I´m not sure about people caring more about reviews now than ever. I think it´s the opposite.
A clear example of it is Alien Colonial Marines. Despite awful reviews that game sold more than 1 million copies combined
One thing is clear: after Square Enix troubles with Tomb Raider (took long 8 months to start giving some profit), Hitman 3, Sleeping Dogs, and Ubisoft´s Splinter Cell, Rayman Legends. It´s clear that the market cannot sustain so many big budget titles anymore - if this is what people means by "AAA" titles.
Indies have been producing some really interesting games, with creative approaches, clever design and humor. I hope they can continue to having success and bringing us those cheap, colorful, fun, diverse masterpieces rather than tons of similar gray and brown hyper-realistic shooters.
