And we're done! The third day of E3, in the books. Today was a little quieter compared to the first two days, mostly because the "big three" had already shown their hands. That's not to say nothing happened, however. Plenty happened. And you can find the highlights below.

Liveblogging Take-Two's 2008 E3 Press Conference
Tretton: Sony Considering PSP with Harddrive
Liveblogging Konami's E3 2008 Press Conference
Rock Band 2: Perfecting The Game
E3 Gate Crasher: Ghetto Vader - Let Him In?
PS3 Press Conference Rehearsal Crashed By Mystery Blogger
Sega: The iPhone is as Powerful as the Dreamcast
Your 360 Themes "Could" Look Like This On The New Dash
Bungie's Halo Game Announcement Held Back For A "Dedicated Event"
Miyamoto: "We're Making Pikmin"
80GB PS3 To Hit "All PAL Territories" On August 27

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While the Duke Nukem Trilogy trailer was a blast, it told us absolutely nothing about the planned handheld trilogy. Fortunately, Apogee's Terry Nagy is a little more forthcoming. He says the games will see Duke as "the Forest Gump of World War II", and in doing so explain how he got the name Duke Nukem. And how do you do a "Forrest Gump in WWII" storyline? Nagy says you do it like this: "It was really Duke that sunk the Bismarck. It wasn't the British". The games will be appearing on both PSP and DS, but judging from the state of that trailer, they won't be appearing for a while.

Duke Nukem Trilogy Details: Duke Heads to WW2, Apogee Talks Possible PC Release & DS Censorship [Shacknews]

More news from Sony's secret, PAL-only event in Santa Monica: the region's "Platinum" games range for the PS3 have a release date, as well as pricing info. The first batch of Platinum games will be appearing on August 1, and titles mentioned specifically included MotorStorm, Resistance, Uncharted, Assassin's Creed and Virtua Tennis 3 (with Heavenly Sword and Ratchet & Clank surely there as well). As for pricing, they'll be *deep breath* $AU 50.

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Ubisoft's executive director, Alain Corre (on the left), isn't the biggest fan of the "new" E3. He wasn't a fan of the "old" one, either, and is instead calling for a happy medium between the two, where we get the May timing of the old event with the "no public" rules of the current one.

It's one milestone in the communication of your products throughout the year, and it's important because it's the ramp-up for Christmas...[But] E3 here, mid-July, in the Convention Centre in downtown LA - it's not appropriate I would say.

Reason being that it's too late in the year for many/any new products to be announced, meaning most games on show have already been announced, meaning there's a lot less interest in the event, from retailers to the public to journalists.

Ubisoft: E3 is "not appropriate" at the current date, location [GI.biz]

Metal Gear Online's first expansion pack - Gene - has been dated during Konami's E3 address yesterday. And that release date is...today, July 17! The expansion will introduce a new gameplay mode (survival), three new maps, two new selectable characters (including Meryl) and a "reward shop", where you can spend the points you earn in survival mode on new gear for your character.

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That's what SCEE boss David Reeves said, anyways. Responding to questions concerning iNiS' Lips - in particular how it pays more than a passing resemblance to Sony's Singstar - Reeves has said "If you come to Leipzig, you will see the next generation of SingStar". What an odd thing to say. We thought the "next generation" of SingStar Was already out. Came out on the PS3 last year. Surely it hasn't been that big a disaster they're replacing it already?

Next-gen SingStar at Leipzig [Eurogamer]

Announced briefy during yesterday's Activision presser, here's the first footage of Singularity, a new shooter from Raven that looks like it's going to be doing all sorts of impressive, puzzley things with the passage of time. Sort of like Link to the Past, only with less green grass, more rusty industrial stuff and what looks like a Soviet science experiment gone tits-up.

While the majority of Nintendo fans may be content to play (and replay ad nauseum) the Super Mario Bros. theme in Wii Music, some of us are going to want something else to play. At tonight's E3 Nintendo Developer Roundtable, Nintendo showed off some of the tunes that might be included in the newly announced Wii title, including public domain hits like "Yankee Doodle Dandy", "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "Turkey In The Straw". The company promises "popular" licenced tracks will make their way to the casual game, but that it's "not focusing" on tackling downloadable content to boost the tracklisting.

Sure, "Turkey In The Straw" may not blow your hair back, but if the company sees fit to put some Balloon Fight or Zelda tracks in there, we'll have no choice but to oblige via our wallets.

So this morning, I get up, I finally get around to installing 2.41, and I sign into my US PSN account to see if I can access the new video store. Predictably, being in Australia and all, I can't. Unlike "regular" PSN stuff, Sony's region-lock controls are in full effect. It's hardly surprising (as the 360 video service is also a global mess), and isn't even the first time this has happened on the PSN (the Uncharted demo was also region-locked), but I'm sure some people out there (ie Europeans) will be wondering about this, so there you go.

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When this trailer warns you it contains scenes of extreme violence, it's not kidding around. This is the most gruesome thing we've seen all week. And yet, at the same time, easily one of the most entertaining.

Microsoft have just announced that the next original Xbox game to be granted a second lease of life will be BioWare's Jade Empire. For a BioWare game it's nowhere near as fondly recalled as some of their other, more laser gun-oriented titles, but it's still an excellent game, especially its take on RPG combat. It'll be made available on July 21, for the usual 1200 MS Points.

Jade Empire Coming to Xbox Originals [Gamerscore]

Ratchet & Clank: Quest For Booty is, at its heart, a PSN game. It's meant to be short, it's meant to be downloaded. And in the US, that's how it'll stay. As a PSN title. But in Europe, consumers will have a choice. They can download the game from the PSN, or they can buy it on Blu-Ray, as a disc-based version of the game will also be released. No reason given, but our guess is one of the versions will ship with only a handful of major languages, so it hits the market quicker.

Ratchet Booty coming to Blu-ray [Eurogamer]

The Wii's new MotionPlus add-on should make frisbee-throwing a dream, but really, it doesn't fit the mould of other Wii Remote accessories, in that it's too subtle. A little white block? BORING. Other, shittier companies have already blazed a trail with their plastic tennis racquets and plastic shark guns, so it's a shame to see Nintendo playing it so safe. French designer Rodolphe Dogniaux, however, is not playing it safe. Here's some of his more practical ideas for Wii Remote add-ons, which the Cooking Mama team should be looking very carefully at. This one's delightfully labelled "La wii-mélange", with another after the jump.

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That new Sony video download service sure looks neat! I wouldn't know, though. Not American, you see. Seems I might not know for a while yet, either, with Sony's David Reeves announcing that PAL territories won't be downloading movies on their PS3s in 2008.

This will not come to the PAL markets this year, but Sir Howard Stringer has made the commitment that non-games will come to all regions in due course and it will. The dates for video content will come later this year. For us, and I think you appreciate most of you European, that local content is important, and that's what working on right now.

A shame, but not a surprise, given the legal issues Microsoft faced with their service (which, incidentally, Australia still doesn't have).

80GB PS3 coming to Europe, Australia on August 27 [GameSpot]

What do you do when E3 rolls around and you've got nothing to show? You fudge it, and you do what these guys did, and just go make something awesome. Be sure to stick around for the crotch zoom.

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Know this before you read on: these charts are from the time that Diablo III was first hyped, then revealed. So seeing the Diablo Battle Chest at #2 is a surprise, because really, we'd have thought the sheer amount of Blizzmania in the air would have seen it shoot straight to the top. Then again, what chance does a collection of some of the finest games on the PC have against an unholy union between The Sims and a Swedish furniture giant?

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BioShock on PS3 is going to get some exclusive DLC. Get your pissing and moaning out of the way now, if you could. Done? Wonderful. Because you can't really mess with BioShock's story by adding extra levels or bosses, 2K are instead adding some things called "Challenge Rooms", which will be self-contained areas (ie, you access it from the main menu, not in-game) designed to get you using your plasmids to solve puzzles. Can't see how they'll work this in without it standing out like a sore thumb, but then, the market demands PS3 owners have to get something.

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A mother with an eight-year old child decides to take her son to see a movie. Kung Fu Panda? Nope. How about Get Smart? Forget it. This mum decides that The Dark Knight is appropriate. Doesn't matter that the film has an M rating, there's Batman Lego, and kids play with Lego! Infallible logic there.

It's a true story, according to an article by Alison Stephenson on News.com.au. Here's a quote from the mum in question:

"I'm horrified, this movie is rated M and I almost feel it's heavier than an R rated film. I had to cover his eyes and talk to him throughout to cover some of the dialogue.

"I mean these companies market Lego products to children like my son. This movie should definitely be rated higher. We're going to go and get some sunshine and go somewhere happier!"

Films can be better regulated than games? Please.

The day I endured the Dark Knight [News.com.au, thanks Robert]

Chatting at a secret Europeans-only gig in Santa Monica, SCEE boss David Reeves has announced that the 80GB PlayStation 3 - unveiled at Sony's E3 address yesterday - will be released simultaneously "across all PAL territories" on August 27. It'll be priced at £299/€400, and as in the US, it'll be straight-up replacing the 40GB unit (which Reeves says is almost out of stock, and will not be seeing a temporary price cut).

E3 08: 80GB PS3 coming to Europe [MCV]

At tonight's E3 2008 Nintendo Developer Roundtable, Shigeru Miyamoto quickly and casually confirmed that a new Pikmin title is under development. His words? "We're making Pikmin". The long version of that answer, when asked if the team was planning on revisiting that particular franchise was far more verbose.

"We continue investigating all types of games", Miyamoto said. "When it's time to announce such a title, I'll announce it". Then he did. "We're making Pikmin".

Again, that's "We're making Pikmin".

Resident Evil 5's got to be one of the highlights of the show so far. It's been around for ages, I know, but it showed up at E3 this year ready to really show itself off, and as such has gone from "oh, this is barely concept art" to "oh, it's a game that you can play, and looks brilliant".

It goes up. While it's great seeing some extended in-game footage of the title, the rubbish animation and reliance on so much footage from the film has me a little concerned. Not overly concerned, just...cautiously concerned.

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Just out of of a Resistance 2 session with Insomniac boss Ted Price. Showed the game's intro, which picks up where Resistance 1 left off. The sequel features new lighting and new motion capture along with more detailed textures. The game kicks off in Iceland and then by the second level takes players through the streets of San Francisco. Players are joined by three sentinels who help fight and tell the story since the voice over narration from Resistance 1 has been dropped. That should help players learn more about main character Nathan Hale.

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"When a phenomenon is occurring, it's impossible to pinpoint the arrival of a new era", said ESA president Mike Gallagher, delivering a keynote address at the 2008 E3 Media and business summit.

"No one rings a bell saying the world has changed".

Though we can never look back on history and decide at what point, or even in what year, the television, for example, became an accepted part of our culture, Gallagher feels that history will show that the present era is the one in which video games became a recognised and accepted part of our cultural and economic landscape.

"With this new level of acceptance comes respect... and that's a loaded word", Gallagher said.

One such application of respect, Gallagher said, is the fact that an elected official from a powerful state addressed the game industry audience at E3 earlier today with Texas Governor Rick Perry's keynote encouraging more game developers to put down roots in his state.

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Oh, the drama. To recap: Bungie were going to announce a game at E3. Then they didn't. Turns out it's a Halo game. That new, Bungie Halo game, to be obviously published by MS, was supposed to be unveiled during Microsoft's keynote, but according to Don Mattrick, they pulled it at the last minute. Why? Because Microsoft - perhaps catching wind of the sub-par standard of their competitor's addresses - felt they already "had an embarrassment of riches", and that they "felt we could do this game more justice with a more dedicated event". Maybe, though you've also totally taken the wind out of that announcement's sails with all this meddling.

Microsoft explains Halo's no-show at E3 game conference [LA Times]

Sega: The iPhone is as Powerful as the Dreamcast
An interesting, yet depressing, fact.

Rock Band 2: Perfecting The Game
Here's one way to make it perfect - release it in every territory!

Dead Space Is About 15-20 Hours Long
Is this long enough for a survival horror game? I guess we'll find out.

Left 4 Dead May Get Machinima Maker Post Launch
I can't begin to fathom the amount of zombie machinima we'll see.

Wolfenstein Screens, Right Here
Those darn Nazi, raising the dead again! When will they learn?

The new 360 dash sure looks nice. Classy. Surprisingly classy, considering the raw functionality of the blades system. But as nice as it looks, what's to become of those themes you've tarted your current dashboard up with? Well, according to Microsoft's Larry Hryb, this is what they "could" look like. Which means it's probably what they will look like.

Speaking with SEGA of America president Simon Jeffery earlier today he noted that the iPhone is about as powerful as the publisher's console the Dreamcast. Jeffery said the company is delighted with how their iPhone version of Super Monkey Ball has been received by the phones many owners and detailed how the developer plans to take advantage of what he calls an upcoming and potentially major new platform for gaming.

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Mirror's Edge looks great. And the first-person-running-jumping-sliding-kicking-shooting gameplay is certainly novel and different. This morning, I checked out the E3 build, which looked, well, great. But...while watching the dev show off the game, I seriously started to feel ill. Really, really ill. I've never gotten motion sick from a game, and I got it pretty bad while checking out Mirror's Edge. Like to the point of breaking out in a cold sweat and feeling rather green. Actually playing the game didn't make me as sick as watching — and playing it was fun. The controls are intuitive and tight, and the overall design is polished.

I was talking with McWhertor why the game made me motion sick. He pointed out that the game does leave out certain colours in the colour platte and that maybe, just maybe that's the reason. That, or the jet lag or the lack of sleep.

Shrine auditorium security grabbed an overly eager blogger from his third-floor balcony perch during a recent Sony E3 press conference dress rehearsal, SCEA head Jack Tretton said.

Sony was working their way through a dry run of the upcoming Playstation press conference when someone noticed that what they were saying and doing was showing up on an unnamed site.

"Everything we were saying was getting posted within 15 minutes on the Internet", Tretton said.

So Sony called in security to do a search of the place.

"They found some guy on the third floor balcony laying down taking notes and calling it in to a service", he said.

Sony declined to name the person or the site they are affiliated with. We've contacted the ESA to see if anyone had their E3 press credentials revoked but had not heard back from the organisation as of press time.

Ghetto Vader here came all the way from The Bronx to crash E3 even though he doesn't have an invite. Should we let him in?

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[Fukupayme]

The industry must not forget the audience that made it what it is, warned ESA president Mike Gallagher during his keynote address at the 2008 E3 Media and Business Summit.

Gallagher looked back on the ways that the video game industry has grown and expanded in recent years, with games reaching a broad range of new audiences and finding uses in healthcare, education, and all-ages entertainment. At the same time, he laid out five key tenets essential to the industry's continued growth, and the core gamer was at the top of this list.

"First and foremost, we must remember our base", Gallagher said. "We must never forget our core customers. Avid gamers have been with us from the start, and we must remember that as we expand our offerings".

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Tonight, Harmonix and MTV are holding a private concert to promote Rock Band 2. And headlining the event is, are you ready, The Who. On Saturday, the band recently played its first US show in over a year for VH1's annual "Rock Honours" program, airing this Thursday. The Who is fronted by Roger Daltry and Pete Townsend, who are the band's only surviving original members. John Entwistle died from a heart attack in 2002, while Keith Moon overdosed in 1978. Fun fact: The Who's current drummer is Zak Starkey, who Ringo Starr's son and was drumming for Oasis.

The Who to play private party in L.A. [Reuters] [Pic]

Microsoft's announcement of an Xbox 360 Final Fantasy XIII wasn't a surprise to SCEA head Jack Tretton, but it was a disappointment.

"Am I disappointed by it? Yes", he said at a recent meeting with game writers. "Am I surprised? No".

The loss of such a prestigious exclusive wasn't probably unavailable in the current state of the games industry, he added.

"It's going to be harder and harder to hold on to franchises", he said, adding that Final Fantasy XIII will remain a Playstation exclusive in Japan.

Yesterday I was among a group of games press-related folk sitting in on a presentation of Rock Band 2, the next iteration of the smash hit band simulator from MTV, Harmonix, and EA. After being presented with the game's new features and spending some lungs-on time with the title, one thing became perfectly clear - Rock Band 2 isn't about innovation. Rock Band 2 is about tweaking existing concepts and adding a few new ones to try and provide the most complete experience possible. Rock Band 2 is about perfecting the game. From what I've seen so far, they're well on their way.

You saw the complete track list that Leigh posted for the game on Monday? A truly impressive set of songs. Now add the Rock Band 1 music and the DLC, and you've got one hell of an iPod setlist. It looks very impressive plastered across the back wall of the tiny conference room the presentation takes place in, but the main draw is the tiny stage up front, where the plastic instruments await.

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Announced back in 2007, Dead Space is 15-20 hour survival horror title from EA's Redwood Shores. "You can only run and gun it to a certain extent", says dev Alex Charlow. Players are Issac, who's equipped with mining tools as he inspects the innards of a space ship that's been overrun by alien creatures that's comprised of the flesh of the ship's dead crew. The goal is *not* simply to blast the aliens, but to strategically dismember them. "These aren't humans, you can't just shoot them in the head", says Charlow. Instead, players need to shoot off, say, different tentacles of the creatures. But be careful as they can play dead! Game drops this October.

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Valve's Doug Lombardi sat down with us this week to talk on a bunch of topics including the decisions behind the creation of zombie thrill-killer Left 4 Dead and why Microsoft hasn't given up on Games for Windows Live and just moved to Steam. We also l