Microsoft kicked off this year’s E3 with big announcements concerning the games line-up for its Xbox 360 console and the Games for Windows program, also confirming what everyone knew for about a week: that the triple-platinum title Gears of War is coming to PC this fall.

The games line-up is pretty impressive and should certainly put Nintendo and Sony on defensive positions, because some titles are simply outstanding.

Among them are a few exclusive like Project Gotham Racing IV, Beautiful Katamari, Lost Odyssey, Mass Effect, Ace Combat 6, Splinter Cell Conviction, Eternal Sonata, and Naruto Rise of a Ninja. Dynasty Warriors: Gundam, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Stranglehold, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Beautiful Katamari, NBA’08, Fatal Inertia, Medal of Honor: Airborne, Tiger Woods: PGA ’08, NHL’08, Assassin’s Creed, Spider Man: Friend or Foe, The Simpsons, Nascar ’08, Eternal Sonata, Madden NFL, Bioshock, Tony Hawk: Proving Ground, Crash of the Titans, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Valve’s Orange Box (including all the Half Life goodies, old and new), Rock Band and Bee (the movie game) are completing the list of games available this fall.

Although fans were hoping also for a price cut in the light of the recent events happening at the Sony camp (the PS3 price cut), Microsoft has denied them good news for that matter, considering that the 3 years warranty extension from last week was all they could afford (after all, it’s going to cost them more than $1 billion…).

However, they did unveil a new Halo 3-themed Xbox 360, through Microsoft's corporate vice president of global marketing, Jeff Bell, who also confirmed a European date for Xbox 360 Elite of 24th August, but declined to offer details about the price.

There was also a demonstration of the up-coming Gears of War for Windows XP and Vista, which will include five new chapters and a final boss-battle where players get to meet one-on-one with the Brumak from the Xbox 360 version of the game.

"Xbox 360 has sold more games at retail than both Wii and PS3 combined this generation," said Xbox boss Peter Moore while reciting from a teleprompter. "The Xbox 360 is the console driving the industry. Half of all consumer spending this generation is on 360," he added while wearing his typical dark grey suit with lime green shirt.

Microsoft also announced that the original Viva Pinata will grace Windows XP and Vista this holiday season. The company further claimed more than 7 million Xbox Live members to date and expects that number to reach 10 million by next year.

"Microsoft Game Studios averages higher review scores than any other publisher," Shane Kim confidently added near the close of the briefing that largely let the games do the talking.