Now lame, you make it sound like I heard about the "early release" here and sprinted off to Gamestop wringing my hands like Snidley Whiplash. By sheer luck, I happened to go there the day the copy (they only had one) arrived. I did mention to the clerk that the game was supposed to come out on Tuesday.
This experience has taught me that I must be living a charmed existence. From now on I vow to stop exercising, eating food with nutritional value, and wearing my seatbelt. See you when I hit 100!
-edit
By the way, I must congratulate the writer(s) of the manual. It is, by far, the best video game manual I have ever laid my hot little hands on. Oh, the game is pretty good too 