For many gamers, the highlight of attending E3 is the glut of freebies they can take home. Otherwise known as swag, it can include anything from a lanyard to a T-shirt to a stuffed Pikachu, and is often highly coveted. Procuring one's swag can be a dangerous endeavor at E3, where one risks the possibility of injury caused by the frantic flailings of mad fanboys trying to grab that flying T-shirt before one has the chance to grab it. Indeed, gamers can be a rude and fierce race, a quality that is shown rarely with the same intensity as during a swag free-for-all. However, to cut down on the amount of crowd-related injuries and possibly to also encourage gamers to play the games shown at the expo, many game companies this year decided to try something new and make gamers work for their free junk. While we weren't able to nab everything, here are some of the cooler things we picked up at E3 and what we had to do to get them.

Most people do come to E3 to check out the new games, but some want the free stuff pronto without having to waste time playing a game they feel they might not truly enjoy. Well, many companies decided this year that in order to get the cute freebie, you'd have to play the baby game that you might otherwise waste your time on. Who knows, you may actually end up liking it.

Pokemon XD - If you were patient enough to stand in line to wait to play Pokemon (don't worry, we won't tell your tough Xbox fanboy buddies if you did), you could receive a moderately-sized stuffed Pikachu or adorable plush Plus or Minus (pictured at left) from the game.

Nintendogs - Tough guys probably claim that they wouldn't want to waste their time playing with adorable puppies, but they sure came flocking to try out Nintendogs on the Nintendo DS when it became known they were giving out Mario Kart styluses and cute mini-plushes of the dogs in the game. The stylus you got immediately when you planted your butt in the chair, but getting the dog required you to make your on-screen pup perform some tricks. I couldn't get the dog to do a darn thing I told it to, but was given the toy anyways so I'd leave/not complain.

Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King- A jaunt over the Square-Enix booth back in the day used to mean free slimes for all (okay, most), but in recent years it was not so. So, it came to our delighted surprise that Square-Enix was once again giving out squishy little figurines of everyone's favorite vacuous, joyful monster. That is, if you were willing to play the demo.

Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII- Now, it's not often you hear us talking about playing mobile phone games. Sure, we're all about games, but usually you don't get the same experience playing a game that was originally meant to be a time-waster while folks in Japan waited for their train to arrive at the station as you do playing a regular console game. Well, Before Crisis - FFVII turned out to actually be as close to a replica of FFVII's gameplay (with a different story of course--it's about Reno and Rude) as you manage on a cellular phone. I'm not going to lie and say it wasn't the least bit frustrating, but I did get a free phone strap with a screen cleaner even though my character died after fighting only 3 Shinra soldiers.

Pac-Mania - Again, it's rare to hear me raving about a mobile phone title, but Pac-Mania is definitely something I would consider getting for my phone. Of course, I might have walked right by the display if it weren't for the folks standing beside it wearing Pac-Man plush helmets that caught my eye. Pac-Mania is basically just another 3-D version of Pac-Man, but it's much cuter and true to the original in style than many of the other 3-D Pac-Man titles. Also, as a bonus for playing, I walked away with a tiny, cute Pac-Man plastic figurine.

Another way to get nice swag without the work of playing a demo (oh, the humanity!) is waiting in line to get something for free. E3 is full of lines, and most of them are of folks lined up to get a glimpse of some stellar new console or game, but some of them are just genuinely there for the freebies. I suppose there's the suspense of wondering whether or not they'll run out of whatever special item you're waiting for...

Age of Conan - Though I hadn't the patience to wait in line for an inflatable sword, Steve Dove did, and walked away with a nifty inflatable promo item for Funcom's Age of Conan MMORPG. Which I'm sure he promptly deflated to avoid looking like a geek. Right, Steve?

G4TV - Heading to our booth, I automatically assumed the crowd gathered outside was waiting to get Morgan Webb's autograph or to scope out the booth babes, but it turned out that our T-shirt bar was phenomenally popular. After all, we were giving out free shirts with your choice of size and design, which was probably not negotiable anywhere else.