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We spent time with dozens and dozens of games at last week's E3, from your Gods of Wars to a fishing game. Some were good, some weren't -- and some good ones may have seemed bad (or vice versa) because of how they were shown. And so, forthwith, we present the best and worst demos of E3 2009. (Many more after the jump.)

The Best:

The Beatles: Rock Band
"Two things make up a good demo: 1) A game that obviously shows well to an audience, and 2) A presenter who is every bit as entertaining as the game. The former is fairly easy to accomplish, but it's very rare when these two factors come together, like they did for The Beatles: Rock Band demo.

You've got the iconic songs of the Fab Four for starters, but it's also weirdly fun just to watch people play Rock Band (especially folks who obviously have a good time doing it, like the ones in our demo). Couple this with a witty presenter who wasn't afraid to make fun of himself (or the game) and an amazing room constructed to look like a recording studio and you have one damn good demo." -Michael Donahoe

RUSE
"This is a bit unfair to all those boring videogames being played on plain ol' HDTVs (how 2008 of them), but Ubisoft showed off real-time-strategy game RUSE on a giant, tabletop touch screen in their booth. The demo driver looked like a DJ from the future (or a tiny person playing on a giant iPhone) as his fingers swept, swooped, and danced all around the screen while he effortlessly and elegantly moved his units and panned the camera from sky down to street-level view." -Dan "Shoe" Hsu

Dance Dance Revolution Wii
"Last year, Konami badly botched their Rock Revolution E3 presentation when they shoved a marketing rep onstage to handle the plastic guitar -- in retrospect, we should've realized it was a portent of disastrous things to come.

This year, they took no such risks. Flamboyant, charismatic producer Naoki Maeda is DDR to many fans, and his flowing, dyed-brown locks took center stage in demonstrating the first major DDR revolution in a decade -- taking the series from the dancepad to the Balance Board. With his Elvis-style hip swiveling, Maeda's boundless enthusiasm infected the crowd and really showcased how the series will change on the Wii. And even communicating in broken English, the DDR legend proved that at E3, it's really all about enthusiasm, spirit, and evidence that you actually care about your product." -Andrew Fitch

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Although we think the World of WarCraft soda below is silly, it's not nearly as bad as the official WoW elf ears you can buy. Or good depending on which side on the irony line you're on.

News Blips:

• Personify a videogame stereotype by drinking World of WarCraft-branded Mountain Dew. In case you need to level up your nerd cred, Mountain Dew is releasing special WoW-themed beverages for you to sip on while you loot orcs with your guild. But, then again, if you're regularly playing WoW, your nerd cred is likely maxed out at level 80 already. [Joystiq]

• Valve finds chill pills in abandoned bathroom, hands to boycotters. Yesterday, we talked about how some angry Left 4 Dead fans are protesting the recently announced Left 4 Dead 2. Today, developer Valve responds saying their game is awesome. Tomorrow, nothing is resolved. [1UP]

• Sony thinks PSP is a loser, will not give it trophies. We (more like Shoe) love bragging about our in-game accomplishments, but if you're expecting the PS3's Achievement-like Trophies to eventually appear on the PSP, you're going to have wait the unbearably long time of never. Seems like the easily hackable ways of the PSP is keeping Sony from including the accomplishment trackers. You can always create your own trophies, though: Public Reputation Suicide -- Purchase Hanna Montana PSP bundle. [Joystiq]

• Koei Tecmo encourage employees to pop out human "sequels." The folks behind Dynasty Warriors and Dead or Alive are actually giving paid bonuses to workers who have multiple children, the biggest being $20,300 for those who have their third kid. Bet Octomom is pissed she didn't know about this sooner. [Kotaku]

Hit the jump for some video blips, including a Brutal Legend trailer, wacky Just Cause 2 antics, the secret to Space Invaders tactics, and...more.

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Rebel FM E3 Christmas Special

It's a very special Rebel FM Christmas! OK, so it's not really Christmas, but it's still a special show. Arthur, Anthony, and Tyler got together at a San Francisco IHOP to discuss (most) of the happenings of E3. Covering everything from the floor to the press conferences to Tyler's flight mishaps, the crew gets pretty deep as they chow down on some of the unhealthiest food imaginable. Stay tuned for another podcast later this week where they get deep into discussion about the various new interfaces that debuted at E3.

Zune link

Direct Download (right click save as)

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Thanks everyone for their questions. Let's get started.

Dear Dr. Baby,

In the event that one would want to create a game using the likeness and mass brainwashing abilities of Oprah, what would advice such a gamemaker to do? Gameplay ideas would be well appreciated so that the Oprah empire can continue its march towards global domination.

Somewhat Sincerely,
Matthew Moore

You sort of turned Yoda at the tail end of that first sentence, but I think I see what you're getting at. You want me to design an Oprah videogame. OK. NINJA CRIME IS RAMPANT IN US. OPRAH IS NO EXCEPTION. ARE YOU A BAD ENOUGH DUDE TO OPRAH?

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Editor's note: Andrew's Nintendo conference post (linked below) caused a bit of a ruckus on the Internet, and we asked him to do a couple more. Click on that graph to see a larger version. -Demian

Click here for the full-sized graph (or here for a mirrored version)

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I talked about Modern Warfare 2 recently, but Activision had a lot more going on behind closed doors at E3. In particular, it continued to march its Hero brand forward in the form of Guitar Hero 5 and DJ Hero.

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Unless you're talking techie-geek stuff -- bits, bytes, and all that -- 256 isn't a very practical number. Yet that's the magical number of players that MAG (which previously stood for "Massive Action Game") supports. With each match lasting 20 minutes or longer, it seems that "practical" is an impossible concept with so many people playing this shooter at once.

Can it work? We had a ton of questions and concerns...and we found the answers at this past E3....

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Hmm, not a lot of news today. It's almost as if some big videogame convention happened last week. Nah. That's almost as silly as Microsoft and Sony both announcing motion-control devices to combat the Wii. That would never happen...

News Blips:

• Miyamoto flattered by Wii-nis envy. Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto told BBC that he was flattered by Microsoft and Sony's new motion-control peripherals announced at last week's E3. Still, he claims both are still early and don't look to possess the same amount of depth as the Wii Motion Plus. Of course, he could have said this before he had a chance to preview Microsoft's Project Natal himself and experience the euphoric joy of spastic arm and leg flailing. Not any depth, huh? Sorry, Shiggy, but just flailing your arms is sooooo 2006. [1UP]

• Left 4 Dead 2 boycotters want to pick the brain of developer Valve, possibly eat it. Wow, these guys are pissed -- a bunch of angry Left 4 Dead fans are boycotting the recently announced sequel giving a slew of reasons why Valve should apologize for their nefarious sequel-making ways. We hate when companies make sequels, too! Don't get us started about how pissed we are about having to play another Super Mario Galaxy game. Ugh! [Kotaku]

• Internet meme put in Scribblenauts for teh lulz. In case you doubted how many random words/phrases can be conjured up in the innovative DS game Scribblenauts, the folks over at Joystiq discovered the Internet meme play him off, keyboard cat is officially in the game. Pretty cool. Though, sadly, we discovered another popular meme, 2 girls 1 cup, wasn't included. That stinks! [Joystiq]

• Perfect Dark XBLA screenshots look best in the light. Man, these shots look like ass. Oh, yeah -- this is a port of developer Rare's last first-person shooter for the Nintendo 64. So if we were to rewind our brains back to the year 2000 when this game came out, we're sure we'd compare these shots to a different body part. Elbow, maybe? [1UP]

Hit the jump for some video blips, including more Project Natal pimping, Shoe talks about the E3 press conferences, Conan O'Brien addresses his Mario-inspired set, and...more.

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Editor's note: Check out this intricately edited personal history of arcade games by Shea Murphy. The guy has a deep and abiding love of buttons, that's for sure. I think he might like Zero Punctuation, too, as he's got a similar breathless narration style going on. -Demian

One of my best friends put this video together. Most of it was filmed at FunSpot in Laconia, New Hampshire. I'm the little guy with his back to the camera in a few scenes with the wig on. I thought some of you out there might find it interesting. Enjoy.

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Was about to do a search on Google when the image froze me. Why on Earth would they have a Tetris logo (which rules, natch)? Turns out it's Tetris' 25th birthday. Seems a little old, especially since the Game Boy -- which everyone associates the game with -- turned 20 last month.

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Editor's Note: Patrick Bonk -- great gaming name, by the way -- explains why he feels Tony Hawk: Ride just might be the game that gets him back into the series he once loved so much. And actually, I'm hoping for a similar bounceback for this once-proud series. -Greg

It's funny. Out of all the things that could and did capture my imagination at E3, I did not think that Tony Hawk: Ride would have stuck with me the most. I remember when I first heard about a Tony Hawk reboot with a skateboard peripheral, I wasn't interested in the least. Now, after seeing the Microsoft press conference and Tony Hawk's all-too-brief presentation of the game and its unique peripheral, it is firmly on my radar, all $120 of it.

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