Final Fantasy XIII will be released on the XBox 360 concurrently with the PS3. That’s a big deal, and has got to put a little dampener on PS3 owners whose list of exclusive titles anyone cares about just dropped by 50%. Heck, I’ll even feel a twinge of betrayal playing a Final Fantasy title on a non-Sony platform.

There’s something that’ll make your console overheat.

Sure, I never quite beat FFX (I’m stuck on a part where fish keep killing me), and I’ve never gotten around to playing FFVII (It’s on my to-do list), but when you put achievements into the equation, I’ll wrap this thing up. It’s sick, I know. But one of the 360′s prominent weaknesses thus far has been the lack of quality traditional RPGs, and the Primo-Facto one coming to Microsoft’s console fits in nicely.

2. Dude, your dashboard is too colorful. Here, take this one that looks more like an Apple UI.

This fall’s big update will completely change the look of the Xbox 360′s dashboard, along with adding new functionality and features. It doesn’t look bad, but if I wanted a menu that looks like the top of a freshly polished MacBook Pro I would have bought a Wii.

The original dashboard was always a bit cluttered, and the new one promises to be easier to navigate, but couldn’t the effect be achieved while maintaining a less aesthetically pleasing display? And… what happens to all those people who purchased themes? Like say, if I happened to purchase the “Fine Woods” theme about 2 years ago. And although I may regret those wasted points and haven’t used it since, will those beautiful mahogany patterns never be available to me again?

And how will an online-multiplayer version of 1 vs 100 work when everyone’s got search engine’s at their fingertips? I dunno.

But I haven’t been let down by the XBox Live experience as of date, so I have confidence these things will smooth out. The new dashboard and it’s Mii-like Avatars will also be more pervasive in the console experience itself, perhaps having more of an effect even on the users who choose to have their console “boot to disc”.

3. We kicked Bob Ross out of the QA department, they look better now.

The two most expensive toddler chew toys ever designed were these two controllers (released last year):

This isn’t an N64, Microsoft. I’ll be chainsawing aliens with an assault rifle using these controllers, and would prefer not to see anything that is neon baby blue while I’m doing it. E3 2008 included the announcement of two new limited edition controllers, a green one and a red one. The red one looks good, assisted by matte-black highlights. The green one is just green with the usual grey. So, a slight improvement… But have they fixed the D-Pad yet? Don’t think so.

4. Okay, so the camera actually does something again!

So we all had a great time playing Uno, graphing our faces on Rainbow Six avatars, and enjoying the great game that was Totemball. (Just kidding about that last one). Yet after that, what was the XBox live vision camera good for? It made the background of my dashboard wavy, yeah. That was it. But now we’re seeing games such as You’re in the Movies (releases this Fall) that look like they’re utilizing the camera in a way that isn’t just a gimmick.

5. Your future looks busy.

The 360 has a killer line up arriving in the next year. Gears of War 2 looks polished and epic, Fable II introduces social RPG elements never before seen, and Fallout 3 should at the very least be as awesome as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was. Halo-Wars will keep both RTS and Bungie fans quenched while Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts brings platforming back to where it was in the late 90′s, which is in no way a bad thing. These traditional A-List titles along with new additions (like Final Fantasy) as well as the new dashboard’s casual games and new media/entertainment options (like a partnership with Netflix) show that the XBox 360 owner’s horizons are broadening at a rapid pace. I hope the community and the support team can keep up.

Well, technically it wasn’t a midnight premiere. Since I only bought my tickets about a week early, I missed out on the 12:01 showing, and had to watch the 12:04 show. Though less prestigious, we still had a good group. The winner of theater #8′s costume competition had a Joker outfit that would blow all others away. No pictures, unfortunately.

After about 3 hours of playing cards, chatting with friends, throwing a miniature frisbee and smuggling candy bought at a nearby Safeway into the theater, the previews finally started. By the way, for any graphic novel fans, there’s a Watchmen movie coming out. This one looks good.

Once we were all pumped up by the intense quick trailer cuts, the DC Comics logo popped up and things got quiet.

If you haven’t watched the movie, there are probably three questions you would want to ask:

Q: Is the movie that good?
A: Yes

Q: Is Heath Ledger that good?
A: Yes

Q: Does Maggie Gyllenhaal’s face sort of look like Darth Vader?
A: Yes

That being said, the movie almost exactly met with my expectations (which were high), Heath Ledger’s acting surpassed what I believe is an Oscar-worthy level, and I’m sure most everyone will be happy to have this movie certified free of Katie Holmes. Gyllenhaal is a welcome addition, as much as I hate cast-swapping. But her face still sort of looks like Darth Vader…

The Dark Night takes off where Batman Begins left off. Not much is explained for those who missed out on the prequel, but not having this information won’t detract from the experience. You’ll be subtly elated to see Morgan Freeman return as the CEO of Wayne Enterprises, and the Scarecrow even makes a brief cameo at the start of the film.

The Dark Knight consists of two main parts. There’s the Heath Ledger part and the action part. If Frank Miller wrote the screenplay for The Godfather, it would end up looking a lot like the Heath Ledger part, which comes first in the movie. The reason I call this first half the “Heath Ledger” part is because Mr. Ledger, rest is soul, has not only portrayed the Joker in a completely fresh and new way, but has formulated a character who fits the twisted, anarchic and surprisingly intricately amorally inclined new Joker like a glove. Adding to this, the rest of the cast in no way rely on Ledger’s coattails. This particular Batman franchise has been immaculately cast from the beginning and will continue to be as such until Tom Cruise plays the Riddler in the Summer 2012 release of Batman: The Gotham Scientologist Uprising.

This film continues the recent super-hero movie trend of displaying a more cinematic portrayal in favor of the traditional comic one. In fact, the only prominently unbelievable part in The Dark Knight comes when Batman rides up a wall with his Batpod (that’s the new Batcycle), and flips around in a way that shouldn’t be physically possible. Sure, it was awesome, but I stopped watching Power Rangers about 11 years ago. Okay, maybe less.

The Dark Knight refuses to fail where many movies fall short. The film handled a rating of PG-13 in a way that didn’t require pulling any punches. It developed a complex storyline over an appropriate period of time. (Two and a half hours was touching on the long side, but that might have just been because the theater air-conditioning seemed to shut off). Ledger is allowed to hold the reigns of the film’s underlying concepts of morality and social psychology that are both entertaining and enthralling. Coupled with enough impressive fast-paced action to show off your subwoofer, The Dark Knight becomes an exhausting movie to watch. Sure, it was late – but it’s almost as if too much was thrown into the film than was necessary. Just like the extended edition of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of The Rings made you want to go run sprints during the slow parts, the Director’s cut of The Dark Knight will make your brain reach critical mass and probably explode.