Ah, Nokia. The current redheaded stepchild of the video game industry threw a second pre-E3 press conference this year that, though it had some "issues" (boring as sin being the biggest) also had one of the nicer pieces of loot. Everyone who went got this Pathway to Glory bag, inspired by the forthcoming military strategy game, filled with things both useful and not so useful.

Inside the bag was

• N-Gage Insider, a magazine with all sorts of N-Gage info on it that's sure to be of interest to anyone who cracked it open. If you find someone who did, treat them with caution because you've no idea what they'll do next.
• A $20 Papa John's gift card, which was really a thoughtful gift. E3 is expensive enough, and every little bit towards whittling down the cost is really appreciated.
• A Pathway to Glory pen and notepad, which I found particularly helpful seeing as I spaced bringing a notebook of my own. Not shown on the inside of that particular copy are all my personal E3 notes.
• A random collection of stuff inluding a press CD-rom, a Rifts (pen-and-paper RPG that's probably more popular in Europe than the U.S., yet being made into an N-Gage game anyway) leaflet, and little Ashen keychain/figurine/dangly whatsit.

The bag itself is very nicely made. It's both soft and floppy but somehow rugged as well. It's also surprisingly roomy, and up until photographing it for the shots below I hadn't seen it expanded to its full size. (There's a rude joke in there just begging for release but I'm gritting my teeth and taking the high road.) It ends up being about 16" wide, 13" tall, and 10" deep, which is plenty big enough for a fair chunk of stuff.

So, though Nokia made us suffer a bit with an hour's worth of almost straight monologue, there was a light at the end of the tunnel in the form of the Nokia press bag. It beats Microsoft's giveaway (nothing!) by a long shot, but isn't quite so tasty as the chicken sticks MS was serving.

· · · James Cunningham