While I soaked up the sun at Myrtle Beach this week, the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo kicked off in Los Angeles, revealing lots of gaming goodies to the masses. You’re probably well aware of the big ones, but some announcements may have slipped through the cracks. Here’s a brief rundown of the E3 info that you may want—or even need—to know. (more…)

At the end of Microsoft’s E3 conference, a new Xbox 360 design was shown to attendees. The new model will feature built-in wi-fi and a 250GB hard drive. It also seems to be sporting extra vents, which is nice considering the 360′s ability to boil eggs after hours of gaming. Microsoft claims the console is slimmer than the traditional 360 design, but it doesn’t look to be by much.

If you’re interested in purchasing the new design, you won’t have to wait long–they’re en route to retailers as I type this. The new design should be available in a store near you this week. Crazy, eh?

Wanna know more about Rock Band 3 before E3? Worry not, for USA Today has your back.

Looks like the rumored keytar is in there, but can be played like a traditional keyboard if that’s what you prefer. I think that, in my case, I’d go the keytar route for, say, a glam band, then switch to keyboard for someone like Queen. But that’s just me.

Are you folks even interested in another Rock Band? Will a new peripheral be enough to make you shell out another $200 or so for a new hardware bundle?

Oh, by the way: be sure to hit this link to read the full USA Today story and check out a small list of tracks to be included in the game.

The post-E3 scuttlebutt surrounding Microsoft’s Project Natal is mixed, at best. Some seem to think it’s equal to the Second Coming, while others are less than impressed. The truth of the technology’s potential is somewhere in between: great possibilities, but whether or not Natal can realize them remains to be seen.

While we don’t know precisely how well Natal will work, we already know one piece of software doesn’t quite work as advertised: Peter Molyneux’s “Milo” demo. According to Spike’s Vice President of Content (and Gametrailers’ editor-in-chief) Shane Satterfield, Milo was mostly — pardon my terminology — bull.

Satterfield had this to say about Milo in Gametrailers’ latest episode of Invisible Walls: “All I’m going to say about Milo is that it’s not legit. There were a lot of smoke and mirrors going on there — not the case with the ball demo [Ricochet] and the other stuff, but with Milo there was definitely a little bit of deception going on.”

Satterfield was part of a select group shown the Milo demo behind closed doors. Satterfield says a Microsoft employee was “controlling” Milo behind the scenes. He also says that Molyneux informed the press on hand that Milo’s voice recognition features aren’t as swell as they appear. Milo — and Natal in general, it seems — apparently does not recognize an individual’s voice, but rather his or her tone, and only uses rudimentary open-ended statements that will fit into any conversation a player can start.

It would be foolish to take Satterfield’s word as gospel, but bare in mind he isn’t the only one voicing his doubts about Natal’s true potential. And Satterfield isn’t saying that Natal is  a complete lie, but rather its motion detection works much better than its voice recognition. That isn’t terribly surprising, considering the current state of voice recognition software.

So, we’re forced to consider: if Natal’s technology isn’t as advanced as Microsoft would have us think, just how ground-breaking can it really be? Is this a true evolution of existing technology, or simply a new proof-of-concept? Only time will tell, as Project Natal isn’t anywhere near finished. Hopefully, once Natal is released into the wild, it will be more than ready to live up to the hype.

Major Nelson let us know (via Twitter) that the original Perfect Dark will be coming to XBLA in glorious 1080p this winter. It’s the classic, folks. Forget that lousy launch title, I’m talking about the old school Perfect Dark many of us played on the N64 back when Rare was still dropping hits. Hopefully the frame-rate has improved and all the bizarre simulator opponents (dark sim, perfect sim, peaceful sim) will be included.

A free theme is also available on Xbox Live today to celebrate.

How did you feel about the idea of “horde” in Gears of War 2? How about Survivor mode in Left 4 Dead? If you say “I loved both!” then boy are you in luck. Halo 3: ODST is also jumping on the “horde mode” bandwagon with their own rendition entitled “Firefight”. You and up to four friends can go head to head with waves upon waves of Covenant forces until you are eventually defeated.

Now that the press conferences are over, it’s time to see some footage! Let’s kick things off with brand new gameplay for Left 4 Dead 2. It sure looks like more Left 4 Dead..but that’s okay with me!

Sony announced the official release window for God of War III at their E3 press conference today. That window, in case you didn’t bother to read the article title, is March 2010. That keeps in line with the release dates for previous entries in the God of War franchise.

Sony also showed off a gameplay demo, featuring Kratos struggling against Helios, the young Greek god of the sun. I think it’s safe to say Helios’ days are numbered — as well as the entire Greek pantheon.

Said demo will be on-hand on the E3 show floor, so I suspect we’ll hear a lot more about how it plays in the near future. We’ll update as often as possible. Why the special attention? ‘Cause it’s friggin’ God of War III, that’s why!

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See, we’re not all Microsoft fanboys at HCG. Honest.

Fumito Ueda and Team Ico’s newest creation, The Last Guardian, was announced at Sony’s E3 press conference today. It is the final installment in the Team Ico “trilogy,” and is exclusive to the PlayStation 3.

Team Ico unveiled a trailer which looked nearly identical to one leaked earlier, but with a few new tweaks. There’s still a boy running around in a Shadow of the Colossus style world, bonding with a strange bird/dog creature. What kind of gameplay The Last Guardian will offer remains to be seen, but it’s a safe bet it will be amazing.

The Last Guardian will be released sometime in 2010. Check back here for more info in the months prior to its release.