If I went back through my decade of console ownership I think I could find a game that I bought on the recommendation of every site or magazine under that sun that I ended up hating. The most reliable barometer for a game that I've seen is actually a sub-forum of a message board I frequent for the San Antonio Spurs. There's enough hardcore gamers out there that run out and grab the latest stuff and I know there personalities well enough to see where their love or hate of a game may be overboard. That's a big part of why I game like a cheap bastard and stick to older stuff. It's so much easier to shrug off spending $20 bucks on an older blockbuster that disapoints (I'm looking at YOU, GTA IV.) And with enough time there are enough reviews to be found by actual gamers who don't have any financial stake riding on their opinions out there that I'm much less likely to pick up a stinker off a shelf. Sometiems it sucks living a year behind the curve, but it's the best system I've found.