To me, the game is what Grand Theft Auto could've been on the DS — only from the perspective of the police. You play as an ex-con who gets paroled into a special police program where he goes around busting other cons in exchange for his freedom. It's got 3D driving and shooting as well as some mini-games like "spot the gangster on the casino security cam."

Head to GameStop to get in on the pre-order deal and enjoy some screens to your left.

Actually, not all of the PAX swag this year was completely "free." To net the majority of the T-shirts, PAX-goers were asked to wait in lines to sit through demos. Only then were they able to walk away with a shirt. This is the reason why I don't have as big a haul as in years past (hey, those lines got long!), and sadly I missed out on the Star Wars shirts because of a mismanaged time schedule.

The Good
I like the All Points Bulletin shirts, the C.O.P. The Recruit magnet that I mistook for a bumper sticker and the inflatable Dragon Age: Origins swords. The NOS energy drink contains scary ingredients, but it was useful during the 3 PM hour when lunch had worn off and there was still a ways to go before the 5 PM panels started. And all the comic books and magazine really came in handy for those long waits in line when I wasn't willing to bust out my DS. Pro Tip: Mouse pads and assorted video game buttons make excellent stocking-stuffers.

The Bad
I'm not as fond of the orange shirt that came standard with the default PAX swag bag because I find it insulting. The Intel shirt also gets poor marks because of the process I had to endure to get it: An Intel rep handed out big blue buttons to people in line. She told us to walk around PAX with them on and "someone" would find us and give us a little card with a barcode on it. Then we had to take the card to a booth and a teller would trade it for a prize. I imagine I would have been less annoyed at being a free billboard for Intel if I'd won a laptop — but since all I got was a shirt crammed into a plastic mold in the shape of a shirt, I say bah.

The WTF
The funny thing about that Brink shirt is that the game was probably one of the most interesting on the show floor, but it's easily the least interesting design for a video game shirt. Not as funny, but twice as clever was the Assassin's Creed II advertisement where you sever a guy's head by opening up a booklet. Too bad you only get one use out of that one, though.

Ten points to those who can spot the hidden cat toys in the picture below:

We all know (and possibly love) Ubisoft – the French game studio has been bringing us multiplatform hits for years. This month's preview event hosted by the developer was a Nintendo-centric affair, though they were nice enough to include Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood in the swag haul.

Pictured:
Autographed pink Rayman Raving Rabbids Thong (?!)
Rayman Raving Rabbids T-Shirt
Red Steel 2 T-Shirt
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles classic cartoon logo sweatband
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood for the Xbox 360
Ubisoft logo laptop case

About a week earlier than that – in fact, the very day Fawcett and Jackson passed away – I attended 1C's annual Another Night in Moscow event held at the Russian Consulate in San Francisco. Now, 1C is more obscure than Ubisoft, but I'm told it's like the Microsoft of Russia. Judging from the lavish party and modest swag haul, I could see why somebody would say that.

Pictured:
1C logo Russian fuzzy hat
Another Night In Moscow t-shirt
1C logo swag bag
1C logo pen

Not Pictured:
1C logo notebook that I totally lost at Santa Cruz

But whether you love them or have even heard of them, both companies delivered a huge haul of previews and early looks at games we can expect this year. Just in case you missed them, here they are:

Another Night In Moscow
Get Some Russian In Your Independence Day
XIII Century: Blood of Europe - All The Brutality, None Of The Plague
Death To Spies 2: Moment of Truth Preview: SMERSH is a fun word to say
Trucking It In Rig 'n' Roll
Captain Blood Preview: Errol Flynn He Ain't - But He'll Do

UbiNintendo
Academy of Champions Preview: It's Harry Potter But With Soccer And Sam Fisher
C.O.P. The Recruit Preview: If Only Becoming A Police Officer Were So Easy
Shaun White Snowboarding World Stage Preview: Snow In Summer
TMNT Smash-Up Preview: Will The Real April O'Neil Please Stand Up?
Rabbids Go Home Preview: Rabbids Go In Your Wiimote
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes Preview: The Might Of Mana… and Puzzles
Red Steel 2 Preview: Whack-tastic Fun

C.O.P. The Recruit is all about a petty criminal who becomes a one man episode of Miami Vice set in New York City. Rather than using the DS to capture the city in a bird's eye view the way that Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars does, The Recruit renders New York in 3D open world on the upper screen and uses the lower screen for inventory, maps and objective details. So while the game might resemble parts and concepts of other games and TV crime procedural shows, it really is a fresh take on DS gaming.

What Is It?
C.O.P. The Recruit is an open world shooter/adventure game with 60 some-odd missions and six square miles of city to explore. Like GTA games on consoles, the game is made up of three primary parts: shooting, driving and the occasional mini game. Right now, I'm told the ratio in The Recruit is 30-50-20.

What We Saw
I played through a couple of early main story missions. Then I watched the developer jump to a later mission to show off the "catching up" cut scene feature where the game splices together pieces of cut scenes and text to explain what you're supposed to be doing.

How Far Along Is It?
The Recruit is due out this fall.

What Needs Improvement?
Too Much Driving: Your character can commandeer pretty much any car in the whole game by standing in front of it to make it stop and then pressing one of the face buttons. This is fun for the first five minutes of driving across town to a mission, but it rapidly becomes un-fun when you spend all your time bumping into other cars or trying to navigate around Central Park. At times, The Recruit feels more like a driving sim than an open world crime adventure game.

What Should Stay The Same?
Nice Shooting Controls: Tapping your weapon with the stylus (or poke it with your fingernail) in the lower screen snaps the upper screen's third-person view into an over-the-shoulder view so you can shoot people. Basic movement still gets done with the D-pad as with the rest of the game, but to adjust aim or turn left, right, up, or down, you have to drag the stylus along the lower screen – which feels more intuitive than it sounds. To fire the weapon, you can double tap the lower screen or squeeze the left shoulder button.

Impressive Scope: There is so much to do in this game. Besides the 60 missions, there are five different times of day you can view the city in (depending on which missions you're playing) and the city itself is so big for a DS game. Even if the driving gets a bit monotonous, it seems like the variations in missions will make up for the dull bits – and you can always commandeer boats when you get sick of cars. In the 20 minutes I spent plowing through the early part of the game, I could be doing anything from shooting criminals to putting out fires (because apparently the NYC Fire Department is always late) and the lone mini game I played where you had to pick out a redhead on a series of security cameras certainly felt like a nice change of pace.

Final Thoughts
This game is invariably going to be compared to Grand Theft Auto and I think what The Recruit lacks in hookers, it hopes to make up for with its story. Twenty minutes really wasn't enough time to get a feel for the story, but if it's even half as solid as the shooting gameplay seems to be, I'm optimistic.