I think that many people forget (or are ignorant to) some of the stresses that Gamespot staff and other professional critics have to contend with. It's no secret that they often have to straddle the line between providing an apparently unbiased review as well as essentially being part of a marketing campaign for certain big releases.

Worrying about who you are keeping happy must be pretty stressful already before coming under direct personal attack from members of a community that are receiving a professional opinion for free (occasionally biased or otherwise). Learn to take things with a pinch of salt, have faith in your own opinion and enjoy that others see the world slightly differently to you. Listening to new ideas and view points might change you for the better.

By my reckoning, anything higher than a 5.something is 'better than average' therefore 6 is an ok score to give a game with some pretty redeeming qualities. In an industry where anything below an 8 is considered sub-par, I appreciate articles like this, even if Gamespot has often been on the game promotion and slander wagon, its clear that the critics working here have their own opinions regardless if they are manipulated by industry requirement or not.

I think much of this is to do with the backward reputation games STILL have as being a thing for kids in popular culture. It's much easier to assume that kids/teenagers aren't going to go off on a gun toting rampage than it is to assume they won't be interested in sex at some point. In laymans terms it seems to many that SEX + Videogame= Encouragement to have sex, while VIOLENCE+Videogame= Ok, because after all who would dare to actually kill someone?

Gamespot are probably getting some serious laughs out of the fanboy warfare these comparisons are igniting :P I'm gonna go play on the graphical powerhouse that is Sega Saturn :D

May I just say that I feel the HD TV is the least essential of this list. Sure games look amazing in HD, but for those who can't afford HD, a good quality older TV can still show off the PS3's amazing visuals. :)

@jtuds I suggest watching movies as opposed to playing games if only visuals matter. :)