I doubt there's a 'true' conspiracy here.
As I see it Metacritic is just plain inconsistent in choosing review sites which is why I don't use it anymore. You can't compare their scores when they are made up of differing sources, number of reviews, etc. They need to settle on a smaller number of review sources that will review all games and use those as the baseline would then be identical for all games. I know it seems suspicous when they include random sources but I suspect I could find examples on all platforms, hence my reluctance to cry 'foul'.
It's true that most PS3 exclusives do seem to pick up more 'outlier' reviews - i.e. reviews which seem far from the general consensus, and yes more than a few are coming from Variety but I still struggle with 'conspiracy' simply because all it would take is one leaked email confirming it to cause untold damage to MS, etc. and the payoff just doesn't seem worth it.
I doubt more than 1% of game purchasers WW actually look/know about these sources.
Also, use gameranking, still not perfect but better.
But if you think something's there then email them with your concerns, list the 'evidence' and ask for a reply on why their (Variety) scores for recent PS3 games are so far from the general trend from other sites?
Should be an interesting answer whatever.
Try to be reasonable... its easier than you think...
