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Editor's note: The penultimate article in Andrew's E3 2009 press conference series is here, with the real-time reactions to Sony's presentation. Stay tuned for the final installment, a comparative analysis of all three major press events. -Demian

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Abstract: The third and final press conference was witnessed, and commented upon, by neogaf.com members with aplomb. This particular thread provided extra obstacles to compiling data, due to the presentation style and the conference's position in the schedule.

Methodology: Please see the methodology found in the analysis of Nintendo's E3 press conference. For additonal results, please see the analysis of Microsoft's E3 analysis.

Additional Difficulties Encountered: This particular thread presented additional obstacles to data collection not found in the prior threads. First, and foremost, this thread was the final major press conference, and many of the comments referenced material in other conferences. Perhaps related to this, many more "conversations" were held within the thread, and to ascertain whether a particular comment was positive, negative, or unrelated, I had to refer back to the original comment (often quoted), which in turn referred to another comment.

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Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 We're beginning to wonder if developer 2K Boston modeled BioShock bad guy Frank Fontaine after the game's Creative Director, Ken Levine.

It's not that Levine's a master manipulator of us common folk (uh...we don't think so, anyways). He's just a no-good cheat. Just look at some of his responses and non-responses to our 21 Random Qs interview below! (See #3, 17, 18, 19, and 21.)

And don't miss the vague hint as to what he's working on next....

1. Who is your favorite comic-book superhero? Outside of anyone from Freedom Force, that is.

Ken Levine: When you're getting beat up in the 7th grade every day and you find Spider-Man, it changes your life.

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Some of my earliest -- and favorite -- gaming memories involve the role-playing adventures of the '80s, games such as The Bard's Tale, Might and Magic, and Wizardry. My memories of playing The Bard's Tale on my Mom's Apple IIGS, mapping Mangar's Tower on a pad of graph paper while stealing a glimpse of my middle school crush as she walked by my house on her way to visit a friend after school, are fond indeed.

I miss those days.

Two years ago, Etrian Odyssey stoked those memories. The game's design, a purposefully throwback approach, was a delight, and I spent many commutes to work and late nights in my recliner exploring the labyrinth. The same sense of glee accompanied the game's second outing. Mega Man 9 and 1942: Joint Strike hit my retro sweetspot as well. (I apparently enjoy living in the past; I even wrote this commentary with the swingin' sounds of Les Brown and the Band of Renown in the background.)

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Nintendo has cooked up some pretty innovative ideas the past few years, no doubt. But the Wii Vitality Sensor isn't exactly making our hearts burn with desire. More like murmur with apathy.

News Blips:

• New knowledge of Wii Vitality Sensor causes excitement flatline. A trickle of info has come out on Nintendo's wacky new peripheral that will likely do little to get your heart pumped. Turns out the finger condom has a small light inside that will measure various things going down in your body (duh!). In one demo, you're tasked with the exhilarating act of breathing in time to a metronome. And, in another, it times how quickly you fall asleep due to utter boredom. Yawn... [Kotaku]

• Well, that's nice: Black people can play Project Natal, too. Seems Shoe's Project Natal impressions caused quite an Internet tizzy when he observed that dark-skinned game consultant N'Gai Croal had difficulty air-steering his virtual car during his demo. Well, it appears that Microsoft's new motion-control gizmo loves all races, as the company released a video of several famous African American sports stars pantomiming like pros. Support for Klingons? Now that's another story. [Kotaku]

• Crackdown 2 looks to encourage four-way orb-grabbing. The product page-searching sleuths over at VG247 discovered that Crackdown 2's official page reveals the game might include 4-player co-op and 16-player multiplayer matches. If this doesn't pan out, we're totally suing Microsoft for false advertising. [VG247]

• Clutter your apartment with plastic crap for cheap. GameStop is slashing the prices on all versions of Rock Band and Guitar Hero in case you haven't annoyed your neighbors yet. [Kotaku]

• Armageddon is upon us: Dynasty Warriors spin-off canceled for America. It turns out that Warriors Orochi Z, a spin-off that combines both Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors, is not coming to America. God help us all! [Kotaku]

Hit the jump for some video blips, including a World War 2 zombies, picture-perfect African animals, Tetris porn, and...more.

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Editor's Note: Check out Suniel's wrap-up of E3 2009's biggest suprises and disappointments. In particular, the "disappointment" label on some hotly anticipated games will undoubtedly take some of you by surprise. -Greg

Doing lists is always fun, and with E3 over now, the "Game of Show" lists and the like will soon be popping up on websites everywhere. The thing is, it can be hard to judge the quality of a game just playing a small portion of it (or watching, for those of us who were at home). Most of us do that anyway, but instead of judging the quality of the games, this list is based primarily on the impression that the games made on me, be it good or bad.

Five Games That Surprised Me:

The Beatles: Rock Band: Since the wonderful cinematic trailer was shown at Microsoft's press conference on Monday, I've been tracking this game, looking at all of the songs being performed, watching demonstrations of the game, and looking at a digital version of Paul McCartney more than I should have any right to.

It's funny, really, because I thought of myself as someone who was past all of this rhythm-game nonsense, and maybe I am since I'm not excited for most other musical offerings and I didn't get Rock Band 2 or anything past Guitar Hero 3. Something about the Beatles as a band speaks to me, though. I've never considered myself a fan of them before, yet I'm liking what I'm hearing.

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We've got first-hand E3 stories, how Microsoft can 'win Japan' with Project Natal, Metal Gear Solid: Rising conspiracy theories, and other can't-miss posts from around the Bitmob community....

The More You Know: Overheard at a Game Store
I love this collection of misinformed quotes collected by Jasmine Maleficent Rea during the course of employment at various game shops. "Final Fantasy 7 is actually the first Final Fantasy. 'All them others is nonsense.'"

What Can We Expect From Metal Gear Solid: Rising
Matthew Floratos does some in-depth hypothesizing about Hideo Kojima's MGS: Rising, cyborg ninjas, and Crystal Pepsi product placement.

Open Source Natal Concept 1: Rhythm Game
Inspired by David Costellos's post about how Project Natal could work with existing franchises, Alexei GB (GB? That's a last name now?) wants you to brainstorm Project Natal game concepts with him. So far, he's got Saturday Night Fever. I offer Being Ernest, a Hemingway-themed game with bullfighting, deep sea/fly fishing, big game hunting, boxing, ambulance driving, and heroic drinking.

Project Natal and Lilo: How Microsoft Can Sell Millions to Japan
Thomas Lin has the solution to Microsoft's sales problem in Japan. Hint: It has turquoise pigtails and anime eyes.

(E3, MAG, motion controllers, LittleBigPlanet, Stubbs the Zombie, E3, Left 4 Dead 2, more E3...and more, after the jump.)

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Editor's Note: Feeling a little jaded? Nick Dee shows why he's hopeful for the future. -Shoe

So I recently posted an article about the failure of the videogame medium to address certain key aspects of the human experience with an emphasis on its general denial that homosexuality exists in unstereotypical forms.

In response, fellow Bitmobber Brett Bates brought up this point: “With the explosion of more personal and boundary-pushing indie and downloadable games, I'm surprised we haven't seen more gay characters.”

And I could not agree more, but I’d like to take that idea a step further and hypothesize that the next generation of gaming is going to come from a boom of new innovation from independent developers.

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Sure, it takes two to tango, but it only takes one gun to kill both dancers. Add in another gun and, well, it's overkill (sorry, dancers!). But for the purpose of taking down multiple enemies (say vengeful family members of said dead dancers), having a co-op partner is definitely handy.

Army of Two: The 40th Day is all about that -- having a bud by your side during the heat of battle. But it seems like EA is trying to make killing dudes with your friend mean something more. In fact, in a game where you play as two badass mercenaries, they're trying to incorporate something seemingly ridiculous in the killing trade: morals.

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Throughout most of this year's E3, the Bitmob crew got pulled in every different direction trying to cover the show with our shorthanded staff. But The Beatles: Rock Band was the one time (well, outside of the requisite Big Three conferences) that most of us came together to enjoy a game. It's definitely my Game of the Show -- I already gushed about it over at 1UP (warning: obsessive Beatles fan mode ahead), but I made a return trip to MTV Games' booth when I heard Bitmob managing editor Greg Ford, staff writer Michael Donahoe, and Mobcast contributor Robert Ashley would be there. After all, while it was great to impersonate John Lennon with a few strangers, I knew the experience would be that much better with Robert as Paul McCartney, Greg as George Harrison, and Donahoe as Ringo Starr.

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This really was the best E3 in recent memory. The spectacle of the big show returned while being workable enough to allow us time to see nearly all our favorites on the show floor. The big publishers had decked out their booths with almost all playable games. The main complaint heard around the show floor this year: "How am I gonna afford all this shit?"

Before meandering our way up the desolate (and yet amazingly beautiful) 5 freeway from Los Angeles to San Francisco, we had one, final, incredible day at E3. Getting to play some Left 4 Dead 2 was certainly a highlight, but the impromptu Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins hands-on experiences pretty much blew our pants off. Yes, we were pants-less in front of Drs. Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk, the two heads of BioWare that, prior to inviting us to come spend time with ME2 and DA:O graced us with a solid interview surrounding both those products and their upcomming MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Tony Hawk: Ride introduced yet another plastic peripheral you'll likely have to find storage space for, and a couple of Xbox Live games -- Shadow Complex and 'Splosion Man -- surprised us with strong showings from out of nowhere.

Next week's show will be a compilation of some of the best moments from the live streams we had at E3 -- which will be in SD since our live streams were in SD -- and then the following week we'll be back with our premiere of Season 02! Hard to believe we've already gone through a complete season of CO-OP. We couldn't have done it without you! Come chat with us on our blog at http://area5.tv!

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You wouldn't be able to tell it from looking at her, but my girlfriend's tougher -- and more disturbed -- than most.

She cheered during Sony's E3 press conference when Kratos gutted open a centaur in God of War 3. She sits through disturbing foreign movies like Irreversible and Frontiers (American films are almost too tame for her) as if she's watching the latest from Pixar. And she shows her affection toward me not with random kisses, but with a series of pretend punches to my face, complete with sound effects.

She's tough -- I've never seen a violent videogame that she couldn't handle. She's even a Manhunt fan. Yet, when it came to the Overlord 2 demo, she turned into a total girlie girl, whimpering and almost crying because she reached a point where she couldn't continue any further....

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Trying to keep up with all of the downloadable games and content that's out there these days is enough to make a person cry. But cry no more, because Download Lowdown is here to help. Each week I'll sift through the good, the bad, and the weird to help you get the most from your game system of choice without leaving your house.

This week I relive the "Great Final Fantasy Heist of '97," crash and burn in Flight Control, save you $5 on Wolfenstein 3D, enjoy dying in Bango, type the name "Blue Suede Goo," and become hopelessly addicted to Star Defense.

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