It's that time of the year again. E3's right about the corner, and Microsoft will definitely be there. You know what that means for you, right? Yet another bout of in-home exclusive access from E3 to your TV via Xbox Live's E3: Bringing It Home. It's gonna be another cool house party so you best check out what's up for your entertainment in this year's E3 bash from Microsoft.

Excited for this year's Fall Dashboard Update for the Microsoft Xbox 360? You very well should be! Not only are we getting a ton of improvements for our mean green machine, but also the ability to download and play games we might have missed on the original Xbox. That's putting the bang in your buck.

Check out the entire scoop about the update via the full article.

If you've read the comic book and watched the movie, and find yourself wanting some high-end kit themed after those ridiculously-awesome Spartans, here's something that would make even Leonidas yell himself hoarse in envy with: an Elite Xbox 360, with the all-too-familiar blood spatter, number and helmet printed upon its surface. Awesome.

So how does one acquire one of these Xbox 360s graced with the image of Leonidas himself? That's the hard part - harder than holding off a million Persians with only 300 men. Microsoft is giving away ten of them in this year's Comic-Con, with only the first 6000 attendees allowed to take part in the raffle.

That's quite a small number of these beauties for such a large crowd. Couldn't they have pulled 300 units instead, just to match the number of Spartans?

While this certainly ramps up the difficulty of getting a 300-themed Xbox 360 into Nightmare Mode, take solace in the fact that Microsoft's bringing Comic-Con directly to your console with the help of Warner Brothers Home Entertainment. Movie trailers, celebrity interviews, game trailers and panels - it's all there, through Xbox Live.

Certainly an item to fight massive armies for, indeed. Updates as we get them!

Mac users will get a blast out of this one: Gears of War and Unreal Tournament 3 are getting a Mac version! And yes, you heard that right the first time. The news was announced by Mark Rein, vice president and co-founder of Epic Games, during a video interview. But other than that, there's nothing else to report. No release date has been given for the Mac version as yet.

Apparently, UT3 on the Mac has already been announced before on online forums, so this just makes the claim all the more formal. This is the first time that Gears of War, developed with the same Unreal Engine that powers UT3, has been announced on the Mac though.

UT3 has been announced to be a timed exclusive for the PS3, simultaneous release on the PC, and will soon come to the Xbox 360. Gears of War will be sticking with the 360 and the PC, at least until the Mac Version comes out.

It was reported a while earlier that the ESRB was conducting a more active crackdown on offensive content in trailers and gameplay movies. And consequently, two gameplay trailers of D3 Publisher and Take-Two Interactive's Dark Sector was pulled out of Game Trailers.

  

A statement by D3 Publisher penned the reason why the two trailers were retracted from the site: the two trailers contained offensive content and have been deemed not safe to distribute, view or download. Although the two trailers were age-gated as required by the ESRB, it was found that the two gameplay movies were rated based on standards set by the Advertising Review Council - a different rating from the ESRB's on games themselves.

"The ESRB has requested that the two Dark Sector gameplay montages be pulled immediately upon receipt of this notice and no longer made available for view by consumers," concluded Take-Two's official statement. GameVideos later made it known that Microsoft also requested that a Gears of War developer walkthrough video be pulled out of their archives last week, after it was found that the media content violated ESRB rules.

Patricia Vance of the ESRB soon sent in their official stand on the matter, stating that the board's regulation of media content was nothing new or spectacular. They have enforced such rules based on the Advertising Review Council Principles and Guidelines since 2005 and will continue to remind and educate the respective parties of the board's rulings.

And they have maintained that trailer ratings cannot come from the game's final rating while it's in development, so the ESRB uses the standards set forth by the Advertising Review Council to rate trailers that obviously speak out for the game. And they pin the responsibility and initiative upon the publisher to make the necessary actions based on the ARC's Principles and Guidelines.

Isn't it nice to wake up every morning to a friendly voice that reminds you of the war raging outside your borders? We think so, too. That's why Game Trailers has managed to dig up the introductory video for the Global Defense Initiative (GDI) Campaign of Electronic Arts' Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (PC, Xbox 360).

In this video, you'll get a brief overview of just what you're up against. With a good 80% of the world undergoing some type of infestation of Tiberium, you're definitely going to have to step up to become a great commander of the GDI armed forces. Since the Brotherhood of Nod works within the shadows of the Tiberium-infested zones, you can see why the GDI needs you in the thick of things.

Good luck soldier, and may you live in interesting times.

 

Although we can't tell for sure if the update includes the rather controversial Live Dashboard update we covered recently, we're definitely sure that an update is coming. According to the announcement on Xbox.com, we can expect the update within the week of May 7, which will expand the reach of social networking over to users of Windows Live Messenger.

Jerry Johnson, product unit manager of Xbox LIVE at Microsoft, said, "Bringing the largest IM community in the world, Windows Live Messenger, to Xbox 360 makes sense, as Xbox LIVE has really become the largest social network on television." Microsoft will be creating a more social experience for Windows Live and Xbox Live users with the new update.

In addition, Windows Live users will be treated to features that would entice them to grab an Xbox 360, while connecting them to an online community of over six million. Expect the QWERTY input device to make a debut this summer to streamline the IM experience.

Click on Full Article to view a list of features to come with the update.

  

Certainly not news, just certainly interesting. GameTrailers user/member Serhatps3 has found, and uploaded, pics and video of a little arts and crafts project, a miniature paper models of the Xbox 360 and HD-DVD add-on. No candy inside to bash open and scatter for the children to eat, but the trays on both slide out.

This writer can appreciate the effort of whoever made this (paper starship constructor myself). Others might just give this a quick pass and dismiss it as yet more evidence of too much time on some people's hands, but hey, the creator at least demonstrates fine hand dexterity beyond that needed to mash buttons and pull triggers.

 

Just a little more than a week ago, Game Trailers brought to Spider-Man 3 fans the New Goblin trailer. Now we present to you another menace your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man will have to fight, and it isn't the intoxicating Venom. With a short teaser video, you get to see the awesome moves the web slinging player can use against the Sandman.

Although players who get the Collector's Edition of Activision's Spider-Man 3 can get to play the New Goblin, we're not quite sure if players will get to play the Sandman, too. With Dhalsim-esque punches and the ability to morph your limbs to a melee weapon of your desire, it would be interesting to wield such power and test it out in the game.

So while we all prime our trusty PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, DS, PS2, PSP, and GBA for this multiplatform game adaptation of your local theater's coming attraction, let's all take a breather and enjoy the few seconds of joy this trailer could give you. The game looks to be shaping up as a title worth waiting for.

Buy: [Spider-Man 3 (Xbox 360)]
Buy: [Spider-Man 3 (PS3)]
Buy: [Spider-Man 3 (Wii)]

Over at Game Trailers, they've got a new video up featuring Pandemic Studios' Mercenaries 2 for the PS3 and Xbox 360. Instead of your usual action packed-walkthrough however, what we've got is a video of one of the starting missions as explained by one of the devs.

One thing you'll notice here is that everything in the game can be destroyed. From pillars to jeeps, as well as people, everything seems to be destructible and that's definitely a lot of fun. As he shows in the video, you can even use a new piece of gear called the Sticky C4 to latch your explosive onto things, and then blow it up with the press of a button. In this case, use it in conjunction with a jeep and you have a maneuverable explosive device.

On the other end of the spectrum, you'll also get to see something straight out of games like Shenmue and Fahrenheit, called the Action Hijack. As the nameless dev notes, "this time around we've tried to make it a little bit more interactive and cinematic so as you hijack this tank, you'll actually see an interactive sequence in order to try and Action Hijack the tank."

In any case, we'll leave you with the video. Enjoy, and don't climb up a tank anytime soon, okay?