Do you think a lot of gaming journalists are actually poor gamers?

[Nem]

The problem with game reviewers is that they arent trying to enjoy the game they just bought. They got a game for free and are saying: Now, impress me while i try to poke holes on you!

Its a completely different mindset. Most of the reviewers are not on the same psycological state as the consumer.
Say for example the Dynasty Warriors series. Reviewers hate it, say lizzards about it, say how its technicly terrible, its repetitive the AI is monotonous. The people that say that, are not trying to enjoy the game.
DW is actually and incredibly fun and strategic game. It looks amazing with all of the action on screen at once and the AI is ruthless in chaos difficulty. Not only that but the game has a great historical storyline and great ammounts of content like 70+ characters each with their own individual combos and special attacks. On top of it, you can play it all with a friend and some stages are built exactly for that when the forces spilt up in an attack. Oh and did i mention how satisfying it is to slash a bunch of enemies at once?

You get nothing of that on a reviewers view of the game. Because the game is not there to impress them, its there to entertain those who want to be entertained. And while the core basic design does not involve complex button presses, it doesnt mean it isnt incredibly fun to play and doesnt have depth to the combo system. Heck DW8 even has a parry system and an elemental system on the weapons and most press just wrote it off as awful when its an amazing game.

End of the day, the consumers state of mind and the reviewers state of mind when playing games is different and therefore their review will be written from that point of view. I have stopped taking into account commercial reviews a long time ago. So much that i can already tell when they are talking out of their rear end just to find something to complain about, or when they didnt even give the game a chance.