Why is it that every city has two Gamestop stores: a good one and a horrible one. Well, I for some reason was at the Tyler Galleria here in my city, and I decided to place a few pre-orders on games coming out for the Holiday season. Now, I normally go to an EB Games that is closer to my house, because they have great service and all the employees are down with games. The manager knows I am a PC gamer and she does not hassle me with the whole, “Got any trades?” script when I walk in the store. She also ponts out new release dates for PC games. But I was at the mall and I had money to burn in my pocket. Impulse buys are the most dangerous and take you to places you know you should be avoiding.

So I strolled into the store and I ask stand in a line for about ten minutes before I finally get helped by a lady who had just gotten promoted to assistant manager. I went in looking to pre-order Bioshock, but I was not sure about anything else at that point, so I asked for the book with the upcoming releases. She looked back like a deer caught in the headlights. She had no clue what I was asking for. The new Assistant Manager had no clue what I wanted from her.

Finally the other guy in the store pulls out the binder and hands it to her, at which point she states, “Oh you wanted to the advanced release date book.” Yeah, I think that is what I asked for several times. So I am looking through the book and I start to talk casually with the lady, mentioning Bioshock and the great game System Shock 2 which was its spiritual successor. She mentions that it was a great game back in the day. I got impressed with her knowledge of games at that point, so I start asking her what her favorite part of the game was, and she said she would have to go load it on her Xbox 360 to let me know…WHAT? It was never on the console I stated. She thought it was available on the marketplace, so I found that to be highly amusing, but it did not stop there.

So I tell her that I am definitely pre-ordering Bioshock for the PC, to which she replies that it will probably run better on the 360 because you would have to have a great rig to play this game. I told her that I did and it would work fine. I told her that I have a 360 and that I use it more for DVDs than video games. I told her that I am a primary PC gamer who dabbles with certain games on the 360. She then says that I need an Elite, because that would make me appreciate the 360 more. Again, I was just shocked. I have stated I am a PC gamer and not a huge 360 gamer, and her suggestion is to get an Elite. Yeah, no bucking for a commision there.

But she was not done dropping juicy nuggets on me. I then asked about a Gears of War street date for the PC. After telling me she thought the game was cancelled on the PC, she said it was not listed on the sheet she had, so it was probably pushed to the Holiday 2008 season. Hello, Microsoft said it will be out in the fall and it is coming. But not according to this beacon of gaming knowledge. She then said how great the game was on a 360 vs a computer. Score another one for this beacon of gaming knowledge.

I finally cut her off with my pre-order data, so she would just stop the insanity. I ended up pre-ordering the collector’s edition of Bioshock on the PC, Stranglehold on PC, Kane and Lynch on PC, and Guitar Hero 3 for the 360. I bailed out of there, realizing that after I pick up these games, I will never go back into that building and buy from that store, no matter what the impulse. I will just stick to the knowledgeable EB by my house.