Hmm, curious. I'm still seeing the Thumbs up and down too. So long as I'm logged out of my Google account anyway. In the UK, but my works internet pipe routes out of South Carolina. Perhaps it's an experimental feature only active in some areas?

I'm lucky enough to be heavily into the gaming community in the UK and as such has access via webistes, twitter and podcasts to a large number of people who buy and comment honestly on games and use those as a means by which I can decided what is worth buying. I never pre-order, but once a game has my interest I log it on gamecrawler.co.uk with a price alert so I know the moment it is available for under £30, £25, £20 or whatever I feel I want to pay for that game. These two factors combined mean I'm pretty much guaranteed to only buy games of average and above (I can enjoy an average game) and I only pay what I feel I want to. All I need is patience. Also I've found myself turning more and more to independent games, where you can be sure a reviewer has nothing to gain from reviewing the game since there is no money to force hands or make demands.