What was your biggest release?

[Dagger Dias]

We all have had certain products come out that excited us. Whether that be a movie, a new music album, a book, a video game, or some other type of product that got released to the public that you got excited over, we have all been there at one point or another. This excitement that the product generates is meant to get more people to buy it and different people will feel different levels of excitement for different items.

Basically I want to know about the particular item that got your interest more than anything else ever has, in terms of getting a chance to check it out. Things like when people camp out in line to buy a ticket for something, or like when someone becomes too preoccupied for a few days due to enjoyment of the product.


What was the most excited you have ever gotten over a release of a product, what was the item? Why did you want it so badly? Tell us about what extent you went through to get it and the aftermath of your purchase. (Your story can be about any legally available product)


The biggest release for me had to have been Final Fantasy 9 back in 2000. It's not exactly a big secret around here that I loved the 7th game in the series. 8 was such a drastic departure that I became incredibly excited when I found out that 9 would return to a style similar to the older games. I kept searching for more information online at a daily basis months before it even came out. I got a ride to the store the day it came out, to get my copy of the game as well as the strategy guide, and as soon as I got home I spent the entire weekend playing it.

The level of excitement would last a couple of months longer, as on Thanksgiving that year I played for 12 hours straight. Back on the Playstation 1 that wasn't very good for the system. It wouldn't work again after that day. I saved up and bought another one, while playing the game at friends' houses. The new PSX suffered the same fate as the original. I ended up killing two Playstations by playing that game far too much, but I was so excited that I could not get enough of it. Luckily my 3rd one I got for Christmas that year survived. I beat the game on New Years Eve the following week.

After I beat FF9 I made a rule for myself to find a stopping point after 2 hours of playing. 3 hours was tolerable, but 4 was my cut-off point. No matter what. I have never lost a console since putting that rule in place for myself. I'll probably never get that excited about any product release again, unless maybe FF7 gets a PS3 remake. I'd have to enforce my 2 hour rule pretty strictly on myself so I don't end up having to go buy multiple PS3's.... lol

So what about the rest of you, got any good stories about product releases that were a huge deal for you?

 

[Paralyzer Z]

Mines would most likely be the video game WWE: Smackdown vs Raw 2007. I remember that I got into wrestling back in 2005 at the age of 8. I went over to my friends house and he had the original Smackdown vs Raw. It was the first time I had ever seen wrestlers from the 2 brands fight others that were on the opposite brand. The next week I went over to Block-Buster and traded a bunch if crappy games for WWE shut your mouth, and WWE Here Comes the Pain! It was only a matter of weeks before Christmas in which I revived WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2006 ( I know have all the WWE series games except the very first 2 and WWE 12 which I will get tomorrow).

Thus the countdown began for the next installment in the franchise. In about August of 2006 I began watching the IGN countdown to the game. Slowly the intensity for my desire of the game grew, and reached a climax the day of the release. We Picked up a copy off of Block Buster and the playing started. I was astonished at how good the game was compared to 2006. When I look back at it now it is a very mediocre compared to the upcoming WWE. It is the only game I ever got up early to play before school the next day. As you may have guessed the game is the dearest to me off my collection of the games, regardless if all of them except SVR 2008 are better. As I got older I got more and more calm and restrained when it came to big releases whether it was a game, a movie or anything else.

 

[lenguy]

Easily Halo 2. I've never was one to get excited over any video game releases,they've come and they've gone. But the hype towards this game was unheard of up until that point in video game history. Everybody was keeping an eye on this game and I was no exception. After unexpectedly falling in love with the first Halo and playing it constantly for over 2 years straight. After seeing the ending to the first one,I knew a second was imminent and only a matter of time and I could hardly wait to get my hands on it despite it not being officially announced yet.

The months and weeks leading up to the big release was maddening. In my entire life I never had such a desire to play a game in my life. I followed all the news,watched all the videos and played the first game many of times leading up to that day. Back then,everybody was playing Halo,all my friends,I mean everybody, so it was a big thing. I went through my couch digging up any change I could. I then scrutinized the streets too look for any other change that was abandoned. I did everything I could to make sure I had enough money to buy this game.

I remember I woke up extra early and called my then girlfriend at like 7 in the morning so we could go down to our local wal-mart early and be the first to pick it up(I'm going to get up extra early and get there earlier than anybody else before a massive line forms! I'm so original!). Well yeah there was a huge ass line. People literally filled up the parking lot and I feared I wouldn't get a copy. Which I did, so I was happy. I then skipped the entire day with my friends and spent the whole day playing it. I even ditched my girlfriend later that night to play that game. I know..ima monster! but like I said,I had been waiting to long,she could wait and wait she did.

I played that game nonstop all the way leading up too Halo 3's release nearly 3 years later. Halo 3 might have been the only other major entertainment release that could rival Halo 2 for biggest release for me. However I'm still going with Halo 2 because the anticipation towards that game for me was bigger than anything else. So yes,Halo 2 for me.

 

[JWGunslinger]

UFC Undisputed 2, there have been a few games that I have gone crazy for and the days before the release were hell, but nothing comes close to this one. When the fist Undisputed game came out the year before in 2009 I was extremely excited to play it with such an incredible roster for a fighting game, and when I got it I was overwhelmed by how much fun it was. So naturally when the next game was coming out I was very excited, but on top of wanting the newer game with an updated roster this one boasted a new sway system to bob and weave to avoid punches and then counter. On top of that the new game included better graphics, a more in depth career mode and several extra modes like Title Mode, Title Defense Mode and Tournament Mode. You can bet your ass I had that pre ordered as soon as I could, and the anticipation of all these amazing new features drove me crazy. Once I picked it up from Gamestop I must have played non stop for two weeks, I think I actually skipped alot of homework in order to play it more.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I think it would have to be the release of the Alice In Chains album "Black Gives Way To Blue, which is the first new material recorded by the band since Layne Staley passed away in the early 2000s.

I had really gotten into the band about 3 or 4 years before, and I had all of their back catalogue, Layne's other band Mad Season's CD, and all of Jerry Cantrell's solo work. I had loved the first single released with their new singer William DuVall, but when I heard "Check My Brain", I was blown away. That song immediately earned a spot among my favourite AIC songs such as "Man In The Box", "Nutshell" and "Bleed The Freak".

Then they announced the release date of the album, and in the days up until it came out I listened to nothing other than Alice In Chains. I pre-ordered the disc at my local supermarket but still made sure I was waiting outside for 8am that Monday morning to make sure I was the first to get hold of it. It didn't disappoint. "Your Decision" in particular gave my goosebumps when I heard it, still does today.

I got to see the band play live later that year which was incredible, and still is in my top 2 concerts I have ever been to.

 

[Dowdsy McDowds]

Season 7 of The Shield on DVD.

My sisters and friends are huge fans of this show, with my DVDs starting to look more dog-eared as they were passed round to get everyone up to speed with the show. However, my friend had started downloading episodes shortly before the final season started airing in America, with UK tv not getting it until a few months after.

My friend kept tempting me with watching his downloads but I was resistant to his approaches as I was more idealistic back then. I also love being able to buy a series then set aside a day/afternoon/evening to plow through episodes rather than wait a week between them, so I waited and waited and waited for the DVD release. As I had such a long wait, I went back to the start and timed my viewing of the previous seasons so that I'd finish season 6 the day before the 7th and final season came out.

The wait was worth it as one of my favourite shows did not disappoint with its swansong. (See also, Deadwood 3 and The Wire 5)

 

[Mustang Sally]

For a long time, I had wanted software that offers character-creating capability but doesn't require hours and hours of detailing. Not for any real purpose, just for fun. That's why the introduction of Poser software by Smith-Micro was worth waiting for. You can import any background and easily incorporate it into your design. Then, you start building the characters, which is as simple as finding what you want, dressing it up, then bending and twisting it into position to tell the story you want to tell.

With each update, the company adds more and more characters, props and designs to use. It takes a little time to get used to manipulating it all, but once you do, it's so easy to develop complex scenes that it's a genuine pleasure to try.

Often the result isn't worth the wait. This time, it was.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

Wrestlemania 23 ultimate limited edition 3 disc DVD set.

I was foaming at the mouth for this release, I couldn't wait to get my hands on this set, and I went to Best Buy early in the morning on the release day.

Mania 23 is one of my favorite wrestling shows ever. The atmosphere (the large crowd and the stage set up) looks incredible, Batista VS Taker was outstanding, I LOVED HBK VS Cena as the main event, and John Cena's entrance was amazing. Both world title matches delivered, and the rest of the car was pretty solid. The battle of billionaires hair vs hair match was pretty entertaining for the most part, Trump, McMahon, and Austin did provide some hilarious moments, and Vince's forced haircut was the icing on the cake.

The Wrestlemania 23 ultimate limited edition DVD set comes with a metal case (which looks great by the way), and like other 3 disc Wrestlemania DVD sets, this one is loaded with extras and the Hall Of Fame ceremony inductions in the entirety. The all grown up vignettes were done so well, and I can watch them over and over again. Also, Dusty Rhodes' induction speech is fun to watch, and Mr. Perfect's induction does provide the touching moment of the ceremony.

The 30th anniversary edition of Halloween II (1981) on Blu-Ray would be close second for me. I always forget my Playstation 3 can play Blu-Ray discs, and I still buy and watch DVDs, so I don't pay too much attention to Blu-Ray releases anyway.

I don't care what the critics say, Halloween II is one of the better films in the entire series, and this has been a favorite of mine for years. The Blu-Ray version looks sharp, and this disc is loaded with some great extras. I enjoyed the alternate ending and the deleted scenes, and the "Terror In The Aisle" documentary was a nice touch here. This was an excellent slasher film, and all Halloween fans should enjoy the Blu-Ray version.

 

[poppycock]

Nirvana The Best of...which included You Know Your Right. I have been a huge Nirvana fan since 1996 when I first heard them. If there was one thing in my life I will always be disapointed about and can never change is not being old enough to see Nirvana live. Anway this CD was in my opinion far from the best of Nirvana but the fact it had You Know Your Right on it..a song I had only heard the live version beforehand..I was more than excited for the release. Pretty excited about the Nevermind delux edition that just came out too... I have been waiting for years to see the full Paramount Halloween show in good quality.

WWF Attitude was the wrestling game I was most excited about coming out. I remember waiting for the release and counting down the days.

 

[Alex]

Foo Fighters-Wasting Light.

I'd been listening to Foo Fighters on and off before. Then I had got the Greatest Hits CD and was hooked. I find Dave Grohl to be an excellent singer and the rest of the band (Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Pat Smear and Chris Shiflet) to all be excellent musicans as well.

My friend then made me listen to all the studio albums, and I couldn't really find a bad song really (sure some weren't great, but they weren't bad)

Then I heard the teaser to Bridge Burning and I was amped up for it and when Rope came out I loved it. I pre-orderd the CD on amazon and got it a day before the offical release and to top it off I got a piece of the tape that they recorded it on as well.

 

[Cracka Jack]

Probably The Killers' last album Day & Age. They've been my favorite band for years now, so I was psyched like crazy for it when I heard the first single. I actually didn't like it much when I first listened to it, but repeated listens have opened me up to just how great it is. It totally lived up to my expectations as far as quality while being far from what I expected in content. Another good pick is GTAIV. San Andreas is one of my favorite games ever, so I desperately wanted to play this one. I bought it the second day it was out, but after playing through it a couple times, I have to say I was disappointed. Not sure why, but it just doesn't feel quite like a GTA game to me. It's not terrible, but it fell far short of what I was hoping for.

 

[Harthan]

Well, I'm trying to think back at what I spent the most time on in my life, and I keep coming back to Tales of Symphonia. I have no idea how much time I dumped into that game - I might think I did more than I really did, since one tends to remember time in their youth differently than later in life, but I'm still fairly confident I played a ton with that game. I must have played and replayed over and over and over with the New Game Plus feature letting me carry over all my loot from the last game and taking the difficultly up on each play through as a result. Hell of a game.

I also spent a ton, ton, ton of time in my younger day with the DragonLance books and RPG. Read a ton of the books and lost myself in a fantasy world, which was really wonderful. I used to spend so much time on a forum as well, RPing different characters and talking about the universe.

 

[LSN80]

I'm going to take this in a different direction, if that's ok.

Over the years, there have been many things Ive been excited to go to/receive. I had the XBox 360 pre-ordered in advance, and made my sister go get it for me the day it was released because that's how badly I wanted it. There have been concerts and subsequent tickets Ive gone crazy waiting for to arrive from EBay or StubHub, such as the Foo Fighters and Green Day. Even if you're not a big fan of either band, if you get a chance to see them, take it. You'll love it just for the excitement and atmosphere each band creates, or Ill give you your money back for your ticket. There have been some amazing video games I've long-awaited releases for as well, such as both BioShock games. At the time, I probably looked at many of these things, and said "Damn, could I get more excited? Could getting said item make me any more happy?" Yes, yes there is. There's something I'm waiting on, and have been since summer, that makes everything else pale in comparison. As I said, Im going in a different direction in this one.

Anyone who knows me worth a damn knows I have a wife who's ready to burst at any minute. In the spirit of others who've posted pictures of their most anticipated release, here ya go.

http://a3.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/147/0e4cff2d4b80402b82ea5df7b936825f/l.jpg

Ive never anticipated anything more in my entire life. Damn, I was convinced a year ago that I never wanted to have kids. But ever since the day this summer when my wife sat my down and told me we were going to be parents, you couldn't find a more excited guy. With the day circled on the calendar(January 9th), the notion of being a father blows away anything Ive ever experienced, or been excited about. Sure, the anticipation for Green Day or the Foo Fighters was great. Yeah, I couldn't wait until BioShock came out. Like Alex, Wasting Light was preordered and ready to go as soon as it came out. Hell, Ive even anticipated the arrival of new clothing lines from Express and new shoes from Nike. But try telling a guy he's going to be a father, and see where that ranks among the graphic T's, concert tickets, and video games of the world. There simply is no comparison, and the greatest "release" I've anticipated in my life is the day my wife pops my little girl out. Nothing else remotely compares now, and that's not about to change.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

Spoiler

As a gamer, television addict, movie buff, and all-around entertainment guru I've had a lot of highly anticipated releases go by over the years. I remember waiting in line forever to get Final Fantasy X when it first came out, and then disappearing for an entire week over summer break to play it. I've waited in line for so many midnight movie premiers, of which I have to say the Dark Night was the most anticipated.

But for me, the most anticipated release of my life was the night Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out! I remember pre-ordering it 9 months in advance at a Borders, and getting my wristband 3 days in advance to pick it up. When I arrived (at 9am, the release was at midnight) I was told I would have to wait three hours for my time slot after the release. Instead I went home, played video games, did some homework, and picked up a copy at Walmart at midnight with zero wait.

I started reading Harry Potter at the very beginning, and the epic conclusion to the entire series was what we were all waiting for. I love reading - always have. More than that I love the thrill of the story, and feel that storytelling is an art that has been passed down since mankind figured out how to first convey emotion. THe characters that Jo Rowling presents in the Harry Potter series are second to none, and the adventure is timeless. There are a lot of skeptics and light readers that never got truly into the series, and that's fine. But for those of us who lived and breathed every word of the series, the final book coming out was a big deal.

This probably gives me about 1,000 lame points for not having some cool Modern Warfare story or something. Sorry...

 

[LilacFray]

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Yes... I'm an HP fan. And looks like this is the only post where the biggest release is about a book up to now. So, I remember getting all excited when the book was out and fortunate for me, my school had one of those annual thingies where students could order books from some place in UK. And my parents let me order the final book. Yay. It took sometime but it was worth the wait. I mean come on, I got it directly from the land where the story was based on and author was from. Yup, I tend to think about things like that. But anyway, you all should've seen my face when I received it.

 

[Fizzy]

Wha bam, mother fucka's. This fucking series has put me through more anguish than anything else, it was terrible. The fact that they took an entire year between releases was bad, but what made it worse was I had not read the books and had no idea what was to come. For an entire year, my mind was in shambles trying to predict and picture how amazing this would be. What made it worse was the sheer standard that the previous films set. Both are films I consider to be masterpieces and the standard they set was so incredibly high, I didn't know if they could match it.

Finally my year end wait paid off. I went to the movies on the release date, stood in line for over an hour, got a shitty seat in a packed theater, and witnessed my favorite movie of all time for the first time. Needless to say, I was in a trance for the entire three hours and twenty minutes that I watched this. I didn't care about the awkward angle my neck made to see the entire movie screen, I didn't care that I had way to much soda and needed to pee, I didn't even care that the person behind me was kicking my chair. For three hours and twenty minutes, I sat and took in the absolute amazingness(word?) that was Return of the King. It was special. To this day, it stands as the only movie I have ever gone and watched twice in theaters.

 

[The Rob]

Formula 1 2010.

I can honestly say that I had never been more excited for a gaming release prior to Formula 1 2010. I knew I was going spend a ridiculous amount of time playing the game and couldn't wait to do so. It was the first proper Formula 1 game (Formula 1 2009 on the Wii doesn't count, that game was dog-shit) to be released for a console I owned since the summer of 2006 so I was more than ready for this. The graphics looked insane in the trailers, the racing in the trailers themselves looked to be tight and competitive, just the way I like it and I was so excited to finally race a Formula 1 game online. I downloaded the three songs that were used in the trailers and listened to them religiously for weeks prior, months even.

I remember the day the game was released. My car had only the night before suffered a rather sizeable crack on my wind-shield, so therefore I couldn't drive into town to buy the game as soon as the shops opened. So instead I woke up at the crack of dawn, got a bus into town and ran into my local Asda. I then had to wait whilst some idiot pissed around at the tills, bought the game, then sprinted back to that very same bus (the service waits in the bus station for ten minutes to allow new passengers to jump on) just before it was about to full away, all so I could play the game for three hours before I had to go in for a lecture. It was absolutely worth it and I ended up spending over 200 hours of my life playing Formula 1 2010.

 

[FitFinlay4Life]

I love Stephen King novels and have done since my early teens. 'Salem's Lot', 'Christine', 'Different Seasons', 'It', 'The Stand' - I couldn't get enough. I'd gone through quite a few before a friend lent me one called 'The Dark Tower The Gunslinger'.

From the first line ("The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed"), I was hooked. I believe a large part of it was the obvious parallels between Roland Deschain and a certain 'Blondie' from another series. The other factor was that this was completely different from anything else I'd seen from King, who mainly focused on 'our' World and his home State of Maine in particular (not exactly renowned for it's cowboys or deserts).

I quickly picked up the second in the series ('The Drawing of the Three') and it upped the ante again by bringing back a main character from the first book and introducing two very flawed new faces with their own demons. A couple of years later, book three ('The Waste Lands') came out and the seeds of connection between Roland's World and King's Maine began to bear fruit. It also left one hell of a cliffhanger that I won't spoil for anyone but it leaves anything done by varying TV series as Series enders in it's wake!

A number of years passed before the fourth was released ('Wizard & Glass') and, boy was it worth it! Asides from resolving the cliffhanger, it also homages a literary classic but, best of all, it gives us an origin story for Roland. This is my favorite installment in the series, possibly because it echoes many of King's early classics in having young people as the main characters.

June 19th, 1999 (two years after 1997's 'Wizard & Glass'): Stephen King was involved in a near fatal car accident and a couple years later (2002) announced that he was giving up writing. I was devastated, not only would I never get to read his brilliant books; worst of all, I'd never get to see if Roland and his ka-tet would reach the Dark Tower...

Thankfully, the following year, volume 5 ('Wolves of the Calla') was released and there was no let up in the quality, as an old character from another world reappeared and certain pop culture icons were referenced with glee abandon.

Given the gaps that had always existed between books (5, 4, 6 and 6 year spans between the first five), I wasn't expecting volume 6 for quite some time. Imagine my surprise, when I heard that, not only was edition 6 out ('Song of Susannah'), but the conclusive seventh ('The Dark Tower. The Dark Tower') was also out. The folks wanted to go to the nearest Shopping Center (Mall for y'all across the pond), so I headed straight for the chain bookshop only to find out that they had 'Song' but not the final book. Undeterred I got a willing assistant to phone round some of their other outlets and, on finding that there was one copy a further 30 miles away, I loaded the folks into my car and drove to that shop to claim my prize.

Stephen King refers to 'The Dark Tower' series as his magnum opus and I would certainly concur; so you can imagine my surprise and delight that volume eight (but set between volumes 4 & 5) is to be released next month... I guess it will have to be my next 'biggest release' when young Fit will, once again, return to the ka-tet.

"Long days and pleasant nights" to you all.

 

[Cats Pajamas]

I'm a huge Simpsons fan, to the point where its a religion for me. The Simpsons raised me more than my parents did. I have the Simpsons seasons 1-14 memorized for my own enjotment (not completely, but close) so when I heard about a full length feature film I shit myself then fainted backwards. My friend checked me for a pulse.

I had just broke it off with my then girlfriend and to quote Mr Burns in season seven "decided to kick up my heels". I went to the theater alone to enjoy it with the only person who would appreciate as much as me... er, me.

 

[Miko]

There was this one time a load of us went out on a Friday morning and did nothing but drink booze and eat fast food out on the town for about 2 days straight, the food kept me fairly sober but it wasnt any good for me, kebabs, fried chicken any old rubbish, I didnt have a dump the entire time. Obviously I still managed to look good, this is me after all. But by the time Sunday rolled around and the weekend fun was over I was starting to feel it, so we all stumbled home with heavy hearts that the fun was over and in my case a heavy stomach, got through the front door of my house to find that someone was in the bath, half an hour of sitting and waiting later and they got out the bath and I got into the bathroom and sat on the toilet.

That was my biggest release.