Confessions Of A GTA IV Launch Madman
Well, our very own Tiny asked all of you if you partook of the midnight launch for Grand Theft Auto IV, and beat me to the punch with my own tale. That's my local GameStop in the photo above, and that's the line at about 11:20 or so, which is when I swung by. There were promises of giveaways and promotions, so I thought I'd stop by a little on the early side. Good thing I did, because you see how the line goes all the way back to the Rite Aid on the corner? Yeah, I was kind of around that corner there, just out of sight. At least I wasn't the last person in line. No, it went for another 50 or so people behind me by the time midnight rolled around and they started passing out the game. At least it had stopped raining and wasn't even cold. Small miracles, people. Small miracles.
Jump with me now!
On the plus side, this GameStop manager made everyone pre-pay in full either earlier that evening or when they arrived to get in line. That way, when midnight rolled around, all they had to do was check your receipt and ID and hand over your copy. The actual checkout process was cut down to about 30 seconds, which I appreciated. I was very amused by the young woman in line behind me, who admitted to me she wasn't actually a gamer, but had bought the game for her boyfriend (she'd also bought him the 360 a while back), and was picking it up for him. Now that's true love! Of course, she did talk to him on the phone and when he mentioned being tired, she made him promise to be awake to play this when she got home with it. Heh. Oh, and because she was photogenic, the reporter got her on camera to ask some questions. I wasn't too jealous, because he was from the Wall Street Journal website. Yeah, the real news organizations were probably covering the Manhattan launches. Out in Brooklyn we get the .com website. Typical.
The manager and another employee handed out raffle tickets when you paid up, and then raffled off posters, T-shirts and stickers. Of course, what do I get? No, not a cool T-shirt, but a foam hand. Giving some kind of gang symbol I'm just too white to get, I presume. At any rate, the line started moving at 12 as they scrambled to give away the remaining pieces of swag, and by 12:20 I was walking home with my precious prize in hand, eager to sink my teeth into Liberty City and grateful I didn't have to work the next day so I could stay up until 2:30 playing. Unfortunately, it's going to kill me to have to go to work the rest of the week... now if I could only figure out what the heck to do with that giant foam hand!
Oh, and this will be the last midnight launch for me for quite a while. The next big game launch I'm anticipating is Wii Fit, and because that's Nintendo, it'll release on a Sunday, meaning that the launch party will be Saturday afternoon at the Nintendo World Store, and I won't have to stay up all night. Well, they did do Super Mario Galaxy at midnight, but Zelda and Mario Kart were all in the afternoon, and since Wii Fit is supposed to be family-oriented, I figure it's a safe bet it'll be during the day. Thank goodness! I'm getting too old for this nonsense!
Wootini
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 29 April 2008
· Comments (4)
Other stuff like this: gamestop, giveaway, gta iv, midnight launch
i think that refers to "2 in the pink 1 in the stink."
lol
of course none of us should know that
lol
OH MY GAWD .... I'm actually blushing now that I know what that is...what would be the gay version??? I guess "Three in the Stink"....LOL
Last midnight launch?? Come on...Midnight is not late...and those group gatherings are nice...how boring if we didn't have those around every corner.
DA SHOCKER!!!!
:D
The shocker. XD I like to call it the Shanghai Surprise. :P