Back to back Midnight Launches

Now these don't come all too often, in fact thinking about it, I can't actually recall any other.

A Call of Duty midnight launch wasn't anything unusual to us both as we both attended HMV Picadillys launch of Modern Warfare 2 the same time last year. A lot of money certainly went into that with the franchise certainly going from strength to strength after the success' of Modern Warfare and World at War.

We managed to be 4th in the queue that time around, and although there was a lot of entertainment in terms of extras dressed up in army gear etc. The event was somewhat very disorganised and just did not live up to what we would have expected.

This time around however, was a different story. Arriving at 6pm in the evening, we still managed to make it as high up in the queue as 6th. We were queuing outside Game in Oxford Street as the incentives just seemed so much more rewarding than what HMV had to offer. We weren't far wrong at all.

Although it was a long six hours, the time flew by due to the sheer entertainment of our fellow queuers. The first of whom had queued since 4pm on Sunday!

We got to meet Acey Bongos and Cowfishdreams from Xbox Europe and they were absolutely great. We managed to get on the live stream given we were the first 360 gamers in the queue and even managed to plug our blog. So thanks Acey! Hope you get a chance to read this.

We also got to meet David Vonderhaar lead designer of Black Ops from Treyarch which was a great surprise. He'd flown all the way from Los Angeles to say hello to us meagre fans in London Oxford Street Game. He even kindly signed our game copies and posters with quirky comments like "be kind, don't hurt the noobs' and "possibly the best gamer!?"
The man himself even jumped on the tills to sell the very first copy!

The event itself was very well organized and we got to wait in the store for the last 45 minutes until midnight. We managed to get some nice freebies too which included A1 sized Black Ops posters, Pre order packs with avatar items, 12 months Xbox Live Subscription, 2100 Microsoft Points, a bag to carry that all in and on the way out of the store after buying the game, a free copy of the BradyGames guide for Black Ops. Check our facebook and Twitter pages for photos on the night.

Now, it's 5.27am and with a little under 19 hours until Ill personally be out in the cold again queueing for Kinect! I can say a grand time was had. We even managed to get a few hours online in multiplayer. The free monster drinks we got soon had the effects wearing off! But just enough mental energy to type this up at this ridiculous hour.

Look out for my Twitter posts tomorrow and photos etc. I'll do my best to be near the front of the queue if not at it. I'll be waiting at HMV Oxford Circus this time around. So see you avid gamers at the launch of Kinect tomorrow!