Hmm, I'm kinda broke right now so I went with the regular edition. Would love the LE though; think it will be up on eBay later? I really hope so. They're tons on Halo 3 Legendaries there.

I don't buy special editions or need extra little goodie trinkets.

And preoders + trade ins are traps I will no longer fall for.

I know I'm the minority, but the GTAIV Collector's Edition just isn't appealing compared to what you see in most Japanese games. The sleeve cd kind of ruined it for me too, even though buying a jewel case is like 20 cents.

I'll just pick up the regular game. It would be cool to have all of that extra stuff, but the price is a little steep for me. Only Limited Edition I preordered yet this year is the MGS4 one, and I'm just thinking about Soul Calibur 4.

Hope anyone who is picking this up will enjoy it, though.

I put my money down for the SE a few weeks ago. Cue the inevitable parade of preorder bashing, but I think it's worth putting a bit of money aside (which goes to the purchase price anyway) early so I don't have to track down these things later.

Damn damn damn... This sucks.

whooo~! i already payed off the special edition. won a guitar hero tourney, made $100 bucks, and put it on gta 4.......that was a good day.

I have to wait until next Wednesday to get my copy! I don't get paid until then. *sigh*

OMG I ONLY HAVE 40MINS TO DECIDE HOLY CRAP QUICK IS IT WORTH IT GUYS!!??!?!

@lifeinthefridge:

See picture from post. Want that? Then go! go! go!

As for me...no! no! no!

@Nobuyuki: Make fun all they want,we got GTA4 se.

@Erwin:

Why? You don't have the funds? Do what Dan from Perimeter says you should do, bring in your trade-ins to put towards the price of the game! Trade in your copy of Call of Duty 4 to Gamestop for a whopping $12.50 while you still can!!! They promise not to turn around and sell it used for $55.

How is preordering a trap? People's ignorance is endless when it comes to GameStop.

Preordering is only bad if you're retarded and can't remember you preordered something and don't have your phone on you the day before a game comes out. Otherwise, GameStop no longer steals your money if you don't pick up preorders. We have some very, very old preorders in our system, and it doesn't purge them or anything after a certain date. Also, you don't even need a receipt anymore to refund your preorder in cash or whatever you paid in, our system keeps a record of that now as well.

So what does a preorder do? It holds you a copy of the game for launch date, and delights publishers/developers who get to estimate how well their game will sell (if publishers and developers didn't care about preorders, they wouldn't so often give out gifts with preorders to further motivate you to do so). More preorders also equals more copies of the game bought by GameStop to sell at retail, thus giving the game higher sales (since most sales figures refer to what has been bought by retail stores, not by what has been bought by customers.)

And trade-ins are there if you want quick money, otherwise, if you want closer to what they're worth, it's up to you to sell them on your own. GameStop is for people too lazy to do so, so if you're above the system, sell your games on your own, don't complain about GameStop.

/GameStop employee rant.

yes it is~! gogogogogogogogogo~!

@Mit: yea, i was wondering why people thought preorders were bad. o_O i've been doign it fer years, and never had problems.

This is not an issue at all. Don't pre-order from Gamestop and I am not telling this to you so you can get a SE GTA4. It is from my experiance that when the more pre-orders are made the more actual stock they recieve. Anyone that buys exclusivly from gamestop will know this to be true. After the HALO3 launch day it was very easy for you to go insade the next morning and buy a collectors edition with out a pre-order, Believe it..!

Special edition is meaningless. But this game is going to be so uber-awesome it doesn't even matter.

Have you guys actually imagined how many brains this game will blow sky high?

I used to be the first one to jump at special editions... until recently. Looking at the price of just about every limited edition coming soon shows a somewhat alarming trend of price increases - with little of additional value to show for it. Is anyone really THAT excited about a Rockstar branded duffle bag?

Sorry publishers, I didn't mind paying $69.99 for a hard case with an artbook or figure, but this situation with $79.99 and $89.99 editions bundled with stuff that used to be given away for free with a preorder just doesn't cut it in my book.

Just my 25 cents. I could be wrong and often am. Your mileage may vary.

@Mit:

1. Circuit City gives me 10% of new games. So why buy new at Gamestop?

2.Gamestop has sold my preorders before. I went to pick it up around 7, and they basically blamed me.

3.Gamestop is far from me and I only go there to buy used. Why should I reserve a game at a store far from me when games honestly aren't that hard to find in a world of Best Buys, Toys R Us, Circuit Cities, etc. Why limit myself to one store and let a store hold my money? It really isn't benefiting me at all. Halo 3 was oh-so difficult to find.

I don't hate Gamestop, and I defend them occasionally (I think their used game prices are fair on the buying end of things, because I understand they are priced for card holders who get 10% additionally off). But preordering? No need to pledge a sale to a store when I can go to 10 others closer.

I'll buy the game from whatever store I'm closest to that day, or go to CC to get the discount.

/Law office employee rant

@JorgieX: Yes, no one preorder anything so they order 10 copies of the game for the 100 people who are going to buy it within the first few days from that store. Then you can complain when they don't have extra copies for you! :D

Obviously, this wouldn't be the case with GTAIV, but it is with everything that isn't a AAA release like Halo 3 and Madden. Although, if a AAA release really didn't get any preorders, you can bet GameStop wouldn't order a ton of copies of it.

@dead_red_eyes: Seriously though, yeah, that's the reason. For some reason I put off preordering until it's too late and now I don't have the funds at this moment.
Learn from me kids. Don't make my mistakes.
Stay in school, don't do drugs, and preorder your games for Christ's sake.

@karasu is my homeboy: I don't seem to recall telling anyone they should preorder at GameStop specifically. I was informing people of what preorders were (the explanation goes for all stores). Sucks you had a preorder sold, it happens sometimes with douchebag stores (again, happens outside of GameStop as well).

pheww just got my preorder in. I contemplated not even preordering. But i didnt want to be that dumbass who wasnt playing GTA the day it comes out.

GET TO YOUR LOCAL GAMESTOP NOWW

/end Schwarzenegger rant

Just got my 360 set yesterday, paid in full. =)

I preordered the normal one. I don't even really want the game, but the roommates do, so I'm sure as shit not paying 90 bucks for anything.

Fancy garbage, anyway what system u guys getting it on? i think we should have a poll

EB employees (canada) were only told to stop selling PS3 SE copies today

I honestly prefer to do my games shopping at my local Blockbuster rather than Gamestop. Gamestop's selection is a bit more varied, but I like Blockbuster's employees better. I hate being hounded for preorders or magazine subscriptions every time I go to Gamestop. If the company actually taught its employees sales tactics instead of them just repeatedly asking you to preorder or subscribe until it hits the point where I have to be rude, then I would be more than happy to give Gamestop my $5 down for GTA IV.

@Mit: Glad to see I'm not the only employee on here I'm sick of stating the obvious XD

I'm just sad I don't want to work on Mario Kart Midnight launch (which is a game I want) but I have to for GTA (which I don't want) farking unlucky XD

the walmart near where I live actually cut off their preorders at least a week ago... I actually preordered mine from there, a day before they started offering preorders. what does walmart ever care about street dates?

I preordered the regular version. Fully paid for, to be picked up on release day.

To bad I won't be able to PLAY it until long after.

No one would buy this crap if it was sold separately.

Remember when I bought that Halo 3 special edition with the scratched discs...yeah that sucked...or you remember when I bought that Bioshock special edition with the broken big daddy figure? Yeah...that sucked too...

Special Editions = FAIL!

@lifeinthefridge:

you can do it, and always cancel it later...

I just don't understand special editions. Paying extra money so your games won't fit on the shelf doesn't make sense.

SE's or LE's or ZOMGE's or whatever can be worth it. For US, specifically this game, it's about 60 for the game 30 for the ZOMGE. So for 30 bucks extra you get a duffel bag(about 10 - 15 at retail), an artwork book(probably 20 - 30), a keychain(5 - 15) and a lock box(10 - 20), [Total Retail of extras 45 - 80] sounds pretty good to me, saying the above prices are about accurate.

@ Mit: A couple of things from a GameStop customer. First the call system sucks. I actually get calls for maybe 1 out of every 4 games I preorder. And I'm not retarded, but I preorder lots of games and can't always keep track of when they come out. And as far as preorder bonuses go, around here they rarely make it in to the hands of the people that preorder. In the last two years or so I've gotten three preorder bonuses. If it weren't for the one cool employee at the local GS I probably wouldn't have any. And I really am not fond of them gutting preorders. Why do you need to open and display something I've already bought and paid for?

pre orders are overrated. Gaming has gotten so big you can definitely find any game on shelves, even of this magnitude

I've never pre-ordered a videogame before, but I did plunk down a fiver for GTA IV (plain vanilla version). The Special Edition gewgaws seem like fun, but, as it is, I already have too much crap littering the house.

@Mit:

I'm no gamestop employee or anything but, High Five!

Gamestop has never done me wrong. One of their employees on the other hand... well... that's a story for another time. I'll just say that I don't visit THAT GameStop anymore.

Meh. I just want the game. I don't need the schwag.

o yeah, the CD is probably worth another 10 - 20 bucks so yeah, I'm definetely happy I payed for my ZOMGE already. Thank you corporate America!

@rainking187: You can always call to check up on a games release date, and the call system fails I agree with that, but it's an automated service and it's literally calling several million people so it's bound to be at least a little buggy. Also for games like GTA if said store is doing a midnight launch or something special for it then the store itself generally calls the reserves to let them know whats going on.

@Mit:

Second.

@rainking187: True that the call system is a bit wonky for some people, and I suppose the retarded comment was a bit extreme, but if you plan on picking up a game when it comes out, it's usually in your own interest to keep up with when it's coming out. In any case, it's not "trap", and you can't blame GameStop if you forget a preorder.

On preorder bonuses, those are also hit or miss. Publishers don't ship them out until whenever they get around to doing so, and if we don't have them when you preorder, you pretty much have to check up with us until we have them. They seem to be more for persuading those who wouldn't normally preorder the game. Also, whenever they ship them, they usually ship a set amount, and not enough for all the preorders. So, if the bonuses are being handed out on release day, it's best to pick up the game earlier than later.

I got my ps3 SE paid off weeks ago. I'm paying off mk wii on Friday. I'm a sucker for cool schwag. After this the only other guaranteed SE I'm getting is mgs4.

I'm not gonna be getting the CE, but I'm honesty surprised it hasn't sold out earlier.

I use to be a chump, and always get the limited edition until halo 3 came, and after that I just realized what's the point I really have no room for all this useless crap. The item's are so massed produced these days that nothing is limited edition anymore, everyone's kid brother has the master chief helmut, and if I really cant live with myself knowing the fact that I don't have a piece of plastic made in china by a 5 year old I can go to my local EB or even futureshop and pick up the entire thing for $60 big deal.

Now on, whats the point. Why spend another $10, 15, 20, $30 for something that just collects dust, or you get a booklet with pictures, or a dvd with a video not even a demo a video of another game that is coming out shortly.

This all applies to any game, except Bully for ps2, that dodgeball is just sick.