WRRRRRRRYYyyyyyyYYY

Ouch. Hope it gets there soon.

My bet is Monday at the earliest.

No, Stardock has no way of knowing and no control over it. Rumor has it Best Buy and perhaps Walmart have had it, at least in some markets.

Tony

I got the ONE and only copy at EB in Allentown, PA today.

Wal*Mart does't have any.

My gamestop is being a total bitch about it. I called in today (P.S. try calling instead of going down there, 411, or gamestop.com has all their numbers) and i asked the guy if they had it in. The first time i asked him he said "Sir do you mean Empire at War?" "No, Galactic Civilizations 2" "uhhhhh sir i dont think thats out yet." "Yes it is, it came out on tuesday." "Oh, Galactic Civlizations 2? We dont have any copies in"

Its okay though, stardock has put up a stellar act throughout this whole ordeal, so it's worth it.

Gamestop has put the shipping date on 2/27/06 as of now, so far it's changed twice and i'm getting hives from the wait.

Much as I kinda hate to support the dread lords of Wal*Mart, I'm begining to see them as the best place to pick up hard to find, even indi titles.

After calling Gamestop, and EBgames for the last three days, I finally went to Wal*Mart, and there were four copies of GalCiv 2 (Collector's edition). Needless to say, I gnabbed one quick as a wink.

I recently picked up Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006 there as well, when nobody else carried it. What's more, because of a hasty deal between the distributors and Wally World, it was half the price of everywhere else! $20.00!

From now on, that's the first place I'm gonna look.

Much as I kinda hate to support the dread lords of Wal*Mart, I'm begining to see them as the best place to pick up hard to find, even indi titles.

Much as I hate Wallyworld, I agree with you. I wish now that I had just cancelled my pre-order with EB Games and gone out and bought the friggin' game at Wal Mart. When I got home from work, however, I discovered I was too late--my pre-order had already shipped this afternoon. Even with 2-day shipping, though, I'm not going to get the goddamn thing until Tuesday. EB Games sucks big donkey b****; I'm never buying a game from them again, that's for damn sure. Unfortunately, that will leave me with no choice but to buy games from the "evil empires" (Wallyworld & Best Buy), which I'm not exactly thrilled about either.

I've been very patient with EB up to this point, but no longer. I just hope like hell that at least I get the actual CE box with tech tree; if I'm shipped the regular box I think I'm going to lose it. Not a very mature attitude, I realize; but at this point I'm way too pissed off to care.

Uh-huh, I agree. It's the first time I buy anything from EB, and after getting the infamous "wait tomorrow" answer 3 damn times, then being answered there was a shipping error(which really mean they're too lazy to go undo boxes in the storeroom), I've lost my sanity. If I don't get it this Monday, I'm raiding their store, but one thing is sure, I'm not buying from them again.

I didn't have much more luck with Wal*Mart. But no matter how they treat their clerks, and no matter how bad they underpay their Chinese workers, I'd rather buy my games there than at EB. At least at Wal*Mart they aren't opened, and they aren't selling used games as new.

I must add, that EB had two copies, both were pre-order, and both were the regular box, not the CE.
I used to be a big supporter of EB, but I think service went south with the Gamestop merger.

I had an experience like that once at Best Buy.  It happens everywhere, I think the nature of pre-ordering is somewhat deceptive.  Some people are led to believe that a pre-order is a guarantee that they will get the game the day it is released.  Legally I have no idea what a pre-order means, but in reality the previous statement does NOT describe it. 

I think a pre-order is designed to protect you against the wildly popular game selling out and having no copies available, NOT that you will get it fast.  All it means is that whenever the store/warehouse gets their shipment, pre-order people will get shipped to first [warehouse] or will have a copy held for them [store].  The business can still take their sweet time to actually get the items in, and you might end up sitting on your pre-order for a week, unable to buy anywhere else because you already paid for the game, having just given the retailer an interest-free loan.

The lesson I learned that time is if you want a game ASAP, do not pre-order.  Wait till the game comes out, and drive around till you find a copy.  Rules might change if you dont live in a big city...

I ended up just letting EB ship the game out, kept my preorder, which'll arrive Monday. Makes little sense, I know, but I'm using this as an excuse to make up all my classwork this weekend and to get my system prepped for installing it Monday.

I work at wal-mart. We got it today in our directs shipment (mailed shipment, almost all games/movies come in that way). We got four copies. It should have been out in the stores that got it around 2 PM, maybe after 4 if they store is a bad store (unlike mine).

On top of that, some people (and thus, some Wal-Marts), didn't know the release date. The connection center kiosk computers are used to check the release date, and Walmart.com was sold out. Thus, no release date. Luckily, we put ours out.

If you are in a wal-mart, and they don't have it out, ask them. Tell them it came out on tuesday, and they *may* believe you (remember, the store gets fined $5k if they sell a copy pre-release). Just ask, and if they don't believe you, don't worry - it'll be on the shelf sometime soon. They'll figure it out.

Walmart ordered, by far, the most copies of the game incidentally and all Collector's Editions.

I'm not saying you should buy at Walmart. But I know there's a lot of people who don't like Walmart for various reasons.  Getting the game at Walmart was a pretty big win for us.  So buy it however works best, I just would hate to see anyone discriminate against Walmart on PC games.

Yea, my college town is very small and only has one gamestop near me. IF i have to wait much past monday, I think I am going to loose it. I want to conquer the galaxy, darn it!!! Is that too much to ask??

And do you think Canadian Walmarts will be getting the game (and the collector's edition, at that)? So far, it doesn't seem like it's arrived in Canada. EBGames and Bestbuy appear to have only ordered the regular edition.

And do you think Canadian Walmarts will be getting the game (and the collector's edition, at that)? So far, it doesn't seem like it's arrived in Canada. EBGames and Bestbuy appear to have only ordered the regular edition.

All i know is that in toronto i called eb on monday and they said they would have it on wednesday. Called again on wednesday said they would have it thursday, called thursday said it would be friday. In the end it will be probably tuesday by the time they get it

I always bought from EB over GameStop whenever I could, but since GameStop has taken over, EB has gone in the dumpster. I do not fault EB but the fact that GameStop has likely cut staff knowing that EB will be no more shortly.

I will send my copy back if it comes in the regular Box, and look until I find it in a local Wal-Mart instead.

I know Stardock has no control in this area, but this is by far the worst experience of ordering a game I have ever had, period.

It is a matter of principle at this point, I really want the CE including the Box and all.

Ya i preoreded it too and it hasnt come yet!!!!!!!!! All I know is that this is the last time I ever preorder a game from now on im just going to get the game the old fashion way WAIT TILL THE GAME COMES OUT AND RUSH TO THE NEARIST GAME STORE.

Hehe, i'm a jammy git. I preordered the download edition April 2005 and promptly forgot all about it thanks to burglaries and HDD failures. Yesterday I had a hankering for Gal Civ and I thought i'd check to see if it had been released yet.

I don't get a fancy tech tree, but living in the UK, this is the best way to get the game early.



Yak

I finnally got it at Best Buy. Installing now...

I'm still confused as to why anyone would be crying about a non-existent retail version. It's 2006, download it.

If that's not reason enough, those of us who did download have been playing for almost five days now.

(The tech tree might be nice, but it's worthless after a few hours of play. The GCII tech tree is not complex.)

Why be confused? We're talking about a difference in cost, plus extra money due to exchange rates, plus some people still prefer the cd install with absolutely no internet connection.

I'm still confused as to why anyone would be crying about a non-existent retail version. It's 2006, download it.

There's an interesting point there.  I checked the calendar and you are right, it is definitely 2006!  Unfortunately someone needs to tell the publishing industry that.  The main way that a game gets sold is that some guy walks into a retail store, picks up a box, says 'hey this looks cool' and buys it.  Game sales are heavily affected by what sits on the shelves, bascially getting on the shelves for more time before the next big game comes out is a victory since it is a MAJOR form of advertising in and of itself.

I think SD was asking the true fans to buy the box, since more retail boxes sold = more stores stock GC2 boxes for more time = GC2 on retail shelves for more time = more joe schmoes who never heard of GC picking up the box and buying it.

I downloaded, but if someone wants to buy the box that's their decision and I respect it, hence my "get the game sooner by NOT pre-ordering" advice