Overheard @ the line for Grand Theft Auto IV

by Justin McElroy on Apr 29th 2008 6:00PM

The collection of folks waiting hungrily for their copies of Grand Theft Auto IV in Huntington, W.Va.'s lovely Pullman Square was ... unique, to put it kindly. Here are a few of our favorite tidbits from the line.

"Well, you know Jack Thompson or whatever the f*** his name is, he's already on the warpath. He said that everyone who sells the game should go to jail and that it's the biggest threat to kids since polio. ... Back, you know, when polio was a problem."
-Some really loud dude in line

"Spish."
-A water balloon cast from a passing truck, which landed just inches from our feet

"It's really too cold for shorts out here, but it's OK because I have a really nice drunk going."
-Justin McElroy

"What are you guys all in line for?"
-A cute girl in a passing car
*utter silence*
-The line

But enough of our recollections! Did any of you have any midnight adventures?

Check out all our coverage of Grand Theft Auto IV!

Tags: grand-theft-auto, grand-theft-auto-4, grand-theft-auto-iv, gtaiv, midnightlaunch, PS3, rockstar, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (91)

When you are going west on I-64 from the bridge-tunnle, I think it's the second exit. It's the road that takes you through Newport, towards the toll bridge. In fact, I think that Walmart is almost at the off ramp.

Na. I got to travel through the tunnels of death anyway. Gotta love how people slow down there. "OH SHI-! WE ARE GOING INTO TEH OCEANS!"

Wut is up with this place? There are atleast 15 Walmarts in a 5 mile radius.

I said I was a young guy's( 16years old who rode his bike 10km) Big Brother because he wasn't old enough. Then I gave the guy a lift home!

gamers of all ages unite!

Some group of kids rick rolled the entire line for GTAIV

true story...

my friend, in central jersey, went to pick up GTA4 at midnight and returning realized someone had broken into it. broken passenger side window. nothing missing. just a buncha arseholes.

Cop in police car:
Whats this line for? What game is coming out?

(Standing in from of a huge GTA4 poster.)

Me: HKIA4 aka... Hello Kitty Island Adventure 4

- randy romero

WTF?! IT'S ALREADY OUT?!

Guy in front of me talking to Clerk, about 11:30 this morning.

Guy- "I was here at Midnight, man."
Clerk- "We however were not."
Guy- "I know I was here, where were you guys?"
Clerk- "I can't speak for everyone else, but I was home playing Grand Theft."

Guy, looking shocked and hurt didn't say another word.

Clerk- "Hey Lou, can you believe that douche?"
Me- Hey Don, I know what a tool. You got my game?"

standing in the queue and hearing someone say: "so whos here for mario kart wii?"

Gamestation in Dundee (Scotland)

One of the first guys in the line walked out past everyone and clearly out of his depth in any sort of social context shouted to one of his friends "Yes, I'm away home to masturbate!"

All I could reply was "Why? everyone else is away to play GTA IV?"

Note: This was after he'd received his copy, though it would have been funnier if he just couldn't wait any longer and just really had to crack one off.

What someone should've done was have his buddy wait in a car outside the gamestore, then we picked up his copy, he could yell out "I got GTA!" then run to the car, pull his buddy out and take off.

omg best idea evar!

I live about 35 minutes from Pullman Square and went to Marshall University in Huntington so I am very familiar with the area. Pullman is pretty nice and I need to get down that way more often.

*then when he picked up

At GAME where they were giving out free posters...

Me, "Can I have one with Niko on it please?"
Man, "Who's Niko?"

Epic fail :(

Oh and I don't know if they mind me linking to forum posting but this guy had quite the GTA adventure himself.

http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=634088

I didn't hear much because after I paid for my game I didn't come back until midnight, grabbed my copy and left quickly. I was in time though to hear four guys in line complaining to a clerk about how GS/EB rip people off on trade-ins. The clerk seemed to take a perverse pleasure in it.

My friend had a better story: in a small Iowa city about 20,000 people, the cops drove past the line at 11:30PM checking things out. They must have gone around the block a few times and called for more cruisers because three cops pulled over nearly a dozen people speeding away from the store after midnight. I wonder if they gave them a scolding about the bad influences of video games.

No line for me!

Colorado Springs, CO

"Hey it's all cool, we don't have any stars"

Gamestop Clerk to curious Police Officer driving by store

Lakewood, CO.

Went in, got the game, left.

(I was just excited someone was from CO. :-) )

Lakewood in the hizouse! :-)

Fuck waiting in line; I got mine around 5:30 AM today, just before work. Wal-Mart only had 2 left, lucky me.

Ahh good ol' Huntington. Justin, how in the world have you been?

Well that's pretty cool. I'm in Huntington too. I had a friend who actually invited me to that very line, but I decided to stay secluded down here in Westmoreland and finish some schoolwork. Damn responsibility to hell.

I wasn't at the midnight launch for GTAIV, but i DID attend the one for GHIII. Anyway, i drove up to my local gamestop at about 10:30 cause i had heard that it would be busy by then.

I got there and there was just a bunch of nerds blasting songs from GHII and GHIII to each other, having some song blasting battle of the Guitar Heroz.

So instead of watching the battle end, i just walked up to the door and was first in line because of that. Good idea by me, w00p w00p.

So yeah i was the first one on town to recieve my GHIII, so i got to go out to the crowd and hold up my copy, but i couldn't do it for long because shortly after i rose my trophy i heard some fat kid yell "TACKLE HIM!", so i bolted to my car before i came home with nothing.

That's my story.

I live in a pretty small town up in Maine so I shrugged off going to the one midnight sale they had going on at the video rental store (they only had nine copies and I didn't preorder). Instead I got out of work around 5 o'clock today, drove over to Walmart and grabbed one of the many many MANY copies they had for 360.

I was hoping something interesting would happen but it didn't, to tell the truth I bored myself with this story.

Maine, wewt! Good to know they still have some at Wal-Mart.
Sadly I haven't gotten it yet, but my friend ended up pre-ordering it this morning and picked it up later in the day, I was like, wtf.

GameStop Woman Shouting at People on Line: Make sure you all have your PIF's out! Make sure your reciept says PIF (paid in full)!

Stoner Kid: Yeah, I got the pif (slang for pot)

One mild but still notable thing happened at one local GTA Gamestop line. A stunningly beautiful (blonde, tartish looking) woman kept stalking the line waiting for it to move without getting into it. She was going to pick up GTAIV though not willing to stand in it with the local riff-raff...then her boyfriend showed up in a seemingly drop dead accurate "Niko Bellic" cosplay right down to being European part (sans shotgun). Everyone was speechless, and you can hear all kinds of whispering and gossip in line.

when i was in line, the guys behind me where going on and on about how much better Live is than the PSN. they later said that they had never used the PSN before. and then one of these guys said he would probably eventually get a PS3.

i was completely silent lol, i just stood there and listened to these guys beat themselve up.

I didn't have any midnight adventures on that specific night... but go figure after playing the game for a few hours I went to bed... at 230am I get woken up by cops... They had found my girlfriends car... It had been stolen and used by a couple of punks to try and steal other cars and break into a house... they got chased by the cops didn't have a clue how to actually drive with speed... In a big car..... and crashed into a pole.... I hope they get their up and comings....

I went to an Electronics Boutique in downtown Ottawa and purchased a copy for a friend at about 4 PM. I have no idea why people waited in line.

I was at the Northgate Best Buy in Seattle, and out of the first five people in line, I was the only one who was not a Microsoft employee or there with one, and two more showed up later.

Waiting in line is lame. Game stores know what games will need hundreds of copies. I was able to pick my copy up at GS yesterday afternoon with no problems at all... I still have not had time to play yet though. :(

I got one for you. I was in line in Altamonte Springs, FL, and there were a couple cops hanging around. When I left the store with my game, I overheard one of the bicycle cops say this to another cop:

"Man, I'm so bored. Lets just go fuckin arrest someone already!"

First thing I did when I got home? Threw in the game and killed some cops.

man this:

"What are you guys all in line for?"
-A cute girl in a passing car
*utter silence*
-The line

happens at every midnight launch I goto for some reason. It's hilarious how everyone just stares dumb.

Woah, I was in that line! Pullman Square representin'!
Seriously, they are definitely the nicest Gamestop in the area, the line moved quickly, which was great because it was cold as balls out!

I just went to the Best Buy in Fargo and picked up one of the many copies of GTA4 that were there. (For both the PS3 and 360, there were about ten SE copies of GTA4.) After picking up the PS3 SE copy, I showed my friend why I like the PS3 version more than the 360 version. *wink* *wink*

There were also a lot of people in the check-out lines and wandering around the store with copies of GTA4.
I said to one guy behind me in line "Good choice in games" and behind him was another person with two copies of GTA4.

That's about it for me.

And by the way, my brother and I started laughing uncontrollably when we heard a guy in the game say "Ah damnit!" when I hit him with my car. What other games do people complain when you hit them with cars? I also remember crashing into a building while making a bad turn and the camera angle changed... I went through the window. I was stunned.

I heard the deafening silence of not having a current gen console.

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Overheard @ the line for Grand Theft Auto IV

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