Agreed. 

I hope next gen this delusional biased review nonsense will be a thing of the past. It irritates me so much I usually avoid participating in the discussion.

I'm not saying some reviews aren't biased but there is no evidence of some massive conspiracy that lives inside some people's head. You think a game deserves a 9, big deal write your own review, enjoy the game, and move on.

And casual games do score well occasionally: Rock Band, You Don't Know Jack, COD

Another problem is, any time a reviewer is confronted with suspected bias or even just a question of HOW they measure games and come up with score, most typically launch into some snarky  insults and double talk, but won't just come out and say HOW they came up with a number.

It's fine if they don't want to comment at all about it, but when reviewers lash out about what some people think are bias or odd trends in their reviews, that just smacks of unprofessional, and makes me believe the people crying foul way more than the pissy reviewer.

the double speak usually entails them saying something like "We measure each game differently and don't compare it to other games, unless we do. It depends."

didnt all those get about 90%, and Sim City 3000 if I remember right wasn't that great.

No causal game goes to review sites, or else they aren't an causal gamer. An the main demogrpahic for reviewing sites and mags are Hardcore to semi-hardcore gamers who rarely buy an gamer without either 1. watched or read an tonne of previews and been following for months or read about an few reviews. 

So reviewing for causals wouldn't be an thing gamers would care and more likely hate the site for becoming more causal and lose there audience. 

I suspect this is 90% true.........there might be casual gamers who have developed a habit of checking reviews for products they want to buy, including games.

This target audience for review website is core gamers. So they need to score for how such audience would enjoy such game.

Kirby's Canvas Curse and Sim City 3000 got avg reviews (8.0-8.5).  And no, you are remembering wrong.  Sim City 3000 Unlimited is the most balanced and 'fun' of all the games.  Sim City 4 is the one with all the problems.