Well dear friends I have taken part in one of the big deals of gaming culture, the midnight launch, and it was an interesting to experience. I left home at about 10 pm and drove the forty-five minutes to the store through steady rain. I should have known that this was an omen but I’m not superstitious and heck I was very keen to get my hands on the very long anticipated landmark game. anyway I got to the store at about 10.30 so I went in to the counter and traded in half a dozen old games and paid my my copy. Then it was time to wait for the official release at pumpkin hour.

While we waited there were free sodas and the attractive shop girl handed out some posters (yep I got a couple)

At first I just listened to my fellow gamers in waiting but eventually I chatted with a couple of them about the torture of waiting and the things we were most looking forward to doing in Los Santos. The guy I spoke with the most was really hyped about the prospect of “blowing shit up” and customising cars. As we waited the crowd grew steadily and although most were rather bleary eyed the vibe was one of quiet anticipation. with much checking of the time on smart phones. Which of course lead to talk about the varying times indicated.

EB Games were very  slick with their system for collection, you paid and then on the stroke of midnight you presented your receipt at a table at the front of the store where you were presented with your game. We had to wait until the Gaming big spenders had theirs though. I was quite surprised to get the opportunity to get my copy very soon after that  and By 12.03 I was strapping on my seat belt and heading home, through the rain once again. By 20 minutes to one I was home and tearing the cover of the box.  The game itself is a file of about 8 gigs which takes some time to load so as I settled down to wait with a small indulgent ration of chocolate the gaming gods decided to remind me of their power by blacking out our electricity!

As as I am writing this post the game is still loading and once I get back from putting the last of my children on to his bus I am going to settle down to doing some serious exploration of Los Santos and Blaine County because as I see it with such a big open world to discover I owe it to the very dedicated creators of the game to explore and take in the shear beauty of its vistas before I do any of the missions.

Cheers Comrades

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