I somehow find myself living in a small town of Vernon, Texas. About an hour west of Wichita Falls. I wonder if anyone with experience purchasing previous Elder Scrolls titles from small towns might know the most failsafe way to ensure I get the game in a timely manner, especially as I have already taken vacation beginning 11-11-11.

I imagine the fastest way to ensure you can begin playing promptly would be to pre-order the digital version on Steam.

I was able to install Fallout: New Vegas in advance and start playing at promptly 12:01am PST on the release date.

Steam, basically. Big games like this allow preloading, so you can be in bed instead of in line at your local game store, and then when the time ticks over you just walk over to your computer and play.

best and quickest way to get the game is march into the nearest game store pick up a copy of your preferred version (360 pc or ps3) go to the counter slap down 60 bucks + tax and shout enthusiastically " one copy of skyrim my good man!" (or lady if its a woman) then get back to your house and put the disc into whatever system you play on and prepare for a long day.