That's what I meant the store manager of the store.Actually she isn't full of it on the bbs a lot of people have checked with their local gamestops and they all say the same thing May 27th.I even saw the date on the order form.Come the 27th come to this site and I will have a post on the guide if not me some other people.Gamestop is getting it early in stores only however online it's still June 2nd.Maybe all gamestop stores arn't selling the guides early but a lot are.It's confirmed on the bbs and the date they had in their book I saw.It said May 27th.

I don't know why anyone is suprised that the game guide could possibly be released before the game. This is not a new thing because Sims 2's guide came out before the game was released since I got it before, as well as for other EP's.

Sorry I misunderstood. I thought you were talking about the actual game, not the guide. Yes, we will have the guide early. Sorry bout that.

Sure no problem.I'm so glad I'm going to get to look it over early and they'll be a lot of post from simmers answering questions for people that don't have it.

And since I'm getting it, too, I can post answers to questions as well. This will be fun.

Since I've just found out from your (Frankie's) postings on another thread that the "guide" that's being advertised with the C.E. is just a 'hints & tips' guide, I'm hoping to get the guide when it comes out too. But will be nice to have you folks to turn to for questions.

Heh. I'm just excited that I'm getting mine for free. Love working at GameStop. :D

You get free stuff working there?

I'm actually getting ready to move to Mesa and the first place I'm looking for a job is at one of the GameStops there. My mom insists they don't hire females, but I told her that's just our two local ones.

When I went to pre-order my copy at EB Games there were not one, but two women working behind the counter. Recently I have noticed more women working at EB Games stores than before, this is in Canada but I doubt the U.S is much different.

It's probably just that because in the past, usually only guys wanted to work in stores like that (remember "ther r no rl gurls on teh intranet" lol). But nowadays, we ladies are a large part of the gaming community, so more women are now interested in working in places like that. If I didn't work in the type of business making the kind of money I do, I would probably want a job at a place like that!

Yeah, our Gamestop now has a girl working there too, but my best service generally comes from "my boys"! HA! They know what I want when they see me coming and they remember my name! Heeeee! (OMG! That sounds pretty sad, huh!?? LolOloL! =\

I used to work at Toys R Us (before it closed and Best Buy opened in its place) and most of the time I worked in the video game area. I was actually pretty good with selling games and consoles (along with any necessary accessories like 2nd controllers, memory cards, etc.) to people. I was always surprised how many people asked for game recommendations.

Lol. I'm the only girl in my store but I know that the mall store has a few and the one's back home have some. Also, they can't -not- hire females. It's illegal. I love my job.

We have a program through Prima where we get a free guide a month, that's what I was talking about. We just have to send some info in and email to them when we want it.

Getting that guide for free is a very nice deal, lucky you.

Speaking of working at stores, I wish I still worked at WalMart so I could get 10% off the price when I buy Sims3. Or was it 20%? I can't remember the employee discount anymore.

The Wal-Mart near me is almost impossible to get hired at. They pay the highest of all the retailers around here (we have a very high unemployment and poverty rate here) so the people who get hired stay there forever so they very rarely hire anyone new. I've tried and even got an interview where the lady told me how much they pay and everything, but I still didn't get the job in the end.

I did really like working at Toys R Us, though. They give a 10% employee discount, so I was always using it to buy games and to buy my son new toys. And certain games that would sell out quickly (like GTA: Vice City) I could just hide one behind the register and buy it on my break.

We get a 30% discount at Payless but unfortunately there is nothing Sims-related that we would ever sell unless they started making Sims 3 shoes to coincide with the new "separate shoes" feature.

You must be in a small town. Our Walmarts are hiring 24/7

I haven't worked retail for so many years I had forgotten about the spiffy discounts! I have a CC through Amazon, though, that I use for online purchases and various odds and ends from time to time (I always pay the balance every month) and once or twice a year I get a $25 gift certificate for spending at Amazon, which is really nice. I often save those for games and such.

Yeah, it is. The unemployment rate here is at like 12% so even when places are hiring, there's way too much competition, it's like winning the lottery if you actually land a job. Hopefully, I'll have better luck finding a job once I move to Mesa. Because I tried for 2 years to find another job after Toys R Us without any luck (though I got lots of interviews) so I gave up after that and was just a stay at home mom for 4 years. I love it, it gives me freedom to be on my computer all day if I want, but it's not fair for my mom to have to support both me and my son.

well you have to look at the bright side of it. Your children are benefiting. I'm pretty sure my 5 year old would love me to be home more

Duke Nukem will be released before the game too by the looks of it.
Now Europe has to wait until the 5th, that stinks....

...Wow EA, what happened to that "worldwide" launch you were raving about? lol :smash:

No, EA has always stated that the 5th was the worldwide release date and the 2nd was just for the U.S. I think they usually do this for the base game because it's the grand debut of the game. But then with EP's, other countries can end up having it first. This is just something I have noticed.

Oh right...I forgot it was like that, kind of a weird way to stretch the term "worldwide." I do remember that recently Europe usually got the EPs and SPs first even though the U.S was supposed to get it before them, but I think that was because of stores that for whatever reason broke the street date. Imagine if that happened again for The Sims 3. :P

It makes a lot of sense for EA to stagger the release over a week. They don't want to repeat the Spore fiasco where the registration server died. Granted, Sims 3 does not need online activation like Spore, but getting a free neighborhood for registering is a mighty fine deal. So I expect the servers to be slammed by eager new Sims 3 owners.

If every single player buying the game on day 1 worldwide had to access the server within the first 24 hours, it will die. It happened for Spore, it happened for Half-Life 2 way back when that was released, it will happen for Sims 3 if everyone registers at the same time. So the release is staggered. There'll probably be some server trouble, anyway, but hopefully it will be manageable.

I expect to get mine on the 4th, June 5th is a national holiday here, so we'll get the game the day before a three day weekend. Handy.