The GameStop in Midtown Village was a little busier than usual Monday night as the store released the newest version of the highly acclaimed video game series NCAA Football 2013 at midnight.
Roughly 100 people showed up for the release of the game, including Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron and linebacker Nico Johnson. Former Tide wide receiver Tyrone Prothro also made an appearance to pick up his pre-ordered copy of the game.
Carl Rammel, the store’s manager, said the appearance of current and former Alabama players only made the event more exciting for customers.
“It’s great, it’s great,” Rammel said. “They’re always great volunteers to come out here, and they’re here to pick up the game like everyone else, and they want to see the fans and everything like that. It’s kind of cool to see them out there, and everybody likes seeing them.”
The football players weren’t the only things attracting customers to GameStop. To accommodate the customers, who started showing up for their pre-ordered copies around 9 p.m., the store invited a disc jockey, DJ Showtime, to DJ the event. There were also plenty of activities to help pass the time, including games of corn hole and throwing nets. The event was also catered by Chic-fil-A and Domino’s Pizza.
The biggest attraction at the event, however, was a showcase of the game itself, where fans tried out the new game on one of three different screens, all of which were showed Alabama vs. LSU. Rammel said people were generally very pleased with the way the game played.
“It’s kind of showing it off, giving people a chance to play it, try it out,” Rammel said. “Everybody I’ve talked to said it’s really good, really great. From what I’ve played of it, it’s awesome. It’s really good.”
Another event the store held was a tournament of the new Heisman Challenge mode in NCAA Football ’13. Fans were given one quarter in the game to pick a former Heisman winner, put them on a team, and score a touchdown. If they could do so, their names would be entered into a raffle for a free copy of the game on any system they wanted.
That lucky customer turned out to be Marcus Bishop, who graduated from Alabama with a bachelor’s degree in political science and is currently working on his master’s degree in higher education. Bishop, who said he has attended past midnight releases of the NCAA Footnall series, said he was excited to finally win a free copy of the game.
“I didn’t expect it,” Bishop said. “I’ve been out here at this GameStop for the last couple of years, played in the tournament, never won. And so, it was crazy to play just once, win, and then I win the game.”
Bishop said although he thought the newest installment of the series was the best yet, he still thinks the game still has room to improve in the future.
“They’ve made some tweaks to it,” Bishop said. “I like how they stop it in the middle of the game and kind of give you a studio update. There’s still a little room for improvement.”
