From the sound of the review, it sounds more like a 9.0 instead of an 8.6, but I guess Gamespot is going more for the "use the full score spectrum" strategy while IGN usually uses the 5.0 to 10.0 range.
8.6 is a very good score. Maybe not as high as some people wanted it but still worth picking up at release if you're interested in it. Hell people buy Star Ocean 3 despite the 7.9 it got.
heh, I guess I might not get an xbox this year. It's a great game but definitely not the killer-app people wanted/hyped it to be. I'll probably wait until $99 bundles are available or something close.
Probably Xbox fans if this game came out like it is now in 2002.
I think expectations were gradually lowered from "The best game of all-time past, present, and future" to "gonna be a great RPG" though.
People still were pissed off at the 8 in GMR. I checked out the GameFAQs Xbox board, and they don't seem upset over the 8.6 score though (which doesn't stop them from bashing Kasavin).