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Short answer: No, you can't get games "early."
Long answer:
Game shipments come in two varieties. There are "shelf immediately" games, and this is the catagory that most games fall into. It means that on the "release date," the publisher ships the game to the store. Depending on the method of shipment, the store either receives the game the same day or the day after. The store will put the game on the shelf the instant it is received. You can't buy it early, because the store doesn't have it early.
The second type is "street dated." These are games which the publisher wants to be sure will be on the shelves on a particular day, so they ship the boxes a week or so in advance to the stores. This way, the stores can just put the box on the shelf on the street date without worrying about shipping delays. Major releases are usually street dated... my Gamestop had several hundred copies of Halo 2 sitting in the back room as early as the 6th. However, game stores face major... and I mean major penalties for selling games before the street date. $100k per copy might be excessive, but a game store that sells street dated product early might be banned from carrying that publisher's releases in the future. Best Buy had some trouble with street dates a few years back, and an EB in Kentucky sold Halo 2 early and is in deep shit right now.
Every single copy of Halo 2 comes with a label that says "Do not sell before 11/9/04" along the top. It's that serious.
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