It seems to me like the contrarian has taken the place of the fanboy from last generation. While we still get fanboys, I see many more people who seem to hate things because it seems like so many more like them. If I had never played a game before and decided to jump headfirst into it, and I came online, trying to use review scores and user reviews as a baises of what to buy (not sales numbers), I would think reviewers are crazy. I mean look at these metacritic scores 
 
MW2: Critics: 94 out of 100 Users: 60 out of 100 
 
GTA 4: Critics: 98 out of 100 Users: 70 out of 100 
 
Halo Reach: Critics: 92 out of 100 Users: 72 out of 100 
 
Halo 3: Critics: 94 out of 100 Users: 75 out of 100 
 
But look at these, this is where is gets real weird 
 
R.U.S.E: Critics: 77 out of 100 Users: 84 out of 100 
 
The Saboteur: Critics: 73 out of 100 Users: 86 out of 100 
 
Army of Two: Critics: 72 out of 100 Users: 83 out of 100  
 
 
I know metacritic is not the end all be all of ratings, and really, these numbers are based on a number of different factors, but they are still interesting. R.U.S.E. better than GTA: 4? Army of Two better than Halo 3? The Saboteur better than MW2? On top of that, we have the contrarian critics. In film these type of critics (like Armond White) are considered a joke. This generation, it seems as if we celebrate game critics like this (take Yahtzee or Jim Sterling for example). Other critics are guilty of this too. How many podcasts have you listened to or blog posts have you read where a reviewer sounded as if he didn't like a game he gave a good review to? 
  
I do not want to come off like I am trying to discourage people from having their own opinions, and I do understand that, well, haters gotta hate, but I am starting to believe that some people are annoyed by all things popular and that unfortunately affects peoples opinions the same way envy affected the fanboy culture of last generation.