The heavy overtones of last year's Wii success has definately taken a toll on Microsoft and Sony. At yesterday's show, Microsoft unvieled it's plans to become more user friendly, and they promise to cater to a wider audience through the use of a new Xbox Live update coming this fall.

MS showed off an avatar system (developed by Rare), and what this meant for 360 users later this year. The unique aspect of the system that is getting an iverhaul however keys in on social play, and live interaction with your friends across the globe.

Want to show off your vacation photos to someone? No problem, just invite them to a Live party, and presto, you control the media action. Want to share a movie with a friend living in Austria? No problem with the addition of Netflix and the ability to share your movies live through the service.

Yes, you can also play games together, and it seems MS has been slowly working on more games that integrate cooperative gameplay. During the conference we were shown Co-op modes of Resident Evil 5 (Oh my lord this has been needed for some time!), Fable II, and Gears of War 2 were shown, and gamers have as much to look forward to as casual users do with some of the other UI enhancements.

The Xbox camera also makes a stronger effort this year as MS treated us to some improvisational action on the stage with "You're In the Movies", a game were you act out scenes and motions on screen, and they integrate into a silly movie. They showed a guy swatting wasps, another gentlemen running around a circus tent, and some other sillyness, but the game showed some promise in the new and fun category. These mini games collected into a full movie. The game ships this holiday, and comes with the camera bundled.

I'm sorry, but I'm seeing nothing but rehashes there, and I think Microsoft should be ashamed of themselves for announcing nothing but blatant copies and rip-offs. Ok, so there are some new sequels coming up, but that's about all that's interresting on there.

With the small exception of Sony, the whole show was a let down.

i really thinkg MS should get their live servie more involved on PC's as well, even if its just a chat program and game monitor, granted it'll be similar to xfire, but it'll atleast allow xbox live users and pc gamers the option to use the same name on both platforms.

Will agree with your statement there though Smaug, E3 this year is the quietest fair i have seen of the show this year.

I wonder how long it'll be before we have a new show of some sort or E3 is back to its grand glory.