Flawless Victory – PS4 Launch

28^th Nov 2013 @ 13:30

I’m browsing Eurogamer and come across an article that 150 Tesco stores will be selling the PS4 to customers who haven’t pre-ordered on a first come first server basis.

I inform my work colleague who had a 2^nd phase pre-order with GAME but was desperate to get his hands on a PS4 at launch night.

I must mention that at this point in time, I’ve not ever thought of owning the PS4 from launch night, If anything I was expecting to be looking at getting one around May / June 2014 due to financial commitments (wedding). However on the off chance I email my fiancé  asking “Do we have any disposable income available for a PS4?” (we did just get paid on the 28^th).

I get the standard “NO” back, so reply with a sad face. Then something happened. I get another reply saying “if you really want one, we can dip into the wedding fund, but you’ll have to settle for a cheap wedding ring”.

GAME ON

28^th Nov 2013 @ 17:05

My work colleague who wants a PS4 has agreed we should meet up to get a PS4, but there’s news that ASDA stores are also selling consoles at first come first serve. He scopes the ASDA store and informs me that there are 20 consoles available and 2 people are already queuing up. By this point I’ve arrived at Tesco and about to investigate their stock. The chap in charge cannot give me an official number of consoles available understandably. I ask him if I were to arrive at 21:00 am I likely to receive a PS4? He says “again I’m not guaranteeing you’ll have one but it’s very very likely you’ll be walking away with one gone midnight.”

I inform my work colleague of this and we’re decided that this is the safe option; he agrees to get to mine for 9ish to start our queue.

28^th Nov @ 21:00

We’ve made it to Tesco, no queues out the door, and all looks okay. We get to the entertainment area and see perhaps 15 people waiting around. We begin to queue but someone mentions we need to get a ticket from someone. Turns out the chap who gave me the advice about the console earlier was in charge of proceedings tonight and he distributed my friend and me a ticket with a number on. I was number 23 and he was number 24. “So now we’ve got this can we go somewhere else or do we have to stay in store?” I asked. “No you can leave the store if you want, but recommend being back by 23:00 as we’ll begin organising queues and such”.

So what should anyone do in this situation… go to the pub of course!

28^th Nov @ 23:00

2 Pints downed and we’re back in Tesco. It’s picked up a bit now. No sign of a queue, but we’re under the assumption that it’ll be a case of getting ticket number called out and we’ll get our PS4.
By around 23:30 3 members of staff wheel trolleys full of PS4’s in and stack them in the middle of the tech area by the tills. IT’S HAPPENING!

We’re then split into groups, Pre-ordered group and ticket allocation. Some people arrive during this time and are told to forget it, there are none left. One of the chap’s friends has pre-ordered, he receives a call from the guys who were turned down. I over hear them speaking about how the queue for GAME is “Past fucking Superdrug’s”. That may not help you to get a jist how long that is… but Superdrug is a fair few shops down from GAME. So it’s got to be a rather impressive queue.

29^th Nov @ 00:00

It’s PS4 day. Greatness doesn’t wait much longer. They’ve stacked the console bundles into 3 piles. 1 pile is Killzone bundle, another is Knack bundle and the final one is a game-less bundle.

Honestly there were only about 10 people who pre-ordered, the remaining people were all ticket allocated people. The game-less bundle and the Killzone bundles were going fast. Didn’t see one Knack bundle sold while waiting.

It gets to number 18 and my friend says “There are only 7 Killzone Bundle’s left, and we’re 23 & 24. We’re going to get a Killzone Bundle my friend!” By this point the game-less bundle is gone, we’re down to 7 Killzone and a lot of Knack.

“Number 23??!” up I step. “Killzone Bundle please… oh and can I collect club card points for this!” Genuinely the only person to collect them on the night! And there it is my Killzone bundle in front of me. 2 are left. My friend steps up orders the same and also lets me collect his club card points as he doesn’t have one. This will come in handy for vouchers. One Killzone bundle remains as we trot out of the store with massive grins on our face at just how close we were to missing out on our desired bundle choice.

29^th Nov @ 00:20

I’m home, in my game room with a PS4. Fastest launch pickup ever. I take the console out, all the cables, making sure to put all the bags and cable ties back into the box (I keep all the bits like this in the box). I pick up the controller. Man that feel’s good. The trigger buttons are phenomenal, it just feels right.

I take the gamble of setting it up expecting to hit PSonline issues given the console has just launched. How wrong I was. The console and game were set up and ready to use by 00:45. It was so simple and easy.

29^th Nov @ 00:45

Killzone is in, console ready. Here we go. I’ve set myself till 01:30am before going to bed as I have work later on. I play through the prologue mission of Killzone, I don’t rush this, I find I’m looking at stuff, admiring the views when I should be running for my life. I’m tweeting and taking pictures as I play. This is greatness. The facial animations and expressions of Michael as he’s speaking to Lucas up close are amazing. My camera detects the faces on screen as real people. It’s awesome. I’m going to enjoy this.
Unfortunately my time taking approach and twitter updates make 01:30 approach all too fast, I call it a night knowing I’ll have about 4 hours sleep before getting up for work. It’s going to be a long work day today.

I’ll be following this up with a thoughts so far type article, and I’ll be trying to find NBA2k14 as mentioned in my other topic here.

I need to mention again that i’m incredibly grateful to my fiance for letting us dip into our wedding fund to allow me to get this console on launch. I wasn’t expecting it for ages. I’m fully aware i’m in her debt and now question how much time i’ll actually have playing the PS4 as i’m sure i’ll have to be at her every call now to make up for it. But totally worth it. She’s said that next year she’s allowed to indulge in an expensive toy for herself, she suggested getting a pole as she does pole dancing class. To be honest that would be fine for me and surely more of a present for me than herself anyway. But yes! Thanks again oh awesome fiance!

– Murr