It started last night with an offhanded comment by a friend, Very Serious Man. During a game of Rainbow Six: Vegas he mentioned reading on a message board that some Toys R Us stores were breaking the street date for BioShock. This is not an unusual occurrence since the average Toys R Us employee isn’t as informed on the standards and practices of video games as the average employee of Gamestop or Best Buy. We set a time for 10:00AM to take a road trip to the nearest one and to pick up Taco Bell on the way. We knew the odds were against the store still having them in stock so, to be honest, we both considered the trip a taco run and not much else. Expect random pictures of BioShock during this blog for no reason. Early in the morning I called the store and the person on the phone did not give me the party line I expected of "we will not be getting the game in until next week," but instead "we didn’t get our shipment, we expect to get the game today." VSM came and picked me up and we were on the road driving to the store. Along the way I called other Gamervision friends to see if anyone wanted a copy if I had come across extras. As expected I was more or less told to rob the store at gunpoint and take every copy they had. The drive to the mall itself was fun and involved much speeding and even VSM laying on the horn behind an old woman who decided that the green arrow wasn’t for her. We walked inside and discussed how long it had been since we had been in a Toys “R” Us - I couldn’t remember the last time whereas he had been here for BioShock less than 12 hours earlier. The sight we saw when we turned the corner to the electronics side was one we did not want to see. On the way the discussion of what type of person knows rules of street dates had come up. Lets just say "mid-forties man who likely still lives in his parents basement" definitely met the criteria of a wasted car ride. Just as we feared the clerk said "we will not be getting the game in until next week" and went back to staring at the large piles of boxes that were for some reason unopened on the counter. We left – as defeated as we could be in this situation – and decided to go to a real restaurant instead of Taco Bell while we waited for Joe to call other stores to see if they had them in. After we ate (and finished a "what the hell do you mean appetizers?! Leave now!" conversation with Joe) we got the word a store 30 minutes down the road had copies in. We drove, following the exact directions we were given, and got lost. After 40 minutes we realized whatever we were told was wrong and opted to asking a gas station where the Toys R Us is. At this point any feelings of stupidity in asking grown men where I can get my toy on was thrown out the window and I accepted the accusatory glares and was told to go back a few miles to the mall. We drove a few miles and ended up at the mall where there was no a Toys R Us. We called other people for directions but no one knew the area enough to help much more. A trip into a bank had me asking a police officer the same question, he said that we were at the mall but, yes, there was another mall Ÿ of a mile from this one. After driving four miles down the road we found it and walked a little too fast inside. Like this, minus happy. This store was dead compared to the one we were in earlier in the day and looked much less fun. We were closer to the city so all of the fun colorful displays were pale in comparison to the security locks on many of the cabinets. We swung over to the game section and a large African American woman was standing behind the counter. “I’d like to pick up a copy of BioShock, please,” I said as I stepped forward. She glared at us for a few seconds and let out what VSM refered to as the “"exist ‘mmm hmm’ he had ever heard." "You getting one too?" she asked of VSM. He nodded and pulled out his ID. “Last two copies, seems to be a popular game but we barely got any. People been in all day asking for it.” "Wait, last two copies?" I wanted to pick up a copy for a friend (for the record, even though I was supposed to get one for Joe, Sean, Mike, and two coworkers at Gamestop, Joe would have had priority. Sorry everyone else). "Last two, but I can check the back after I ring you up." She finished our transactions and walked to the back room and paged someone to ask if there were any more. Sadly there were not. VSM and I took our bags with "don’t smile too much or else she will get suspicious" looks on our faces and went for the door. “Wait, you two! Hello!” the woman yelled from behind us. I instantly went into flight mode and my legs prepared to run faster than my fat legs have ever run. I reluctantly turned expecting a conversation that would have ended with tears on someone’s side as she informs us she needs to take back the games and kill the Easter bunny. "If you want another copy you could check Gamestop right across the street. For your friends, that is." I would have called a big daddy on her ass. "Thanks, I will!" I said and kept walking. We stopped at a Wal-Mart, a Target, and the first Toys R Us again (the guy didn’t look happy and did know about the street date) but no one had a copy. This will be remembered as the first time I have gone far out of my way for a product too good to be true that didn’t end in sadness, but instead ended in Rapture.