originalgman

Yesterday, when all I had were a few scans about a "horror action-adventure title about waking up from dreams, aimed at adults" I was thoroughly confused and slightly angry to see the words "Persona Team" without "Persona Game".
 
Today, after watching that trailer and realizing that "high school simulation where you go into a dungeon to shoot yourself in the head and summon demons" sounds even crazier, I am much happier. I love the look of this game, I love the music already, and I can rest easy knowing Atlus has some idea of what to do with a Playstation 3. Persona 5 may not be coming next year, but it will come and it will look great.

"The only thing gamers can be certain of is this: the rules of the BioShock universe are about to change."  
 
Well THANK GOD someone understands us gamers. We hate it when rules stay the same. Now escort your powerful lady friend around and defend her from the metal man! New melee weapon: Phillips head screwdriver.

HELL YES, MORE HERO 30! Love the music in that game. This year just keeps getting better and better for the PSP. I can't honestly think of a sequel that we AREN'T getting.

Damn that's a nice bundle. I kind of wish my PSP would break just so I would want to order it. Man, this truly is the year of the PSP, despite the obscurity of most of the games I'm playing such as P3P and Valkyria 2.

Anyone else have a tinge of excitement for this? Most shooters don't offer much in the way of crazy new gameplay innovations these days, and super-polished games are starting to feel pretty dull. If this game can pull off drop-in multiplayer that keeps you constantly on edge, I'm sold. Knowing that an enemy could become an actual human-controlled threat at any time is awesome.

All the commentators so far make good points. As someone who uses GameRankings.com regularly, I personally don't want to see the aggregate review sites go away, nor do I think they need to be "kept in check" or have any kind of regulatory actions taken against them. When you start to influence review scores like that, you get the Kane & Lynch Gamespot fiasco that caused this site to happen. 
 
It's sad that these sites are becoming the final word on every new release and the sole factor in a fast majority of gamers' purchases. Personally, the only thing GameRankings has done is caused me to buy more games than I normally would. When I see a game score a 90 or above that I otherwise wouldn't be interested in, I have to wonder what everyone sees in this thing and concede that maybe I just need to give it another chance. Usually, this causes me to find a game I'm glad I didn't pass up. 
 
But I've been a gamer forever, and I know what I like. So I still bought Infinite Undiscovery and enjoyed it, despite it's 68% rating on GameRankings (which I only saw after beating the game). Did I care? No, I can completely understand why most people saw an underwhelming and stereotypical action-RPG. Gamers need to use these sites for what they are: a quick way to confirm or deny your preconceptions about a game, plus easy access to many different individual reviews. As an alternative, should gamers be buying a game based on a glitzy trailer and a single magazine review, only to find out it wasn't what they were expecting? That's what we had in the past, and obviously it wasn't working if this is where we are.
  
The biggest problem in games journalism isn't aggregate sites, but the numbers themselves. Look at RottenTomatoes.com, there are movies regulary scoring in the teens, with 50-60 being around average. Anything above a 90 is fucking rare. Now look at Metacritic and Gamerankings. All 80s, with the occasional 40 or 50 for shovelware. Are movies really so bad that people should be playing Mean Girls DS instead of seeing Clash of the Titans? More reviewers need to remember that the scale isn't 5 to 10. And so do gamers. If publishers are really starting to look at Metacritic as a payscale, then the problem doesn't lie with the websites or the developers, it lies with us. If you review games, be honest. And if you play them, give that weird RPG a chance. Fun can't be summed up in two digits.

So, I've been a coffee drinker since adolescence. I've tasted many brands and flavors, but the coffee I grew up on is still my favorite: Chock Full O' Nuts. The name may sound ridiculous, but it is delicious. I still drink it black with 2 sugars. This brand started out as a luncheon chain in New York City, and since I'm from New Jersey I'm curious if people from other areas of the country have access to or heard of this coffee. Also, I'll drink coffee from nearly anywhere, except Starbucks. God, do I hate the taste of their coffee.