabbed it. No shit, I saw it.

3:11 - Natal in the hands of a master, Peter Molyneux. He does not think we've been making really interactive games for the past 30 years; the controller is a barrier. Natal will break down that barrier. "What designers do with Natal will change the landscape of games forever." Lionhead Studios has been playing with Natal for a few months. Video shows the results. "Milo" recognizes our faces, emotions, movements. "Milo" has a full range of emotions, and responds not only to our emotions, he knows expectations. The tech demo elicits real emotional responses to "Milo" from humans, breaking the fourth wall wide open.

3:07 - More Natal tech demo, paint program, looks like it'll allow anyone to become Jackson Pollock from the comfort of their own home. Colors are being changed by voice commands. This looks, literally, revolutionary. Although right now, it kind of looks like a monkey throwing feces at the wall. Light recognition software allows two people to look like an elephant.

3:04 - Riccochet tech demo being showed off. A human being is, without any controller, moving an on-screen avatar to block balls. Full motion capture is going on in real-time. "True physical play" for the first time in gaming history. A very deliberate shot taken at "sitting on the couch with pre-set waggle play". Ouch. Take that Nintendo. Technology will allow for multi-person tracking.

3:02 - Creatvie director of Natal on-stage. Looks like a Borat extra. Early prototypes of Natal being demo'ed. "With Natal, even navigating the menu is a new expereince." No need to log-in, the system has facial recognition software. Your avatar will mimic your body's motions. Swipe of the hand will navigate the dashboard.

2:59 - Steven fucking Speilberg lends his stamp of approval to Natal? I'm on-board. No game announced, but man, Steven!

2:58 - Project Natal (sp?) will allow for controller-less gaming, and voice recognition software. Will work with every existing and future Xbox 360.

2:56 - Did Xbox just show Tony Hawk that his peripheral is useless? Facial recognition allows players to try on clothes. Quiz game buzzers become customized. Controller free environment promised. This looks like it could be awesome, or it could be pointless.

2:53 - "Dream the next dream"... "grow the industry"... wait... motion control talk? "Can we go beyond the controller and create games and entertainment that everyone can enjoy? Can we make YOU the controller?" New trailer - fighting game where the player is literally karake-punching nothing with nothing in his hand. Now a driving game where the player is using an invisible wheel, and the "pit crew" are using invisible tools. Infared scanners replace controllers for certain games. "Full body motion control". Showing a kid scanning in his skateboard.

2:51 - Kojima announces Metal Gear Solid to Xbox 360. Wow... Sony's going to have a long night. Metal Gear Solld: Rising. Development currently underway. No menton of Solid Snake. Trailer time. "Raiden is back." Kojima is as cute as a button.

2:50 - Don Mattrick coming out for more annoucements. KOJIMA!

2:45 - XBL partners with Facebook. Felicia Day takes the stage to talk up the Facebook connectivity (boy, she's so cute...) Facebook on Xbox Live looks like the new XBox experience, but ties facebook accounts to XBL profiles. View friends' photos from Xbox. Facebook connect will allow you to upload screens, vids, or text in real time to Facebook from XBL. In addition to Facebook, Xbox will also add Twitter. I pray that social networking has not just jumped the shark. Both will hit XBL this fall.

2:43 - XBL relaunching video service as Zune video service, at FULL 1080p. All movies and TV shows can be enjoyed INSTANTLY (no disc, no download) and now more-than doubling number of countries that can access it. "Instant on 1080p HD" launches this fall. Watch TV or movies with friends live (avatar support).

2:41 - For the US -Add movies to your Netflix queue from XBL. Hit play, and watch it that instant. Sky TV brings Netflix-like content to the European market. For the first time ever, live television delivered through gaming console with no additional hardware needed.

2:39 - We've seen games, time for XBL content. Last.fm will be bringing music to Xbox Live. Millions of songs, available to XBL gold members this year at no additional charge.

2:32 - Remedy studios takes the stage to show off Alan Wake. Writer's wife goes missing, he has to solve the mystery of what has happened to her. Gameplay footage looks good, mysterious screams and a flashlight lit cone. Uh oh... that's a monster's growl. "I could feel the dark presence all around me". Something is knocking down trees... trashing the place... Combat begins, as Alan blows up flaming enemies with his shotgun. This is a LOT of gameplay footage to be showing... we're at about five minutes now. It looks like Remedy wants to scare like Dead Space or Resident Evil, but it's not really hooking me in. The lighting effects are awesome, but everything else seems.... slow? Expect it Spring 2010.

2:30 - Bungie Top Secret Project? Teaser trailer for Halo: Reach. Fall 2010. ODST will ship with invite to multiplayer beta.

2:25 - Bungie is showing off Halo 3: ODST, more first person action. Footage of a vessel landing on earth. Action takes place "weeks before Halo 3". You are the rookie, a shock-trooper separated from his team. New visor allows for "low-light vision mode". Fans of the Halo 1 pistol will "love the new one". To me, this looks like more Halo. Good, but it's going to be hard to follow MW2 at this point. ODST ships September 22nd.

2:23 - Demo of Forza Motor Sport 3's video editor. Allows you to create and share HD videos of races, crashes, etc. For a game with over 400 cars, I see a lot of Audis.

2:18 - New racing game announced from Turn 10. In October, "definitive racing game for this generation shipping" - Forza Motor Sport 3. Big teaser trailer followed by a fancy car and exec on-stage. Gameplay footage shows in-Audi view of a mountainside race. The graphics look good, but Gran Turismo 5: Prologue looked better. Will run at 60FPS, and over 400 cars from 50 manufacturers. Player created content will allow players to "connect, play and share". Car customization is a huge selling point. Many famous people talk about how much they love customizing cars.

2:12 - Ubisoft execs come out to play some SC:C. Sam Fisher melee attacking bad guys in a mens' room. "Sam has changed, and this time, he's on a personal mission." Sam breaks glass and porcelain with bad guy's head. Ubi wants to immerse us in the world, and the story unfolds in real time. Looks ok, but not great. "Each area is built like a small sandbox." Hmmm.... As usual, Fisher works best in the dark. Hanging from pipes, killing enemies, standard Splinter Cell stuff. New tool for Fisher - EMP grenade. Fisher charges a room - did that bad guy just clip into existence? SC:C ships fall, exclusive to 360.

2:10 - Trailer for Splinter Cell: Conviction . Sam playing piano? Oh no, Sam beating asses. "I can't stop him. No one can."

2:09 - Trailer for Left 4 Dead 2. Lots of zombies getting killed in the Big Easy. "If we run out of bullets, baby, they're gonna wish we hadn't."

2:08 - Trailer beginning for Crackdown 2. Looks like an XBL version of inFamous with brighter colors. Wow, that was a big explosion.

2:06 - Game announced called Joyride. Cartoony driving adventure, featuring XBL Avatats driving through Wile E. Coyote's desert (not really, but it looks like that). "Brings a new social experience to cart racing" Free to download, free to play. Racetracks will cost you, although your friends can play your tracks. Coming winter.

2:03 - "From this point on, every single game, demo and experience, will be Xbox 360 exclusive". Kicking off with Epic Games. Next Epic exclusive will be .... uh... audio issues... they had to give my man a hand-held mike... still doesn't work. Game is Shadow Complex. Gameplay footage shows enormous map - side scrolling shooter, looks like a next-gen Contra. Over 120 hidden items in the game world, with "awesome boss battles". Coming to XBLA this summer.

1:59 - Trailer starts (in Japanese) showing gameplay and the beginning of combat. Impressive looking graphics, combat "different looking from what we've seen in the past"... Four active time gauges, allowing for consecutive attacks against enemies. Conjuring a special attack "first time we've seen it in the world"... "normally you can't summon this this early in the game, but they've made an exception". Looks great, but short clip. Targeting a Spring 2010 release.

1:58 - Final Fantasy XIII team takes the stage. They talk funny.. but brought a lady who doesn't. "It's been over 20 years since the first FF was released." The team is proud of sales numbers and longevity of the series. World premiere of FFXIII running on 360.

1:57 - Game demo over. Boo. Two MW2 mappacks coming first to XBL.

1:52 - Game skips ahead "in the interest of time" to actual combat footage. Looks a lot like CoD4: MW but with crisper graphics and a snowy setting. That's not to sell it short, it looks amazing. Draw distances don't look great, but maybe because there's snow blowing all over the place. "Twenty plus foot mobiles heading your way". Here we go... "Things do not go as intended"... now the same area is a full-on battleground. No clipping, no frame rate issues, despite the amount of action on-screen. VERY IMPRESSIVE GAMEPLAY FOOTAGE. Blowing up enemies on snowmobiles. Running down a snow-covered hill to eliminate enemies. And now, what I was waiting for, player has jumped on the snowmobile and is blasting enemies at 35mph on a snowy, tree-covered hill. WOW.

1:50 - MW2 game footage. Snow covered mountain, mission "Cliffhanger". Two soldiers shimmy along a cliff-face using axes and ropes to climb to the top of a peak. This is cinematic quality gameplay footage. Jump a gap and have to use the axes to save you from falling to death FTW!

1:48 - Modern Warfare 2 trailer is starting up. Dude, this game looks so good, even though it's the same footage we've already seen. Jason West and Vince Sanpelli (sp?) from Infinity Ward take the stage. Go right into gameplay footage.

1:45 - Ride trailer features pro skaters and game developers trying out the peripheral for the first time, interspersed with real skaing footage. Board does actually slide around the floor. Not seeing much atual ollie or airs being pulled off by skaters. Several difficulty settings, so that you don't have to be a real skater to learn. Activision will have them on the show floor.

1:43 - Tony Hawk comes out with a very expensive peripheral in his hand. Shorter than a regular skateboard. This one is purple on top, white on the bottom.  Has accelerometers, infared sensors, responds like a real skateboard. New type of "social physical gaming". World exclusive trailer coming up.

1:42 - Corportate VP for Xbox John Shappard takes the stage. Not as enthusiastic a response as Ringo & Paul got. Trumping up the Drs. Without Borders Crossover. "Good morning and welcome to E3!" Thanks for coming, etc etc. "Now more than ever before, people want to have fun!" Today is about showing, not telling. No charts, no figures, no attach rates. BUT WE WILL SEE 10 GAME PREMIERES! Let's get on with the showing.

1:41 - Paul and Ringo take the stage to a standing ovation. Two of the coolest people ever! The two of them riff on the game and their feelings on it. Who has a better voice than Ringo? Ringo: "The game is good, the graphics are very good, and, uh, we were great!" Paul: "Who ever knew we'd end up as androids? Thanks for having us on your game show. It's wonderful."

1:40 - Thanking various artists and musicians who worked on the game, including the team at Apple Core (Beatles' label). HOLY SHIT! Yoko Ono-Lennon and Olivia Harrison are on-stage! BUT SHE KILLED THE BAND!

1:37 - First DLC will be "Abbey Road" in its entirety, shortly after lunch. "All You Need is Love" exclusive DLC for XBL, proceeds go to Drs. Without Borders.

1:34 - The game will feature never before heard studio chats with John, Paul, George, Ringo. First ten songs revealed, along with first official trailer. The backgrounds match the trippy/button down look of the band at that time.

Songs are:

I Saw Her Standing There

I Want to Hold Your Hand

I Feel Fine

Day Tripper

Tax Man

I Am the Walrus

Back in the USSR

Octopus's Garden

Here Comes the Sun

Get Back

1:33 - I see three microphones, although I'm not sure they're all synced to the game. Yes, they played the whole song.

1:29 - Two execs take the stage to give the world premiere for Beatles: Rock Band. 09/09/09 - CD & LP remaster release, as well as release of the game. Harmonix house band takes the stage to play "Day Tripper" on Beatles: Rock Band. Looks like, well, Rock Band, with licensed instruments. Are they doing the whole song?

1:26 - Intro video shows cartoony Beatles escaping a venue, chased by fans, to the strings of "Hard Days Night". Now onto "Paperback Writer", lots of screaming fans. Cartoons change to Sgt. Pepper era Beatles. Song = "Here Comes the Sun". Super cool animation featuring marching animals to "I am the Walrus". Ends with "Beatles: Rock Band", turns out it was the opening cinematic

1:24PM - We're about to get started. The stage is very green.