Look at the score system from IGN Googles de facto champion of game reviewing. Never mind that reviewing any piece of art out of 100 is a ridiculous endeavor, but look at the actual scores. The vast majority of popular games fall somewhere between 8 and 10, and a competently executed blockbuster will almost never score below a 9.0. The tacit message being sent here is that most of this stuff is awesome, its just a question of how awesome it is.
Critics are unpopular people. They take other peoples artistic babies, things that people have worked years perfecting, and they rip them to pieces. The best tend to still be impossibly arrogant, but sharp enough that theyre hard to disagree with. Game critics, however, delve into that territory very rarely. We tend to be quick to forgive, quick to see things from the developers point of view, and quick to hope for improvements in the sequel.
For a case study, well zoom into Gears of War 3, and the realm of subjective opinion. I thought this game was terrible. When I played Gears of War 3, I saw a slick shooter with a responsive engine appropriate to a long-honed blockbuster series. I also saw an utterly boring title devoid of soul or style, embarrassingly marred by ham-handed attempts at emotional dreck.
Heres the subtitle for IGNs Gears of War 3 review: Does Gears of War 3 live up to the hype? Duh. Of course it does. Lets chainsaw some fools!