As E3 2004 comes to its end this afternoon, I can't help but feel a little on the empty side. It's not disappointment that I feel, as disappointment fills you, it's more of a vapid boredom. E3 2004 was not about earth shattering announcements nor breakthroughs in technology and graphics as it has been in years past. Instead, it was about filling that inevitable gap between current and next-generation consoles. It was about showing us a lot of products we already knew a lot about, and displaying games that were at last year's E3 and were supposed to launch before this year's event. We should have known we were in trouble when Sega presented their explosive announcement on the first day: They agreed to co-pubish "The Matrix Online" with Warner Bros. How the show continued moving forward with such earth shattering news is beyond me, but they kept on keeping on.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not made of wood. The Nintendo Press Event with the unveiling of the Nintendo DS and new Zelda game excited me greatly, but when Nintendo wins the most exciting announcements of E3 award, (hands down, at that), it means there wasn't much competition. Was Microsoft even there? Oh wait, that's right. They brought "Halo 2" for the third straight year, set a release date of Novemeber 9th and announced the Xbox Live Arcade (a great, but rather boring idea...oh, and my idea). And, where was "True Fantasy Online"? Did I miss it?

As for Sony, their long overdue PS2 price drop to $149 was received by gamers and those in the industry yelling, "It's about time, now tell us more about the PSP". And, that they did, despite the fact it was so overshadowed by the Nintendo DS.

With that being said, below you will find links to the highlights of E3 2004 from a very bored and unimpressed Lunabean.com. We forgive you E3 2004, only because we know E3 2005 will be a completely kick ass event full of new consoles, technology and Zelda. Lots and lots of Zelda.

Details:
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat
The Legend of Zelda
The Nintendo DS
The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age
Conker: Live and Reloaded
The Matrix Online
Half-Life 2
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Final Fantasy XII
Tron 2.0
Kingdom Hearts 2
KOTOR 2
Nintendo's 100 DS Developers and 40 Titles
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Wonderful and complete E3 coverage:
1Up
Eurogamer
Gamedaily
GameSpot
GameSpy
IGN

And don't forget about our E3 Roundup