I pre-ordered in Europe, installed it, and used for an hour untill my first crash. Subsequent patching, (beta by beta) made it more stable but no faster. Even when I upgraded my memory and GFX card. I never read the manual, (I never do) people are always better than a manual, they answer back :) I use Global lighting all the time, and while firely is more subtle in places it's not as good in others, it all comes down to the individual shot. I tend to use P4 exclusively these days, it's just faster, in almost all areas. Real hair and cloth are nice things to have, but not when they take ages to learn and implement. If I really cared I could probably fake them just as well in postwork, not that I ever do any :) later jb