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The diminished excitement of Midnight Releases


Dirt Almighty
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Ahh midnight releases, a fun gathering between my friends and fellow gamers, and all the anticipation of that game you have waited for. That feeling of standing in line with your friends and after you get your copy racing home to jump in a party and playing the rest of the night, and following day. With the Xbox One I no longer have the same excitement for Midnight Releases as I once did. For me the sole reason is simply the lack of being able to get home and pop the disc in and play. I remember standing in lines with my friends while we talked about all the fun we are going to have as soon as we would get home. I would get home and start playing that very second. Now I have to wait, sometimes hours, just for the game to install. So now instead of getting home from a Midnight Release and playing until I can no longer stay awake with my friends, I find myself getting home and having to wait for the install. I usually go to sleep and wake up early to finally be able to play. I just miss the good ole days of racing home, that excitement in my heart to play as soon as I get home, and in my opinion some great gaming memories with my friends. Nothing compares to the Midnight Release Gaming Session, that feeling of getting home around 12:30 in the morning with your new treasure, and playing until you can't keep your eyes open.

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All good things must come to an end. You could always preorder digital and have it downloaded so you can play at 1201.

 

I've never been one to enjoy digital downloads because I like to have hard copies of my games. Of course that doesn't mean I haven't downloaded games before, just my preference to have the disc in hand. With that said I completely agree with your input. Sometimes I may have to look past my desire for a hard copy to be able to play the game at 12:01.

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Still , at least you wont get attacked by Call Of Duty

fan boys who cant be arsed to buy there own copy

lol, I was tempted after I got my Destiny LE and got out of BB at midnight to go across the street and drive by the Gamestop and wave it out the window at all the people in line still.

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I went to a midnight opening once, for GTA 4, felt like a bit of a knob in all honesty. Lots of socially awkward people all shuffling quietly towards the till. Never again. Surprised me just how big the queue was tho, was expecting a handful of people, but the queue stretched the whole length of the Asda store I was in.

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I've been to just one midnight launch my whole, the launch of Gears of War 2. Got the limited edition with the gold Lancer, and because I went to the launch, I also got the gold Hammerburst too.

 

Since then I've seen little point, instead of exclusive bonuses like the gold Hammerburst that you could only get by going to these events, they've replaced them with the standard pre-order bonuses that anyone who orders can get.

Plus these days, if you order online I find most games come a day or two before launch, so there's just no benefit to midnight launch anymore.

 

The only exception is the console launches, because those things are always huge and a ton of fun.

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I work overnights and have Mondays off work. So I started buying my games digital so that at 12:01 I can get as much play time in as possible before I need to go to bed for work the next day. But I'm enjoying the digital era and being able to quickly switch games without getting off the couch.

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First midnight release I have been to was modern warfare 2. Stood there for like 4 hrs and had a great time. I actually have a lot of memories from that night. Since then midnight releases have been getting worse and worse I actually gave up on them last one I went to was for mortal kombat(9) and I was just so tired by the time I got home I only played 1 or 2 matches and I was like eff this ill play it in the morning. Ever since then I havent been in a rush to get a game and just bought it months down the road when it was cheaper and have just as much fun on it then I would have the night it came out. Hanging out with fellow gamers who are all interested in the same shit as you is very exciting though. Usually you talk about video games in public and its just awkward its nice to get away from all the judgmental people now and then just not for me anymore, getting old I guess lol

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Ah memories. The last two I did were Xbox One games and after the wait, purchase, install time, pre-order codes, etc. I would probably get an hour of playtime then wake up the next morning not remembering anything I did in the game. Also, my local game store has now come up with a confusing method of multiple lines and ticket numbers that was so ridiculous it took them an hour to get through everyone.

 

I'm also not one for digital purchases but if the price is right I'll usually go for it. If there would be some kind of discount for digital pre-orders like 10% off, I'd probably consider them over the physical release. Besides not having the game in my hand, I worry what might happen when the servers eventually get shut off one day. This happened when I tried playing some of my original Xbox games and couldn't download the DLC for some of them because the servers no longer exist.

 

I wouldn't say the excitement has died down it has just become more isolated around particular releases. It's actually quite fun to watch people when multiple games share the same midnight release and how the people divide themselves into the Game A/Game B, Game A Collector's Edition/Game B Collector's Edition, and random people that came for the free chips and prizes categories. In my experience, it is usually the Nintendo releases that seem to have a decent amount of social interactions among people. In most other cases, it has always been a bunch of people awkwardly standing in a line waiting for their turn and then raising their overpriced collector's edition up high as if they had won a trophy, then run out the door.

 

I don't mind doing them, but I've found that it's usually better to just wait until the store opens in the morning and pick it up. While those midnight releasers are still recovering, I've got about an extra hour or two ahead of them and I can remember the beginning of the game.

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