Sunday Thoughts: Launch Day

Weird fact, I don’t think I’ve ever bought a game at launch before. It’s not that I don’t love gaming, I wouldn’t be writing for TSA if I didn’t. I also love money, and buying a game at release tends to cost a whole bunch of it. However that all changes Monday at midnight. Not only am I picking up Halo: Reach at release, I’m picking it up at a midnight release. I’m actually pretty excited about the prospect, I always hear about the buzz of a big release and it seems kind of cool to actually be part of it.

Maybe that seems a little dumb, I mean I’m getting excited about queuing up quite literally in the middle of the night so I can hand over some cash. When you break it down like that it hardly seems exciting, but I’m hoping the people will push it over from just another purchase into the realm of something actually exciting. At the very least I know my brother is going and a friend of mine works at the Gamestation where I’m picking up my copy of Reach so at least I’ll know someone. Never fun when you’re at something fun like that without anyone to hang out.

Talking of being alone, I was very nearly alone at Reach’s premiere. That was on Thursday and was where my release day buzz started to build a little. I didn’t actually know I’d be getting my copy at the midnight, but the buzz for the game’s launch was palpable at the event. It’s the first time I’ve every been to an event like that, and it was certainly a lot of fun. The building excitement for the game, the very posh canapés being handed around – apparently the smaller they are the posher they are – and another chance to go hands on with Reach’s multiplayer all contributed to a feeling of excitement on the night.

Whilst I already knew I want to get my hands on a retail copy of Reach badly, Thursday night was the tipping point from simple want and excitement into actually getting hyped up for the release. Given that I don’t buy games at release it’s hard to get hyped for a release, I have to sustain the hype long after the game’s released which is almost impossible to do. Once you start hearing other people’s opinions about a game all that lofty hype and expectation comes crashing back to reality, where nothing is quite as good as you hope it will be.

I honestly have no idea how good Reach is going to be. I’m trying not to colour my opinions of it by reading the other reviews that are flooding the web this morning.  Alex talk about this last week, reading reviews easily colours your opinion of a game particularly before you get your hands on it. Before you’ve actually got your hands on the game it only gets worse, you’re colouring your own opinion before you’ve even had time to form ones of your own.

Wo with all that talk about hype being bad for my reviewing skills I have to admit I’m still hyped for Reach. I mean I’m only human, I’m allowed to get excited about games still. If I didn’t I’d probably be a terrible, robotic reviewer who doesn’t really put any passion into the process of reviewing a game. 36 hours and I’ll have the game in my hands, hopefully all this talk of how great midnight launches are won’t have been rose tinted.