Midnight Openings

Take pity on your local game store employees, they’ve been staying up late a lot lately. More specifically I’m talking about midnight releases. When game stores will open at midnight just so everyone can get their hot new release the second it becomes available. I haven’t been to many; I have a love/hate reaction to them. The first one I ever went to I was picking up Mass Effect 2 and wanted to hand out severe beating to a handful of the teenagers that I was in line with. Obviously I didn’t, mostly because I was afraid of not being able to go home and start playing my game.

The most recent was for Batman Arkham City. This one was more than a line of people waiting outside the store. There were people in costume and all sorts of games and give a ways. There were some people who acted like they don’t eat a large bowl of lead paint chips for breakfast every morning. At the end though, when we did need to get in line via our ticket number only like 6 people knew how to line up. The rest of the crowd just stood around in a big mass. I suppose it is possible I bunch of them didn’t know how to count past five, so the Southwest Airline style queuing procedure was beyond them.

I understand Digital Distribution, it circumvents all of this. But I like the people that work in my local store. I like chatting about game experiences or about what is coming out. It’s pretty likely that I’m going to brave the lines again Monday night although I’m already dreading that crowd. I’ll be there for Saint’s Row the Third, but a new Halo and Assassin’s Creed are also coming out that night. There was a secret midnight release once, I can’t talk about the specifics, but if you were involved with it and you’re reading this, just know that was awesome and I appreciate it. So have you done the midnight release thing?  How'd it go?

Professor Genki’s Hyper Ordinary Pre-Order Pack

Two weeks ago I wrote about Saints Row: The Third and ended the entry with saying that I was sure that we’ll be hearing about pre-order incentives soon. It’s only been two weeks and now we can talk about Professor Genki’s Hyper Ordinary Pre-Order Pack! Genki hosts the Super Reality Climax Show that will have all sorts of crazy games. The Pre-Order Pack gives you a chance to spread some of his madness.

The pack gives you three items; Professor Genki’s Super Ballistic Man-a-pult, Professor Genki’s Octopus Cannon, and Professor Genki’s Leisure Stunt Suit. I realize that is a lot of strange words put together. What you’re actually getting is a car that can suck up and shoot people into the air, a gun that shoots baby octopi, and a costume with a giant cat head. As a die hard Red Wings fan, I can’t wait to hit people with octopi.

The video above gives you a better look at all the items and is seizure inducing. Seriously. You’ve been warned. In other Saints news, their uber collector’s edition will come with a headset that can be set to Auto-tune. Saints Row: The Third will be out on November 15th, I’ve already got my pre-order in.

The Saints

I was there at the beginning with Julius. Johnny Gat and I are practically brothers. I am of course talking about the Saints Row franchise. The over the top sandbox game about street gangs gone wild has been one of my favorites for a long time. In fact I recently sent Brandon a copy of Saints Row 2 so we could blow up the city in co-op. So I’m very excited to know that the third Saints Row game will be coming out on November 15.

For the first time the game is taking place in a city beside Stilwater. The Saints have grown into a huge organization but have run afoul of a group called the Syndicate. The Syndicate is made up of three different gangs; The Morning Star, The Luchadores, and the Deckers. As a new comer to the city of Steelport you’ll have to battle them all. Eventually the Special Tactical Anti-Gang unit will be called in.

Because the Saints are no longer a small gang the developers are promising that we’ll have lots of toys to play with almost as soon as we start out. The demo at E3 showed a group of Luchadores being taken out by an air strike like in the old Mercenaries games. On top of that, the demo showed the player hijacking a VTOL jet.

We still have a couple months before the game hits, so I’m sure there is a lot more information coming our way. Brand new weapons, cars, diversions, and melee styles have all been shown off. I don’t think it will be too much longer and we’ll probably be seeing each retailer’s pre-order exclusives. Expect more info here as soon as we get it. I know this is a day one purchase for me.