Last but not least–okay, technically maybe least as far as retail numbers–Sony gets its chance in the spotlight to show what they’ve got cooking.  I’m actually hoping for some cool stuff here to give my PS3 some more non-Blu-ray work.

Who am I kidding, there’s one thing I want to see:  God of War III gameplay.  Everything else will be gravy.

Dave:  And, yes, to no one’s surprise Kratos did show up in his bodacious Spartan ball-busting glory.  Can’t wait for that shiznit, though waiting for until next March sucks Chimera sack.  In addition Sony showed off MAG (which looks way to frantic and a tad generic for my tastes), ModNation Racers (I’m not sold on user created content taking off yet, but kart racing strikes me as an awesome way to implement it), a new Team ICO game, more Uncharted 2 (my second-most-clamored-for game), an exclusive Rockstar game, online Final Fantasy XIV (?!) whatever that means and–you guessed it–motion control!!!

Sony’s motion peripheral is closer to the Wiimote engineering than Project Natal, being that you still have wands to use, but it looks to be significantly more advanced than Nintendo’s tech.  It’s slated for a Spring 2010 release and Lord knows what kind of software it will be bundled with (like Natal).

There was a lot of love heaped upon the PSP, with the unsurprising unveiling of the PSP Go, which at $250 has bit of sticker-shock to it, and solid games like Gran Turismo, LBP, Metal Gear Solid and SOCOM joining a lot other titles.  Plus the video/music capabilities sound very nice.

A good conference featuring games people want to play (minus Heavy Rain, which was a downer and is Gran Turismo 5 ever getting a release date?  How about a release decade?) and an advanced-but-possibly-too-late-to-the-party motion controller.

As it stands now, I’d rank the conferences as such, though there’s not much daylight separating the companies:

1.  Microsoft.  It was the most balanced and Natal is what everyone seems to be talking about.

2.  Sony.  Great games, lots of PSP goodness, but no real megatons to get the gamersphere chatting.  Not sure how their motion control will resonate.

3.  Nintendo.  Most-improved over last year, for sure.  Two Mario games and a kick-ass Metroid action games are great nods to the hardcore crowd, but their tech looks increasingly inferior to the stuff Sony and Microsoft presented and the Vitality Sensor is at risk of becoming a punchline.

Erich: Sony’s press conference was definitely a slow burn (and a long one!), beginning with the sales number voodoo Microsoft refused to do, followed closely by the PSP Go—the “worst kept secret at E3″—which underwhelmed on two fronts: we’ve already seen and dissected it; and… um… it’s $250! That’s about the exact opposite of announcing a price cut for the PS3, which they didn’t do either. Although the Sony faithful should be psyched about a proper Metal Gear sequel and the new Gran Turismo, I was looking for a reason to buy a PSP and didn’t find one. Besides, I’m not all that interested in playing Final Fantasy VII.

The line-up for the PS3, though, looks as amazing as we expected, and some of the newly announced games—like Modnation Racers and The Last Guardian—are definitely cool enough that as soon as I can afford to buy a PS3, I will.

As for the motion-sensing tech, Sony may have invented it first (so they say), but their presentation was by far the least impressive of the three conferences. Nintendo may be lagging on visuals and technology, but what else is new? Sony was in the unenviable position of looking like an also-ran after yesterday’s stunning Natal reveal. Sure, they gave us a release date, but forcing people to be tied once again to a controller puts them squarely between the proven juggernaut of the Wii, which packs a motion controller in with every console, and Microsoft, which—if they can live up to the promise—might just change the way we interact with home media.

In the end, a good conference to end a string of good conferences. I agree with Dave that Microsoft won the press conference war for keeping more things a secret, being better balanced than Sony, and impressing me with their motion-sensing solution; but I’m going to put Nintendo in second because they have more games I want to play than Sony—mostly because I can actually afford to play them.

Steve: For the most part, this is actually exactly what i wanted to see from Sony.  When the focus was on software, i felt the conference as a whole was excellent. Sadly they had to knock the wind out of my sails with the half corked “Motion Controller” which actually looks like pretty solid technology, though it doesn’t have the “golly gee whiz!” of Microsoft’s offering. It felt more forced than anything, and i wish they’d just not bothered. On the flipside, I was completely broadsided by Final Fantasy XIV, and having been a HUGE proponent of FFXI back in the day (over 2 years logged in on that one) i am mega-pumped for this. The trailer was about as divine as a Final Fantasy XI fan could ask for. Being a racing nut, Gran Turismo on PSP sounds fan-freakin-tastic, and i can’t believe they didn’t make a bigger deal about the NASCAR and WRC integration into GT5. The Assassin’s Creed II playthrough also had me giddy, and Final Fantasy VII on P;aystation store… today… well, that was just awesome. No celebrities, no smoke up my ass, just games (and f**king motion controllers… grrrrrr). Sony takes the top spot in my book this year, but Nintendo gets the “most improved” award for sure.