How much for a good review score?

Gamespot made it fairly clear, that if you buy enough banner ads, you deserve a good review score.

Firing one of their reviewers for bombing Kane and Lynch is a little suspicious. I didn't agree with all of the reviews the fired employee did in the past, but you could tell he wrote as he felt, without bias. I didn't think Gears of War was that mind blowing. Many didn't think Twlight Princess deserved anything less than a perfect score even though he rated it very good. Thats not the point. The point is the guy reviewed what he thought about the game and backed it up with intricate detail. He wouldn't have held the job for so long if he didn't.

It is your opinion if a site is good for reviews or not. Personally I go right to gamerankings as its a user-updated list of all reviews on any given game, pick a few site reviews(at random sometimes) then read what they say. Not focusing on score really but trying to gather a feel for the game. 1 review doesn't help enough. Metacritic leaves some reviews out it seems. Again, its not about trusting one site...its about a gamer getting fired because he bombed a game by a major advertisement space buyer.

I could see if they just brought the guy on a few weeks ago too contribute and they let him go because he didn't have the stuff. Not the case. Guy was there for years.

Nothing suprising and it happens in all forms of media. Authors were selling out much sooner than developers. Now you can expect a good review with enough money spent. Its just sad to see this kind of thing now sinking its claws into gaming. As it seemed to be lacking before when the business was smaller. Its just the way it goes with any form of media I guess.

I've spoken to a few gamers in person, they played K&L and had nothing good to say.