Apropos of nothing, I'm now, finally, properly hyped for Metal Gear Sold 4. The extraordinary, all-encompassing wall of hype finally penetrated my cynical defenses. What was once a healthy, socially acceptable enthusiasm has metastasized into something else, something dangerous.
I am not one for launch days. The Sega Dreamcast launch was the first, and until now with the 80GB MGS4 bundle, only time I ever pre-ordered and got anything day-and-date. I was like 15 back then and today I'm really wondering where the hell I got the $200+ I dropped at GameCrazy on 9/09/99. I also bought a Neo-Geo Pocket Color around then, too. Yikes. I guess I was pretty flush in cash before all the drinking, cigarette smoking, and general adult-being.
There is something very intoxicating and unhealthy about launch day hype, this partially marketing-manufactured, partially intrinsic streak of madness in most gamer-types that engulfs the community at large every few months. While I don't want to compare the launch of Grand Theft Auto 4 with the rise of Nazism, I kinda just did. All objectivity gets thrown out the window about a month before street date and in the first couple of weeks thereafter. No one can talk or write about a GTA without succumbing to the scourge of hyperbole. Nuance, balance, willingness to hear dissenting opinions, everything valuable and interesting and critical -- all the non-stupid reasons I check out message boards -- become scarce. After the level of discourse falls into bitter inanity, it seemingly can take forever before composure is regained (admittedly, nuance, balance, et al. can be pretty sparse on NeoGAF, &c under any circumstance, but right around the time a heavily promoted, AAA franchise hits, it really goes to hell.)
For some reason, I'm usually immune to this kind of (oh god I'm gonna say it) frothing demand. I figure the big mega-budget titles are going to be about as rare as air molecules in the used-game section six months later, where I will gladly snap them up for less money. I'd like to think I get a clearer picture of a game's true merits if I'm distanced from the hype avalanche.
That said, no fucking way I'm not playing MGS4 June 11th at 11:59 PM in the parking lot of the GameStop that employs me (assuming my store is holding a midnight launch, although I don't know why we wouldn't looking at the pre-orders). I'll bring the TV there and set it up beforehand; you can't expect me to wait until I get home, can you?
In unrelated news, I'm a little sad I sold my 360, because Ninja Gaiden II looks enjoyable enough to merit the fragility, loudness, questionable aesthetics , paying for online gaming bullshitery, all-shooter lineup and all the other problems I had with the system. The main problem was, it wasn't my DS, which I cannot see the PS3 usurping as my primary gaming system either.
Until I get an HDTV. Then, who knows.
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