To be fair, the original version of Civ4 on Amazon shows a similar pattern. However, the reasons are different. In general, most criticism of Civ4 amounts to "The game seems to be great, but it doesn't run", whereas most Civ5 criticism amounts to "The game does run, but it isn't fun". Unfortunately, the latter is much harder to fix than the former. Civ4's technical difficulties, especially with AMD graphics cards, were fixed with patches; the fundmental gameplay issues of Civ5 will probably stay (e.g. it's just not possible to write an AI that can deal competently with 1upt tactics in the context of a Civ game, even if they tried).

when like 600 of the reviews mark it down because it requires steam and/or won't load on their *nix box I ignore all the scores.

Alan Wake Collector's Edition 14% off Gamersgate
Same deal on Steam.

has anyone bought magicka complete on amazon?

Should... I... wait.... ???

Fighting so hard not to buy :(

It doesn't have The Stars Are Left.
Or $25 with the IGN discount.
The regular version can also be lowered to $20 at GMG using code HALFT-ERMHO-RRORS

The big problem with the game is that the developer pissed off all their long-time fans. The game is actually OK; it just wasn't what their fan-base wanted. I think if you have never played a Civ game before and go into in with an open mind you will find a decent game. But if you wanted another Civ 4 or even Civ 3 you are gonna hate the game.

And it's 33% off at GMG with this discount code:

I've never purchased anything there. Any good?

They use their own client software ("Capsule"). I don't know whether this client is only a downloader or needs to run concurrently to the game (like the Steam client), I've seen contradicting claims about this. It might vary with the game in question. Generally, opinions about Capsule seem to range from "crap" to "don't care", I don't see anyone actually being fond of it. If you're concerned about such things, you may want to check up on this a bit further.

Personally, I never needed to, since GMG never had a deal (so far) that I couldn't have gotten better elsewhere.

Also Dead Island for 20$ and some smaller games
http://www.greenmangaming.com/promo/halftermhorrors/

Use the coupon HALFT-ERMHO-RRORS

GMG is good for Steam keys.

Everything else... I avoid.

10-4 folks. That GMG deal is the best one I've found so far. And it says requires Steam. So, if I get it there. I will actually just be purchasing the steam key yes?

The only game I bought there was F.E.A.R. 3, and that's steam-exclusive so they just gave me a steam code and it worked fine. I heard that their client is rather bad however, but I haven't tried that myself.

Alright, hopefully that's what this is then and I won't have to deal with their client. Thanks for the heads-up on the discount.