Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Midnight Release

-Kaz
Convention Reporter

Hello again MSP faithfiul!  I’m here again at GameStop for the midnight release coverage of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and-HOLY FUCK, THERE ARE A LOT OF PEOPLE HERE. *ahem*

Upon first arriving at the store (roughly at 9:25 PM), I was shocked to see that confirmed payments and “picked up” copies already soared past the triple digit mark with around 120 confirmed check-ins and the crowd itself was larger, mainly with dudes and dudettes tagging along to better enjoy the… waiting experience.  I fear that this is a precursor to Black Friday.  So far, things are looking all right when it comes to coverage and to time, I’ve only missed out on round one of the tournaments being held for the evening and thankfully, everything has been civil.  Other than the less than rousing end of round one gathering, I saw that there was a 23-year old man playing ‘Yu-Gi-Oh!’ with some teenagers as they gripe and complain about him possibly cheating.  Seeing as how I’m not looking into it, I have no comment.

(Logged in at 9:43 PM)

Round two and round three of the tournaments just got underway and upon inspection, I found out that people already had traded in copies of Halo 4 in order to help pay off their games for Black Ops 2.  It does strike me as odd though… doesn’t Halo 4 have their own ‘in-game story’ line that has different episodes and missions that get released every week or so.  I’m just a wee bit stumped here, but I won’t complain.  That just means that I have the chance to get a game for cheaper, possibly tonight.

In other news, while there haven’t been any reports of cops swinging by, even though it was apparently a word of caution to would-be crooks for the evening.  There was, however an incident where a man driving around in a white truck (forgot the make and model) going around selling copies of Black Ops 2, although whether these were bootlegged, false (and presumably blank) or stolen discs is unknown.  I do hope, however that he is caught for the sake of the gamers.  Same goes to you, guy who tried to sell a copy four days ago.  Really dude? Like… Really? Really, breh? I… I don’t even.

(Logged in at 10:37 PM)

Surprisingly, the tournament has been kept rather tame. Nobody’s shouting or calling bullshit or… anything actually. HAVE I STEPPED INTO AN FPS PARADISE WHERE NOBODY BITCHES AND COMPLAINS? …it’s that or probably because they know that any major misconduct invalidates their entry in the tournament and there’s no opportunity to use anything modified whatsoever to offset any gameplay.  So to the guy that shoots through a wall clear on the opposite side of the map and lands a perfect kill, you don’t get your moment of satisfaction.

(Logged in at 11:07 PM)

It seems as though the tournament winners have been decided as of… five minutes ago. Huh, I guess I should’ve gotten on that a bit quicker.  Anywho, it looks like all participants enjoyed themselves thoroughly and of the twenty-eight participants, the top three fought hard to snag some pretty sweet loot.  The prizes won’t be given out for another few minutes and it seems like cleanup has been a breeze.  In just a few minutes, the final line tally will be made as it looks like the store has hit an astonishing 147 pickups, although that only confirms people who have finished paying off their games.  In all likelihood, there are going to be a number of people picking up multiple copies of the game. 

(Logged in at 11:37 PM)

Just snagged a photo of the tournament winners and we’re coming down to the wire for pickups.  Goodies have been given away left and right with prizes ranging between patches to ad boxes to posters, oh my. Red Bull was also dispensed to all those waiting in line as well as free copies of the Fallout: New Vegas game guide. I’d peg that roughly 30 guides were being handed out to those in wait.  The tournament winners received the following prizes:

-First Tier: one month of Hulu Plus, a CoD:BO2 shirt, a patch and ad box.
-Second Tier: everything listed sans the month of Hulu
-Third Teir: the patch and box
-Fourth Teir: just the ad box

(Logged in at 12:00 AM)

THE TIME OF RECKONING IS AT HAND!  Picked up copies were being distributed left and right and… some jagoff had to go and continually set my alarm off with the bass on his car.  Really dude?  *shakes head* I digress.  With a single-file progression, the line went through quickly; a surprising notion at that.  As of now though, there has been no word on the man who tried to sell a (updated info) Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Playstation 3 bundle pack, other than he drove a white Ford Focus (supposedly), but to pan back to the customers, everything has been going over smoothly.  I tried to snag some pictures of the line, although due to rushing and the fact that I’ve limited technology at my disposal, the pictures came in rather blurry.  Taking them indoors though, I was able to get a fairly decent shot of some people waiting to pick up their copies.  In the end, the store and I looked at a total of 180 confirmed payments ahead of time as well as another forty people who came after the events had passed, leaving somewhere around somewhere around 250 games actually picked up.

This is the first time I’ve covered a game pickup of this scale and I have to say, I’m rather pleased with the outcome. It’s THIS that I was looking forward to all this time.  Sure, there was a biting chill that fatigued all who waited in line, but thankfully I got to enjoy the warmth inside for the duration of this event.  The only thing I’m somewhat saddened by is the fact that the HEROFACTORY Lego Batman game as well as the Rockstar Games Collection were also released tonight, but were unfortunately snuffed out by the presence of the much larger entity of CoD:BO2.

Ah well, it was fun nonetheless and I’m still glad to see the fandom coming together to enjoy in all that is American; Capitalism. Sadly, the one downside that I’ve found to all of this was the fact that this is merely a small precursor to the big shopping day to come… BLACK FRIDAY.  I do find it somewhat ironic though that people trample and mace each other for materialistic goodies the day immediately after people say all they are thankful for.  Enough gloom and doom though; you guys have toughed it out this year and survived another one of my reports (haha). All that matters now is that everything was handled safely and with no need for police to be called in.

It's been fun guys, enjoy your new games and to all, happy shooting.  Next event in line, Black Friday. Oh the joys that'll bring~.  As always: stay safe, enjoy your games and don't forget to care for those wallets.

Event Covered by: Kaz