Today was a very big day at Microsoft's E3 keynote event. They unveiled some major new announcements that include some brand new games for the XBox 360, their new gaming platform to compete with Wii called Kinect, and a brand new redesigned XBox with some new features built right in. Let's dive into all the details below, plus tons of images.

The show began with some new game announcements, the most notable probably being Halo Reach, a new Halo game coming to XBox 360 this September. Other games include new sequels to Gears of War, Metal Gear, Fable III, and Call of Duty: Black Ops which will be coming soon.

The real focus of today's keynote was Kinect. Now some might think this is just a copycat of Wii, but I have to say Microsoft really innovated and took Kinect miles further than the Wii. Kinect doesn't rely on remotes or balance boards. No, it relies entirely on your body. All of the controls in games and on the Kinect interface itself can be powered by your voice, hand movements, or other body movements. It recognizes who you are just by waving your hand and can automatically load your profile and Kinect home page with tiles that feature the loaded game, friends, your avatar, Netflix, Facebook, Zune, Last.fm, and more.

Microsoft also announced a new application called Video Kinect which puts to use the built in camera to video chat with up to four friends at once, plus simultaneously watch news, movies, music and more together. Plus the camera tracks where your face moves, so the camera moves with you instead of vice versa. To end chat? "XBox, end chat." Pretty nice.


There is also a new partnership with ESPN coming to XBox 360. This will allow you to access over 3,500 live sports events, route for your favorite team and see what others watching are routing for, answer some trivia questions as the game goes on, and more. This feature will be available to XBox Live Gold members for no additional charge.

Other games that put Kinect to good use will be Kinectimals where kids can adopt and interact with their animals by using their hand gestures and voice to call, pet, and play with their animal. Kinect Sports uses those same movements in playing bowling, soccer, tennis, track, boxing, or volleyball. Kinect Joy Ride will use your two hands to steer your car in a fun racing game.

But my personal favorite is definitely Kinect Adventures. This allows you to use you entire body as if you were actually in the game. You can use all body movements to dodge obstacles in certain mini games, collect points and more. Plus, if a friend wants to join in, he/she can jump right in and it will automatically split the screen to accommodate two players. And Kinect will even capture photos of your movements secretly while you are playing, display them afterward, and can even post those photos right up to Facebook. It's definitely a fun and unique experience.


Other game publishers are working on other games that will launch with Kinect such as Your Shape, a simple fitness game with a wide variety of exercises and routines, Dance Central, a dancing-centric game, and a Star Wars game. I'd like to also point out that Dance Central isn't anything like Dance Dance Revolution, it's far more advanced and actually makes you move. The woman demoing was really getting down on the dance floor!


Kinect will launch worldwide in time for the holiday season on November 4th. Curiously, no pricing was announced just yet. (Update: GameStop reveals pricing)

But there was one more thing on Microsoft's list today, and that was a brand new XBox 360. This new XBox 360 has an incredibly sleek and slim new design, and packs some new features. It has an upgraded 250GB hard drive and finally there's built-in WiFi. Bye, Ethernet, you won't be missed. This new XBox 360 will be shipping to retailers today and available in stores later this week for the same price as the previous model at $299.


Microsoft closed the keynote with a special giveaway of that new model to all of the keynote attendees. So today brought some great new titles, the incredible new Kinect that revolutionizes gaming, and the redesigned XBox 360. Gamers, rejoice.

Images Courtesy: Engadget