Game critics suck. I never let those scores influence my decision on what to buy.

I go based on game concept and briefing on how the controls work to make my decision. Also cover art and title. A critic's uninformed opinion I take as DEAD last in my decision making process. If THAT.

Gamespot tried to lowball Zelda: Twilight Princess with that BS 8.8. It's all politics and posturing from the big buck boys. Anyone with some sense wouldn't take any of those scores that seriously.

John Lucas

It took me all of 1 minute 10 seconds to find details of the Metroid Prime 3 review embargo which is likely more research than you did for your post. The fact that you mentioned embargoes when Nintendo is notorious for being one of the most secretive and controlling with it's information in the world is laughable.

As for your other points, why single out EA and Microsoft when so many others do it as well? Hell some reviewers get to go through special training camps taught by former special forces personnel, others have gotten free trips to Hawaii, Russia, Las Vegas, Montreal, etc, and others get signed copies or extremely rare merchandise that would easily go for hundreds if not thousands of dollars on Ebay, and this has been going on since the 80s, and you decide to now proclaim that the system is broken? That's laughable at well. Don't get me wrong I don't condone any of that but to single out EA and Microsoft when it's an industry wide problem really does make you look like just a fanboy.

Anyways here are some links to actually back up what I've just said:

http://wii.gamespy.com/wii/metroid-prime-3/814750p2.html

"We're going to wrap things up here as we've got another 80 percent of the game to hack through before the review embargo lifts at 12:01 a.m. PST on Monday morning. Wish us luck! All signs are pointing to Corruption being the best of the three Prime games so check back for the final results early next week. "

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/02/AR2007070201743.html

"In his career as a game reviewer, Ghislain Masson has been to Russia twice, and once to Chernobyl for a promotion of a computer game set in that area's nuclear meltdown zone.

His other junkets include trips to India paid for by Microsoft and a five-day extravaganza in Las Vegas funded by Midway. There was also the shindig near his home base in Paris to promote a game in the Rayman series that included juggling lessons from circus performers."