Well when I do midnight releases, I do them at this shop we got about 20 minutes out from my house. Real chill, it's decently sized (gamestop in my city is in a mall, you know how that shit goes down), and they let you rent and the dudes who work there are real chill and ACTUALLY KNOW SHIT ABOUT GAMES.
Good memory was when I was there for the MW2 Midnight Release (that's the only CoD Midnight Release I've done) and for everyone who was there, if you bought the normal edition, they gave you the Hardened Edition free which was extremely nice (if I remember correctly, they overstocked on them so that's why). Unfortunately I ended up leaving my MW2 at my half-brother's house which was like hours away and I had no ride, didn't get it back until like 6 months later. So I avoided most of the BS in that game :D.
But yeah, they're real chill there, and I wish I could work up there. They do lines up there too, but they let you up there early depending on the game and let you play the game in question until midnight. They also do a Madden Tourney every year and the winner walks out with a free copy, and then discounts down the line for the other finishers.
But yeah, unfortunately since I have no car, I have to wake up THREE hours earlier to catch the bus, transfer to another one to get to the mall, get my UMvC3 copy among other things, wait an hour for the bus to come back and then wait another hour for my class to start.
The Alternative is to take the bus at the same time but instead of waiting for the bus afterwards I would WALK to the mall which is like...30-40 minutes walking, and half of it is on a freaking main road with no sidewalk.