In the best tradition of the beholder’s eye, here are my picks for the top 5 games for the Xbox:

1. Red Dead Redemption. Saddle up, pilgrim, it’s time to bring some justice back to the Old West. This free roaming third person shooter puts you in Clint Eastwood’s shoes as John Marston, outlaw turned hero in the American Old West that should have been, and perhaps only ever existed for Hollywood.

2. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2. A shooter with heavy RPG elements is still a shooter, but Lucas Arts did it right with all the trappings and rich back story of the Star Wars universe. Lightsabers, the Force, droids, and an unmatched hive of scum and villainy put you in the action in a world where Greedo never would have got the chance to shoot first.

3. Lego Harry Potter: Okay, so waving a wand and blasting little Lego people into their component bricks isn’t exactly a shooter. But this latest entry in the Lego series of licensed games brings its own twist to the addictive puzzle and platform formula that made Legos Batman, Indiana Jones, and Star Wars so captivating. And its funny; famous scenes from the movies done up in silent movie Legos? Priceless.

4. Halo: Reach. Halo is unquestionably the game that established the bar for every other Xbox shooter to target, and the new entry in the series is no exception. It makes the most of that Xbox Live connection to put you and your buddies into the hot zone with a whole new set of rules, toys, and customizations that are guaranteed to keep your guns blazing.

5. Bioshock. This is one to watch, with the combination of intriguing gameplay and immersive storyline. The sheer variety of tasks puts you in a world where I just want to keep exploring the possibilities of one more upgrade, and the challenge of hacking another odd computer. Just because I can.

No coincidence that shooters form the core of my top Xbox games. The fast pace and frenetic action fuel my adrenaline like unfiltered caffeine!

At E3 2009, Microsoft unveiled the Xbox 360 peripheral code named Project Natal. This system introduced full motion tracking capabilities — all without a controller. Microsoft hopes to outdo what Nintendo accomplished with the Nintendo Wii, the first home console capable of tracking gestures released on the home market. But while Nintendo included the use of Wii controllers to accomplish this, the Xbox 360 seeks to use a specially designed 3d tracking camera that can seek depth and position. Yes. It can sense 3d space. Furthermore, the game can track up to 4 players at once. In addition, the player can issue vocal commands. One of the most astounding games previewed at E3 gave a demo of how this works. This game, Milo and Kate, allowed a user to communicate directly with a digital child and carry on conversations. The biggest surprise? Milo can read your facial expressions.

For years, it seemed that PC gaming would be unable to survive the unrelenting crush of digital pirates committing copyright violations on a staggering level. A remarkably candid John Riccitiello, head of EA Games, has a more optimistic view on the situation.

Instead of fearing piracy as an industry destroyer, he instead plans to consider it a form of possible revenue. How? The answer is downloadable content, pay-for-play additions to games bought online after installation. Say Riccitiello “They can steal the disc, but they can’t steal the DLC.”

The smash hit multi-platform RPG Dragon Age: Origins debuted with two separate DLC packs available at launch. In short order, more than one million DLC packages had been purchased and downloaded. Certainly at least some of these were from pirated copies.

For those loyal to PC gaming, expect to pay for content right on release day for the foreseeable future. Although paying customers might balk at having to spend extra money to play everything after opening the box, the struggling PC gaming business is in need of innovative and pragmatic solutions such as these.

Did you think the Xbox 360 would be the only console to integrate Facebook functionality? If so, Sony has another thing coming for you, as they are launching firmware 3.10 for the PlayStation 3 today, and, you guessed it, Facebook integration is included. Check out the video above to check out how it works, but in a nutshell, you’ll be able to have the PS3 post different events to your Facebook feed, like purchases, trophies, and in-game happenings. Other changes in PS3 firmware 3.10:

• You can choose a color for your PSN ID badge
• Photos are now displayed in a grid rather than a single column
• The friends list has been modified, based on feedback from the community

If you are one of the hoards of PS3 owners that were excited by Netflix announced streaming would be coming to the game console, today is the big day friends. Netflix has announced that its streaming service is now officially live on the PS3. I hope you ordered your PS3 Netflix disc.

The service is available free to all Netflix subscribers and allows you to watch on demand programming on your TV via the PS3 just like the Xbox 360 bragged about not long ago. The catch with the PS3 service is that you need that Blu-ray disc from Netflix.

The disc is available free and if you don’t have a Netflix account you can get one for only $8.99 per month that includes unlimited streaming. The streaming feature is possible via the BD-Live feature the PS3 supports. Way to skirt that exclusive streaming clause with Microsoft Netflix!

Netflix movie streaming, once available only for computers, the Xbox 360, and some Blu-Ray players, will soon be offered for the Playstation 3.

How will they do it? For unknown reasons, the software will not be integrated directly into the system. Instead, a Netflix subscriber can request a free disc with Netflix installed as a BD-Live feature. BD-Live is a system normally used to allow a movie’s special features to be downloaded from the Internet, rather than limited to content placed directly on the disc.

The cost of the Netflix service itself is the same no matter what you watch it on. However, Netflix subscribers using the Xbox 360 must also pay $50 per year for Xbox Live. The PS3 has no extra costs.