I think it's a shame.  You have to wonder if there would be this much hate for the game if D.D. didn't go on his rampage on EGM Live way back when.  Sure, maybe people wouldn't like the game either way, but there wouldn't be loads of finger pointing that "ha ha, you only got a Metacritic score of such-and-such."  Would people have even cared about the Metacritic score if D.D. hadn't made his bet with NeoGAF?  Games that get scores like this aren't laughed at or ridiculed on forums this badly.  If this were any other game people would take a look and move on.  Honestly I think some people did focus their attention on the game's flaws because of the situation, but you would hope that the professionals scoring this game know what they're talking about.  I'm about 5 hours into it and I can see it getting between a 60-80 if you're using a 100 point scale.  I'm really enjoying it, so I would be more towards the 4 stars/80% side, but it does have it's flaws.  I went to a couple stores today just looking around, not even expecting to see the game on a shelf, and I easily heard a dozen people ask for it between 4 stores.  Maybe it's just because we're in a game drought, maybe it's because people liked the demo, or maybe it's because of curiosity over the controversy.  Either way, I've typed too much and I really need to get back to playing this.  Aside from D.D.'s controversial ways, keep an open mind and be respectful of people's opinions.  If someone likes it, they like it, if not, they don't.  Just have fun playing games, damn it.  Now back to my regularly scheduled game.