Paid for advertising means nothing. It's common standard for big companies. A similar example I can give from software industry is one time Oracle bought out all advertising in a city where SAP (a big rival) where having their customer conference.
So you've got all these SAP customers but they go to the toilet and there's an ad for Oracle, they go to a resteraunt and there's an add for Oracle, they leave convention centre and every taxi is advertising Oracle... that's just how these companies operate.
OT a little more I will agree the Gamespot R&C review is way off compared to other reviews from similar sites - but that probably tells you more about that reviewer than anything else. It is a really shoddy review vs the finished game no doubt about it.
I think its always better just to check Meta or Rankings, randomly select a couple of high and a couple of low reviews and compare them for consistency if you want to look at formal reviews.
Try to be reasonable... its easier than you think...
