St Albans video gamer's midnight wait was all in vain
A MAN on a mission to find the latest Modern Warfare video game was left disappointed by his local HMV St Albans store. Luthfur Rahman, aged 30, of St Albans, was one of millions of people nationwide who were looking forward to the release of Modern Warfa
A MAN on a mission to find the latest Modern Warfare video game was left disappointed by his local HMV St Albans store.
Luthfur Rahman, aged 30, of St Albans, was one of millions of people nationwide who were looking forward to the release of Modern Warfare 2, a first person shooter game tipped to be the biggest selling video game in history.
Luthfur, a self-confessed video game addict of over 20 years, was hoping to purchase the PlayStation 3 Prestige edition of the game - which comes complete with night goggles for �150 - from HMV on St Peter's Street, which had guaranteed him a copy of the game if he went to the shop's special midnight opening on Sunday, November 8.
In order to make sure he was first in line, Luthfur arrived at HMV at 11:15pm and queued with four other people before the shop doors opened at midnight.
But to his disappointment, there were no copies of the version he wanted in store.
He said: "I couldn't believe it. I had rung the store twice just to make sure that there was no need to pre-order and because I was the first person in the queue I naturally assumed I'd get my copy.
Most Read
- 1 Recap: Rail delays through St Albans and Harpenden after train hits branch
- 2 Fire crews receive 'multiple' 999 calls amid large blaze at Welham Green
- 3 Goods worth more than £260 in total stolen from St Albans Co-op store
- 4 Teenager ‘robbed at knife-point' by two males in Hemel Hempstead
- 5 Clarence Park deckchairs banned following council concerns
- 6 Katherine Ryan and Romesh Ranganathan spotted filming in St Albans
- 7 New play areas open at Harpenden parks
- 8 Can you answer these 10 GCSE questions designed for 16-year-olds?
- 9 Recap: Two crashes disrupting M1 and M25 drivers near St Albans
- 10 Church welcomes gay community event as part of St Albans Pub Pride
"There wasn't even an explanation as to why there were no PlayStation 3 special edition copies in store."
Determined to purchase the game that day, Luthfur then drove to Sainsbury's in London Colney, which was also having a midnight opening but was put off by the queue of "at least 1,000 people" and instead went to HMV in Stevenage where he finally found a copy.
Luthfur, a project manager for a bread roll company, said that he could not help but feel bitter towards HMV in St Albans: "They gave me such false hope and I did notice that the HMV staff were laughing and pointing in my direction on Sunday night.
"At the time I thought nothing of it because everyone was excited and happy about the game coming out but now I feel that they might have been making fun of me."
An HMV spokesperson said that the St Albans store only had the Xbox 360 version of the game in store: "We are sorry if we did not clearly indicate this to the gentleman and regret any inconvenience that may have been caused.
"We are pleased to learn that he was able to purchase the game from another location.
