Now, we really have to say that Microsoft not only brought it this year, but they also sat it on the table and opened it. We're happy to announce to you the new features that Microsoft and Partners will be bringing to XBOX Live.  No you heard us correctly. We said partners. Why you ask? Weeellll....Microsoft has teamed up with Facebook, Twitter, and Last.fm to bring even more functionality to your favorite gaming and media centric console.

For those of you social media addicts out there Microsoft has first teamed up with Facebook to bring about a link between your XBL Gamertag and Facebook which will allow you to update your status, post screenshots from in game, and use Facebook Connect to see what your friends are doing at the same time. How AWESOME is that? Now you can stalk us EVEN more than you do NOW! This also leads us for possible new contests via The New 360 FM with DJ RedJeans which will be airing this Saturday from 7pm to 10pm EST.

This update will also allow you to update your twitter (automatically perhaps?) and let you log in to your Last.Fm account and stream music through your box (perhaps while gaming). Not only is Microsoft launching these new innovative services to bring us the full 360 on 360 experience promised to us TWO E3's ago but they are also relaunching their video service, which is going to be Zune-branded with full 1080p instant streaming in 18 countries.

Netflix and Microsoft also announced the ability to browse the entire catalog instead of loading up their queue. It seems they finally got the "Party Watch" system (it's been a frickin' year!!!) working and this means you and your friends online will be able to watch movies together and bust out the good old MST3K all over them. This also leads to the idea of a Split Infinity Movie Night *wink wink nudge nudge* Saynamore.

Of course as reported by DJ Villan last week the UK and Ireland will also be able to stream live TV to their XBOXs from Sky. As the video streaming capabilities will be expanding on Xbox LIVE marketplace to 10 new regions this year, making movies and TV shows available in 18 total countries including the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Australia, and New Zealand.  

Did we mention the cool controller no controller swiper no swiping feature Microsoft decided to drop on us? It's called Project Natal and is a neat little innovation to use camera technology developed by 3DV. They showed off a video of the peripheral doing everything from simple motion tracking to the complex voice and facial recognition. Needless to say, we'll be buying one.

Now their keynote was so full of crazy innovative stuff they had to push on of their biggest announcements to after their presentation. That announcement being that Microsoft will now allow for on demand access to full retail games. The new download service will launch in August and will have 30 launching titles from Bioshock to Mass Effect (which will be launching a sequel very soon) and will be adding new games weekly!

Wait wait wait! Let us get to the best part! This can all be done with your credit card and no need for annoying Microsoft Point transactions. Not to say that they're getting rid of the points but they will not be used for the full retail downloads. This will also us to become even more agoraphobic than we already are. THANK YOU E-LAZINESS!(term copyright patent pending DJ RedJeans 2009)

Here's a list of games they announced along with all the other cool stuff.

Harmonix's Beatles Rock Band game, due out on September 9th, 2009. The game features 45 Beatles tracks, including "I Saw Her Standing There," "I Wanna 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," and "Get Back." The game also offers downloable songs and full albums, beginning with Abbey Road. All proceeds from the exclusive Xbox Live download, "All You Need is Love," will benefit Doctors Without Borders.

Tony Hawk was on hand for the announcement of the new Tony Hawk Ride, which has the peripheral we announced last month.

Modern Warfare 2, the sequel to the "definitive Xbox Live game" was on hand with a great looking demo. The Infinity Ward-designed first-person shooter is due out on the console on November 10th. Two map packs will accompany it through XBL.

Square was of course on hand with two designers to show off Final Fantasy XIII. This will be the first FF game to be on the XBOX 360. Its release date is set for spring of 2010.

The other games announced via the venue were all XBOX 360 Exclusive titles including Halo 3:ODST, which is a semi-prequel to Halo 3 and will be due out on September 22nd. The next game in the series will be Halo: Reach coming sometime in 2010. They also announced the sequel for everyone's favorite zombie slaying game L4D. It will launch November 17th of this year. Finally as we wind down the game announcements there was also the exclusive debu of the new Splinter Cell: Conviction and Forza Motorsport 3, due out this October.

Looks like that's all we have for you right now. Just remember to stay tuned to this front page as we will be following the E3 coverage all week.