The last time I went into a Pokemon game without (more or less) knowing what to expect was Gen III. In the interim between Emerald and DP was when I got involved with the online Pokemon community; ever since then, I've followed the news as it comes out.
And, every game, I say that I want to be surprised and will stay away from news, but that never happens. As of now, I only plan on keeping up with it up until the second CoroCoro about it, so I'll know something, but it'll basically be a surprise. But, I know my track record and that there's no way that'll happen.