Originally Posted by
Drageuth
There's also the problem of most reviewers on the big sites (IGN, Machinima, EGM, Eurogamer, and probably hundreds more that I can't think of at the moment) don't actually pay for all of their games. If they don't have the $60 investment into a title that the rest of us make on Day 1, then they will likely view the game in a more positive light, or downplay the flaws because they didn't seem like a big deal to them at $0, but it would be a huge deal to us for $60, or even $30 if we wait a year for the price to drop. I'm not sure how well most reviewers can separate "playing for work" from "playing for pleasure," but I have sensed that because some reviewers are playing a game "for work," they aren't coming at it from the same mindset as someone who has a small amount of time they can commit to any game at a time, and therefore things that might bother the average gamer doesn't bother the reviewer, because they're sitting there playing for 6-8 hours in "work mode."