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Tuesday 29 April 2008

Cruel cruel release day [Am]




Today there is a game called 'Grand Theft Auto IV' being released. You may not have heard of its predeccesors, a minor franchise it would seem, of little note, import or consequence. The gaming equivalent, if you like, of Rudgely.

As if....

It's heartening, if you're gamers like us lot* that a game can generate news items on national news on its day of release. On the way in to the office this morning, I was listening to XFM whose principal hook for the morning show was that they were cutting to two of their people playing GTA IV throughout the morning. The commentary was slightly lame, not least of which because they kept on having to duck the sound for fear of the in-game dialogue suddently advising London's emo-brethren to go and cap some mo'fo in his mo'fo azz. Shame really.... Holborn could do with a bit of a guns-a-blazin chase between the police and a bunch of people in 12 inch platforms who can only move at a briskish walk due to their trouser legs being shackled together....

But, with the major presence of online retailers I suspect there will be some wailing and nashing of teeth today. For every story of an early arrival ahead of official release day, I suspect there will be a hundred nay a thousand pissed off people who will find that the postie has brought nowt today. If it's Slim, we'll laugh loads and then duck because he will be mightily pissed off.

Not I, fortunately dear readers. Due to a stunning display of ineptitude, poor temporal awareness and latterly holiday, I had singularly failed to pre-order til a couple of days ago (not despatched as yet, now cancelled). So when I breezed into Canary Wharf Game this morning at 7.40am, I was, without doubt, a jammy bast to catch one of the last 7 copies of GTA IV which were not allocated to pre-order (a stack it must be said that was piled up behind the sales counter with a physical presence equivalent to a Grade AAA+ Muz-wall). I clutched my bag and breezed out with a look of triumph cast afore the anxious faces of those rushing in who were now, literally, two minutes too late....

So this Eagle is in the nest after a quick double-back through the Starbucks, a family bag of yoghurt raisins emptied onto the floor behind me and shacking it up the down escalator to make sure I wasn't being followed for my precious cargo.....

Everyone else got their's in?



----

*Although that's the subject of some debate - some say there is only one true Gamer -note cap- who name is Pod 2.0 (not 3.0 that's the dangerous variety) and the rest of us are mere dilitantes who prod a controller with a foppish paw encased in a ruff from time to time....

5 comments:


  1. Result for you! I was a total fanboi and crept down to Game at midnight last night to secure mine. Did a couple of hours, and some multiplayer before bed, and I'm bloody delighted with it, it rules.

    The etailers have been between a rock n a hard place with this one, break the date and you get the publisher down on your arse, ship late and the customers will shit themselves. Lots of them put out extra dosh to special delivery to make sure they hit the date on time, so hopefully it'll be a happy day for most.

    Worldwide ship dates suck though, who wants to get a new game on a Tuesday?

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  2. Appears my order from Game Metal got shipped before the cancellation was due. To avoid faffage I'm going to take it in. Anyone need a copy for the weekend?

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  3. I really hope they release a PC version of GTA4 sometime this year, as it feels like deja vu again, with a great game constricted by its console origins. The excessive amount of blurring and jagged edges is somewhat distracting to the gameplay (on the PS3 version at least).

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  4. I'd like your spare copy! I can't get to a shop in lunch break without going into... Sw... Swi... Swin... no I can't bring myself to consider it tbh.

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  5. I also didn't pre-order, walked into HMV, picked up a copy, paid, walked out... don't know what all the fuss was about.

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