Sites are checked before being allowed on metacritic. You have to provide details about your site, the history, the traffic and so on. AFter a while you are accepted, but you have to submit the reviews (with score and link) yourself. They then add it to the game it applies to.

If destructoid isn't appearing in basically every game and IS appearing in this game, then that's because they 1) didn't review the other games (but you say they did), so it's number 2) they decided to submit their review for Heavy Rain while they didn't do that for other reviews.

they're on meta for some other games. They gave UC2 a 95, but it was reviewed by a different critic.

Still, the fact remains that they have to submit those scores themselves. If gekko says they are on the review list for some games and not on others (despite having reviewed it), then that's odd.

I'm so pleased with how good the reviews are. Quantic Dream really has made a truly compelling and emotional game.

I think they only post reviews for one system rather than both. It seems like all the multiplats are being reviewed on 360 and the ps3 is broken out for the exclusives only.

I can confirm this now. D-toid reviewers play a majority of multiplats on 360 only.

AND....I know this is a little off topic, but I will remark just another thing about Metacritic. Nobody knows how exactly the amount of reviews considered for a game is determined.

And look at a couple of shady examples....

Uncharted 2: over 102 reviews, really? the game had a meta of 97 with 100 reviews already (talk about ownage!) ...but then a couple of reviews under 90 show up...more than a month after the game released, wtf???) from Absolute games and a so-called NTSC-uk

Just a quick search on the metacritic site and found no review from Absolute games for a game like COD MW2! (NTSC-uk does have one though, a 9)

But for games like MASS EFFECT 2, Bayonetta, or MGS4? No Absolute games review. Oh but NTSC-uk did a MGS4 review, on those few 80s (coincidence?)

And what exactly is GAMER STYLE? their review scored Killzone 2 a 60 and dropped its metascore from 92 to 91...how is a review from this site so important to do that? and more importantly, what that hell is Gamer Style, since I haven't seen it reviewing any other major game (no MW2, no Bayonetta, no AC2, no Uncharted 2)...

Metacritic is a shoddy site, those who regard it so highly and base their "opinions" of the quality of a game on their "metascores" I truly, truly pity...

^ That's the problem with MetaCritic, there are a lot self proclaimed professional reviewing site that are certified to have their score in the list. Some are professional but a lot of them are just biased gaming blogs and retarded fanboys. This goes for games on every platform and most them only show up when AAA titles to try and influence the score.

But honestly, I stopped caring about gaming scores back when I enjoyed more 7+8 rated games more than I did 9-10 and found out that by simply doing research on the game you can figure out if it's going to be something I would enjoy rather then just looking at the score and assume it's good because of the number.

It's not that metacritic is a shoddy site, it's just that companies know that people value it and so purposely put out low scores in order to skew the average. On metacritic's defense, how are they supposed to know whether someone is purposely doing that rather than giving an honest opinion? I would find it difficult to do that myself, but alas, you are right about one thing. There are entities out there with hidden agendas. I don't know if D-toid is one of them, but Jim Sterling just shouldn't be allowed to review ps3 games whatsoever.
I also dislike the fact that metacritic allows casual reviewers to submit scores to the site. You know, those guys that write a review for the local town newspaper once a week and give games like petz party a 10 and bayonetta a 3 because as a writer for a local paper, they are probably just some dude or chick who is having a hard time just making ends meet and has barely enough time to understand the features and the first 10 minutes of the game.

^you call this site proffesional?

http://www.ntsc-uk.com/index.php?menu=sony

LOL. They just made a review on U2 and were accepted on Metacritic? and their dirty score lowered the meta from 97 to 96? c'mon! where the F* do these losers come from? how come VGC isn't on metacritic already ? lol I might as welll make me a couple of "game sites" and start spamming shitty reviews here and there for any games I feel doing it.

that's pretty much what a lot of them are doing.