tylrdiablos
29-04-2008, 02:53 AM
I pre-ordered my copy a couple of weeks back and it should venture through my letter-box sometime tomorrow morning.
But my cousin is home on Navy leave and didn't get the chance to order one.
So he phoned me up today and asked if I wanted to come along to the midnight launch in town.
I did.
We arrive there around 11:20 and our town centre has a GAME and a Gamestation pretty much opposite each other.
There's about 15 people outside GAME and 40+ outside Gamestation.
We quickly find out that GAME = pre-orders ONLY so to the back of the Gamestation queue we go.
After about 10 minutes some employee comes round and confirms that we're in the right queue... we weren't.
We were at the back of the pre-order queue. So we venture around to the "hopeful" queue.
We've gone from the back of a queue of about 40 to the back of a queue of a round 80.
It's at this point I start thinking "I wonder if Subway or McDonalds is open? I wonder if the local Pizza place will deliver to here. Where are the nearest toilets?" etc.
About 10 minutes later another bloke appears and starts giving us raffle tickets and a GTA4 leaflet. I have no idea why.
He tells me that there's "about 100 copies for non-pre-orders".
Over the course of the next 25 minutes the size of our queue hits around 100 people.
The doors finally open and the staff do the greatest thing I've ever seen them do... they let 10 people in and close the doors.
They promptly serve these customers, get them out and shove the next 10 in.
This system works superbly.
After a few more minutes there's a few nervous people around us because they've seen the sign on the door.
"GTA4 - RATED 18 - NO ID = NO GAME!"
The guy next to us calls his older brother and gets him to bring his passport down.... on his moped... and buy the game for him. Lucky escape.
We see about 10 people leaving empty-handed.
None of the staff asks myself or my cousin for anything other than which version we want. (PS3 or Xbox 360)
He gets a copy for himself (PS3) and I pick-up one for his brother (360).
The point of the raffle ticket was never revealed.
I was REALLY tempted to buy a copy of Wii Fit.... just to be different :D
All in all, it was a very hassle-free experience. I was very surprised at how popular GTA is. Especially considering I was at the launch of The Burning Crusade and it was dead compared to the GTA4 launch.
The staff were fast and efficient, the crowds were friendly and chatty and thankfully it was a warm night.
There was even a lot of talk about it on the radio as we ventured home in a taxi.
I kinda felt sorry for the staff but they were probably on double pay for their efforts and possibly got their copy free or heavily discounted.
Anyone else venture out for their GTA4? Did you get it?
Anyone attend a midnight Halo 3 launch and can compare to the GTA4 launch?
I think the next time I attend a midnight launch, I'll take food and drinks to sell... EASY MONEY! :grin:
But my cousin is home on Navy leave and didn't get the chance to order one.
So he phoned me up today and asked if I wanted to come along to the midnight launch in town.
I did.
We arrive there around 11:20 and our town centre has a GAME and a Gamestation pretty much opposite each other.
There's about 15 people outside GAME and 40+ outside Gamestation.
We quickly find out that GAME = pre-orders ONLY so to the back of the Gamestation queue we go.
After about 10 minutes some employee comes round and confirms that we're in the right queue... we weren't.
We were at the back of the pre-order queue. So we venture around to the "hopeful" queue.
We've gone from the back of a queue of about 40 to the back of a queue of a round 80.
It's at this point I start thinking "I wonder if Subway or McDonalds is open? I wonder if the local Pizza place will deliver to here. Where are the nearest toilets?" etc.
About 10 minutes later another bloke appears and starts giving us raffle tickets and a GTA4 leaflet. I have no idea why.
He tells me that there's "about 100 copies for non-pre-orders".
Over the course of the next 25 minutes the size of our queue hits around 100 people.
The doors finally open and the staff do the greatest thing I've ever seen them do... they let 10 people in and close the doors.
They promptly serve these customers, get them out and shove the next 10 in.
This system works superbly.
After a few more minutes there's a few nervous people around us because they've seen the sign on the door.
"GTA4 - RATED 18 - NO ID = NO GAME!"
The guy next to us calls his older brother and gets him to bring his passport down.... on his moped... and buy the game for him. Lucky escape.
We see about 10 people leaving empty-handed.
None of the staff asks myself or my cousin for anything other than which version we want. (PS3 or Xbox 360)
He gets a copy for himself (PS3) and I pick-up one for his brother (360).
The point of the raffle ticket was never revealed.
I was REALLY tempted to buy a copy of Wii Fit.... just to be different :D
All in all, it was a very hassle-free experience. I was very surprised at how popular GTA is. Especially considering I was at the launch of The Burning Crusade and it was dead compared to the GTA4 launch.
The staff were fast and efficient, the crowds were friendly and chatty and thankfully it was a warm night.
There was even a lot of talk about it on the radio as we ventured home in a taxi.
I kinda felt sorry for the staff but they were probably on double pay for their efforts and possibly got their copy free or heavily discounted.
Anyone else venture out for their GTA4? Did you get it?
Anyone attend a midnight Halo 3 launch and can compare to the GTA4 launch?
I think the next time I attend a midnight launch, I'll take food and drinks to sell... EASY MONEY! :grin: