"Over the years, gamers have seen dozens of high-profile titles make their world debut by being featured on the cover of Game Informer. In fact, if you’re a regular shopper at GameStop, you’re probably one of the magazine’s more than two million readers.

But does a game getting on Game Informer’s cover signal it’s going to be great?

Can you be confident that these debuts will, one or two years later, become games you want to buy and play? Perhaps the magazine has a “Madden” curse (though..."