I’m not going to lie, I was pretty pleased with the rest of Microsoft’s pre-E3 press conference. In fact, I’m fairly excited. They showed off a bunch of games I’m looking forwards to, such as Crackdown 2 and Left 4 Dead 2, but I’m guessing most of you won’t care about that (except John, who will be happy to hear that a new 360-exclusive Metal Gear game is coming).

Oh, and then there’s that new Tony Hawk game. I’m not buying it. That giant skateboard peripheral just is not doing it for me. What do you do when you’re in the air? Or what if you do a trick and land switched? How does that work? I’m not in.

Outside of games, MS announced a lot of new 360 functionality. You’ll finally be able to add to your Netflix queue on the ‘Box, no PC involved. Plus, this fall you’ll be able to also use Last.FM, Facebook and Twitter, which is pretty sweet. I’m down for that.

Then there was the final part of the show: Project Natal. Natal is a camera/microphone peripheral that seems to take gaming finally into virtual reality. The device is able to register all your movements in 3D space, making you the controller, like people always dreamed. They showed off some basic games, and I guess I should be really skeptical, but I’m fairly stoked. MS said nothing about a release date, so I’m assuming late 2010.

Natal completely alters the way you can use the XBox 360. You speak to turn the console on, then walk in front of the device. It then recognizes you and loads up your avatar. Once logged in, you actually just wave in the air to move between the pages and choose what you want to do. They showed off people doing things like saying “play” to star watching The Dark Knight. Steven Spielberg came out at one point, he was about it.

Peter Molyneux seems to be the first developer tasked with developing for Natal, he showed off an AI called Milo. Milo interacted with some British lady, they had a conversation and did cool things. At one part, the lady drew a picture, then Milo was able to scan it in (instantly), hold it, and make comments about it. I have no idea how scripted that whole thing was, but it was fairly impressive. Props to that one guy taking a shot at the Wii.

I’m guessing a lot of gamers are going to be very anti-Natal. After all, Natal would bring gaming to more people, and we all know how much the hardcore hate that. Also, gaming with it would be physically demanding, something else that gamers are not about. But, at least for now, I’m liking what I see.

Microsoft’s E3 press conference is going on right now. They started out by showing The Beatles: Rock Band, with Danny Harrison, Olivia, Yoko, Ringo and Paul. They were kind of awkward, but the game looks really awesome. A great visual style, and the game oozes out Beatles style. When they release the trailer for the Internet later, I’ll edit this post so you all can see it.

But guess what? Harmonies confirmed. It looks like three person harmonies right now, with all three tracks on the same vocals scroller at the top of the screen. Awesome. They did it on stage with three vocalists, making the game six player. But I’m sure two people with instruments could sing too, if they were up to the challenge.

Ten songs have been confirmed. If I remember them correctly, it was:

• “I Saw Her Standing There”
• “I Want to Hold Your Hand”
• “I Feel Fine”
• “Day Tripper”
• “Taxman”
• “I am the Walrus”
• “Back in the U.S.S.R.”
• “Octopus’s Garden”
• “Here Comes the Sun”
• “Get Back”

They also announced DLC, with the complete Abbey Road up first. Yes! Also, “All You Need is Love” will be Xbox 360 exclusive DLC, with the proceeds going to Doctors without Borders. I’m pumped.

Tony Hawk is showing of the new skateboard-controllered Tony Hawk game. I’ll be back later with more later.

Today, May 29, 2009, our old friend and most active blogger, John, is finally 20 whole years old. But May 29 is more that just J-Dog’s birthday.

Today in 1985, some amputee guy finished a 14-month cross-Canada marathon, sounds like he can make it on his own! In 1953, Tenzing and Edmund Hillary summited Mt. Everest, and they probably agreed that once was enough. In 1935, they finished the Hoover Dam, god damn! In 1942, Bing Crosby, the Ken Darby Singers and the John Scott Trotter Orchestra record “White Christmas,” seven months before the holiday. In 1886, the first Coca Cola ad was printed. In 1790, Rhode Island ratified the Constitution and became the 13th state, in 1848, Wisconsin became a state. Wisconsin rules!

Today’s not just John’s birthday, either. A bunch of celebrities were also born today, like Annette Bening, Bob Hope, Rupert Everett, and composer extraordinaire, Danny Elfman. Speaking of musicians, he also shares his birthday with Noel Gallagher, La Toya Jackson, and Papa Roach. Of course, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the popular President John F. Kennedy.

Harvey Korman died today last year. Jeff Buckley died back in 1997. Probably some other people died too.

But I digress, today is John’s day! The man with the hands, our beloved director. The guy behind the scenes. Pull the strings!

I think you said you were goint to see Drag Me to Hell tonight, but maybe we can go see Up when I get home tomorrow?

As is customary in these posts, I’ve uploaded something on the Internet completely unrelated to the birthday boy. This time it was the missing Roommates episodes from school, along with a new final chapter. Check it out.

My title is like a play on the title of that John Lennon song “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night” I don’t want people to think I can’t spell, I can’t always be clever… Anyways there’s finally a trailer for Woody Allen’s latest comedy Whatever Works starring who else but Larry David. I love Curb and eagerly await it’s return (which I hear may be around August) and maybe this can tide me over. Looks like a more traditional Woody Allen romantic comedy with it’s New York setting and middle aged lead, so I’m gonna have to make sure to make some time to see this limited release (It’s being released June 19th, the same day as Year One.)

That reminds that there’s a lot more than just big budget blockbusters coming out this summer. Duncan Jones aka Zowie Bowie (the son of David Bowie) is making his directorial debut with the so far well recieved indie sci-fi flick Moon starring Sam Rockwell and featuring the voice of Kevin Spacey. Demetri Martin is starring in Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock which is about how the legendary event came to be, that’ll be released August 14th. Those are all the indie flicks I can think of off hand… I’m pumped for Neill Blomkamp’s sci-fi film District 9 on August 14th but I can’t tell how big of budget it has. Peter Jackson is producing so it’s probably not in the same boat as these other films, I guess I just felt like mentioning it.

Here’s the trailer to Whatever Works I just posted a link cause the video was too damn big for the page.

Just a quick little note, since I think some of you might care. We now know what the Beatles: Rock Band guitars and bass are going to look like. They’re real pretty, lookin’ to me like great birthday/Christmas list material. I do have some minor complaints, though.

The guitars look really sleek, but I’d like to see some more color on ’em. Maybe that’s just me. And the bass is right-handed, which probably makes sense since most people play that way, but its not the way Paul would have played it. But that’s a silly complaint and I probably would have been more upset if it was accurate.

I wonder if the drums and mic are going to look that different? Here are the pics:

Oh, and “The Gambler” is in Rock Band on July 21. Rejoice!

I’ve recently uploaded the music video AJ and I have been working on. It’s for his instrumental electronic track under his “Basic” pseudonym to his song “Tongue-Y Tongue-Y Hard Hard”. I was having some complications with my wipe effects in Final Cut but the video still has plenty of wacky filters and trippy colors for everyone’s enjoyment. I wished I could of done more but that’s basically how I always feel after shooting any footage. Anyways make sure to check out to up my view count, Otteni out.