After years of waiting, Grand Theft Auto V is finally here.

Unfortunatley, I must wait a little longer before I get to join in.

I have been experiencing a what can only be described as maddening series of game freezes that make it impossible for me to play the game. As of yet, I've been unable to play for more than 30 minutes without the game freezing on me. There is no pattern to it; at some point during the mission I'm currently playing, the game will completely freeze. I've tried every troubleshooting step imaginable, including some oddball ones like installing one disc to the hard drive and the other to a USB drive, but as of yet, I've yet to find a working solution. Rockstar support has been of little help, sending me a form response with steps I'd already tried before, but I understand they are probably still gathering information before giving any sort of real response for my issue.

I say this because I am far from alone. After some online searches, I found a thread on an unofficial GTA forums website that seems to have become a gathering spot for other people having the same problem. So far, the common denominator seems to be older Xbox 360's, especially those that were refurbished by Microsoft for RROD crashes (some people with newer Xboxes and PS3's are also reporting the problem, and while these reports seem less frequent up to this moment, it is something to watch). My unit was purchased in 2006 and RROD'd in 2009. It certainly is on the older side, but I haven't had trouble with nay other game on my console, even with more demanding and modern games like Skyrim and Halo 4. My comments in that thread were quoted in a Kokatu article, the only real coverage I've seen this problem receive. 

I realize at this point that no amount cache clearing, re-installations, disc swapping, or other tricks will solve this problem; this will only be fixed through a patch on Rockstar's end. If I had to guess, I'd say the problem is a weird compatibility glitch with older Xbox 360s that will probably found before too long. I just hope that this problem does not fall through the cracks, that if I make enough noise about it, Rockstar will treat it seriously enough to make resolving it a priority. 

I am aware that many games suffer from glitches upon launch, and that GTA V is certainly not the first nor the last. But after of years of waiting and countless Youtube videos uploaded featuring the craziness we've all come to expect from the series, I feel like I'm being left out of the fun. It's not the end of the world by any means, but that doesn't make it any less frustraing.