As you know, Microsoft kicked off this year's E3 with their keynote speech. Announcements varied from the expected to the un-expected and one of the most impacting announcements (not game related anyway) was the announced overhaul of the Xbox 360 dashboard.

Dubbed as the "new xbox live experience", Microsoft will be updating the dashboard with a ton of new features. Whilst it all seems like a Microsoft- version of the PS3 'Home' system, it never-the-less will completely change the way gamers interact with their 360.

Two of the main changes are the introduction of 'Avatars' (360 Mii's, but more realistic), and 'Live Party'. The Live Party will allow up to 8 friends to chat, interact and share content in real-time over Xbox Live. With added photo and video support, this takes the Xbox one more step towards social networking. You'll be able to chat to your entire Live party no matter what you all are doing.

Also, with an expanded movie and Tv library, you'll also be able to share movies in real-time with your friends, so you can all watch the same movie at the same time, but on different machines.

Other features will include:

* New channels, including 'Community' and 'My Xbox'
* Video and Picture support, as mentioned above
* Play games from the harddrive, instead of using the disc everytime
* New 'gameshow' features, along with other XBLA titles, and even Uno!

Stay tuned.