GTA:IV and Cleveland

I'm finally home from Cleveland. The trip itself wasn't that bad. Fortunately I was in a suburb of Cleveland called Solon which is a pretty nice town by the way. The Cavs were playing the Wiz and the Indians were playing the Yanks one day and Mariners the next two days. I wanted to go to a game, but the evening temps were in the upper 30's to lower 40's and I didn't even pack a coat for the trip. I watched the games on TV instead.

Tuesday was GTA:IV launch day. I had pre-ordered it from my local Gamestop, not knowing at the time I would be out of town. I had my mother pick it up for me since she was going to be out that way anyway. I was glad she went and not me too. I hate the mall. Add in a bunch of console gamer/nerd/brats to the mix and you have a recipe for me to lose my cool. Mom got the game without a hitch. So I just had to wait.

During my trip to Cleveland, the weather was so shitty and the Rock N' Roll HOF closes at 5:30 p.m. (what the fuck is up with that?), so I stayed couped up in my motel room with cable TV and wireless internet for 3 solid days. By the time I got home, I really wanted to play GTA:IV but I also didn't want to spend my entire evening inside again. Especially since I was back in sweet home WV where the weather was nice.

I drove over to my Mom's house to eat dinner and pick up the game. She wasn't home from work yet, so I fired up the lawn mower and mowed her grass for her. I'm such a good son. She almost feinted when she come home to a freshly mowed lawn. We had some tortellini and I grabbed my game.

I had to drive by the bowling alley to pick up my league earnings for the year. I got a fat gangsta roll with $117 in it (mostly singles too so it looked like a lot). I also picked up my buddy Jim's money since I'll see him tonight. Then I figured since I was on the other end of town, why not stop by Spook's house and watch the band get ready for tomorrow's show? So that's what I did. I got there before they started practicing, so I hung with Mr. and Mrs. Spook (and Snoop Doggie Spook otherwise known as 'Layla'). I stayed there for a couple hours listening to the band practice their set lists.

My ears finally had enough. I couldn't hear shit anymore. Even when I talked, it had a hard time hearing myself. So I went home. It was already 10:00 p.m. and really was my bedtime, but I had yet to check my fantasy scores. I hopped online and checked my scores, set my lineup for the next day, and made a couple trade proposals. I had already written off GTA:IV at this point. However, the box kept looking at me...begging me to play. So I did.

I only played about 1.5 hours and most of that was just dicking around getting used to the controls and exploring. I had never played GTA on the XBox 360 before, so it took a little getting used to. The game is FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC! The opening scene had me mesmerized. The only complaint I have with the game is the camera angles while driving are a little difficult.

Rockstar really has a brilliant marketing strategy too. Step 1, make the game. Step 2, set a release date. Step 3, let every media outlet in the country give you free publicity while they debate violence/sex in video games. All I heard the entire week on the radio was GTA this, GTA that. You would have thought that the presidential election didn't exist anymore. Fuckin' brilliant! If I didn't know what GTA:IV was, I'd have to pick it up just to see what the fuss is all about. That's marketing folks!

I plan on getting plenty of time with it tonight after work. I'm going over to some friends' house to hang out a little later, but I'll have plenty of time before that to go on some rampages and such.