With the introduction of Microsoft's Project Natal, a camera that tracks motion and recognizes voice and facial expressions, comes the obligatory gossip and hype that sets in whenever a technology giant makes a giant leap in technology. The latest talk toys with a rumored new, refined Xbox 360 console that might be released along with the Natal camera system.

If you've ever felt the urge to update your Twitter or stream radio while playing your favorite video game, now you're in luck. On Monday, Microsoft announced at the E3 conference that XBox 360 will now offer gamers the ability to stream music from Last.fm, check and update their Twitter and Facebook accounts and stream more movies and television shows faster from Netflix. Finally, we can stalk our friends on Facebook while waiting for Madden to load.

It seems like everyone is taking the virtual leap into the karaoke, play-along worlds of Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison, announced yesterday that on Sept. 9, fans will be able sing and play along with the Fab Four, in a five-button sort of way.

Uh oh. In this age of renewed Prop. 8 outrage and rigged upsets for gay American Idol contestants, Rockstar Games has announced that the latest downloadable episode for Grand Theft Auto IV will be The Ballad of Gay Tony, which will follow “legendary nightclub impresario Tony Prince (aka 'Gay Tony')" and his dutiful thug assistant.

In the ongoing Battle of the Band Games between Guitar Hero and Rock Band, the former has once again scored big. According to NeoSeeker.com, there will be no less than 85 bands contributing to Guitar Hero 5.

One of the Top 5 best-selling franchises across all video game platforms in Europe and the U.S., Call of Duty, might be coming to a movie screen near you, along with World of Warcraft, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Following the trend of books-into-movies, movies-into-books, and CDs-into-musicals, Sony will adapt the 2005 PlayStation 2 game Shadow of the Colossus into a full-length feature, with The Scorpion King's Kevin Misher producing. Colossus is following in the footsteps of Dante's Inferno, which just got an X2 screenplay writer for the movie adaptation.

Remember that flannel-wearing loner from high-school algebra class? The one who never paid attention, and who staved off boredom by doodling elaborate comic-art illustrations in his notebooks: Spider-Man hoisting a rocket launcher, flaming skulls with snakes bursting through the eye sockets, mutated lobsters severing the torsos of half-naked women? Sure, that dude might’ve been a slacker, but his imagination was working overtime.

With Captain America and The Avengers movies slated for 2011 and 2012 respectively, Marvel is already planning to release multiplayer online games to follow the films in 2012. The company announced a couple of weeks ago that it will partner and sign a 10-year exclusivity agreement with video game developer Gazillion Entertainment to produce the online titles based on its library of superhero characters.

Dead Rising 2, the much-anticipated multi-platform video game, may offer the opportunity to mow through up to 6,000 on-screen zombies at a time, says Laura Scholl, product manager for Mental Mill.