My local Walmart apparently feels its too good to sell Grand Theft Auto at midnight. This same store has launched every major game of the last six months. Halo 3, Mario Galaxy, Smash Brothers, and even Mario Kart was out on the shelves at the stroke of midnight. So it was quite the shock to me when I entered the store at ten tonight to find out the biggest game of the year wouldn't be put out to some time tomorrow. The clerk could only give me a helpless frustrated shrug as I was the seventieth person that had inquired in the past hour.
I usually prefer to use this store, because the lines are manageable as major launches go a hundred to a hundred and fifty people isn't an incredible wait. You are allowed to wait inside the building a blessing on a miserable night like tonight, and the lines do not form up six hours in advance. Show up a couple hours before and you will be near the front of the line.
I cannot say whether all Walmarts are doing this, but don't screw up the way I did call ahead and confirm that they will indeed have the game available. Unfortunately for me going to this store put me a hour and a half from another comparable retailer so I was pretty well screwed at making the launch. A two or three hour line isn't my idea of a good time, and that is about what I would get with the three other retailers available to me. So I am having someone pick up the title while they are at work tomorrow.
