Thank you LJWooly, finally a smart person here. Yes, that is exactly what I mean.
Concerning the journalism in the gaming industry: You are right, loads of people start complaining right now, kinda like it is a trend, a cool thing to do. I always thought that scores aren't needed, just like in school. I s*uck at math, but that doesn't mean I am bad when it comes to calculations - I got my D's anyway. The thing is that there were so many hyped games recently (Halo 3, GTAIV, HAZE to an extent as well), that, when you read the reviews and then play the game, just make you shake your head. Yes, GTA4 was good, but did it really deserve all the 10s, seeing all the stuff it lacked? I can't say anything about Halo 3 because I never played it, but from what I read on the internet, there are people that liked the game a lot, but wouldn't give it a 10 either. Some reviews were bought, companies paid lots of money, bribed. If you ask me, that has always happened and always will. Just compare the reviews - the thing that most of them comment are the ones to most likely beeing true.
About EDGE: Well, maybe they just have a very special taste in videogames. I know a lot guys who don't like MGS because the story is "too much" for them. On the other hand, I don't like RE4 as much as the average reviewer. Now, I won't say they got bribed since I don't have any information about that, so maybe it was just some gigantic coincidence that those games all got that score.

Thanks for that, bubbles for you. If anyone knows about complaining, it's me (being a Brit) but I really can't see why so many people are getting worked up about this at all. Why do people even let reviews decide what they play for them in the first place? The only people getting worked up are the MGS fans, and if they need good reviews to feel good about the game, that says a lot about them. It's not like EDGE and Eurogamer "desecrated" the game, and, as you already stated, it isn't going to change the end product, one bit. All it'll change is the game's Metacritic score, and that doesn't mean squat.

Also, when I said EDGE had awful taste in games, I should have said "I don't agree with EDGE's taste in games". Just trying to stay subjective :)

Thanks a lot, I'll return that favor.
If you look just at this blog here, you can see the whole picture on a smaller scale - well, sort of I think. Look at all the disagrees I alone got for stating that scores are pretty senseless. I won't complain because I got disagreed with, but it shows that people DO care about that little number at the end of a wall o' text. I think it has to do with that "mine is much better than yours, because..." mentality, which is part of the human nature, apparently. Best example is the ongoing fight for which one is more powerful, XBox360 or PS3. People shout numbers at each other, most not knowing anything about what they say (what average guy can explain FLOPS? ALU? XDR memory?), but it makes them feel good. Ever heard someone say: "I need a new mobilephone, mine doesn't have enough memory."? Same thing. I am at the point where I believe that there are people out there who just buy games because the got more than 9.0 on IGN or somewhere else, so that they can tell their friends they "only have the best games".
I got what you meant with EDGE and I tried to choose my words as best as I could. But, what some don't want to understand and which is true for every game's score: If you take a reviewer who hates a genre/series/game and make them review just that, no matter how "professional" he is, he will still slag of points here and there for the simple fact that he didn't enjoy it.

Exactly, my friend. The only thing regarding this subject that "annoys" me to any degree at all, is reviewer bias, but even that really doesn't matter in the big picture, not one bit. I've never gone by reviews, I've much preferred to ask my friends what they thought of a game, and I usually get a far better idea of what to expect from the game, than Iever could by looking at Metacritic or Gamerankings.

As for the statistic battles... ugh. Now that a lot of 360 fanboys seem to have left the site for whatever reason, and it's now predominantly PS3 fanboys, there's less reason for them to fight, and therefore that crap's calmed down a little, but people still feel the need to let numbers define their gaming experiences. Whatever happened to thinking for our bloody selves? It's sad, but maybe that's just another downside to the "mainstream" direction this industry seems to be going in...

Sadly, I've gone by reviews to some extent. Out of all games, it was GTA4 to open my eyes, but that doesn't belong here.
I could come up with a lot of reasons why some fanboys left the site, some of which would just make me like one of them, but from a point that is based on thought and not on personal preference, I'd say that some of them were just fed up. I'd disagree if someone said they became more mature, because if they were, they would stay and just change in what they say. Aside from that, I don't have an explanation.
What bothers me way more than fanboys, though, are those fools that have avatars like Hitler or the flag of the Nazis, sometimes in conjunction with a console. Problem here, these things happen in the open zone where it can take ages for a mod to take car of that. That must be one of the most extreme ways of not thinking yourself and just blabbering what others said. I didn't read "Nazisoft" here just once and I report them everytime I see it, but apparently, that doesn't help.
I already said that some time ago, but people really get increasingly stupid the bigger the group they are in. It just takes one moron to turn a whole mob into a shouting crowd, maiming everything in their way with their "intellectual" power, creating fads all over the place.
I just wonder why it's mostly XBox360 and PS3 fanboys/girls that act like that. The reason why some people hate a console is just cute sometimes, you'll hear things like "the XBox360/PS3 was so overhyped". Well, what isn't? The only thing I hear from what you can call Wii fanboys, occasionally I might add, is how much Nintendo revolutionized gaming with the DS&Wii. Plus, I have never met a "casual gamer" that started a flamewar.

Well, to be fair, the vast majority of Wii owners are computer-illiterate old age pensioners and 4 year olds, but I shan't degrade into 'fanboyism' here :)

And yes, I hate when these silly fanboys think the liberal use of the word "Nazi" is intelligent, especially when it's used in regards to a fictional console war that exists nowhere but in the minds of delusional fanboys.
Not only that, but when fanboys of Company X make allusions to the relation between Corporation Y and the Nazi/Communist party, or vice-versa, they show very little evidence or example with which to back up their claims, making them essentially non-sensical, which further serves to show the maturity of these kids, as they exhibit next to no knowledge of the delicate issues they're attempting to tackle.

What makes me laugh heartily the most though, is when these opposing fanboys label each other "Xbot" or Sony droid", completely oblivious to the fact that they are the very definition of that which they criticise. The degree of hypocrisy these fanboys are guilty of is mindblowing.

In fact, the whole concept of fanboyism is extremely questionable, at best. Why on earth would someone defend a huge, stinking rich multi-national corporation? Do they honestly believe said corporation has done anything to deserve their loyalty? Do they think that, if a representative of this corporation came across them being attacked on a forum, they'd step in to help? No, of course they wouldn't, this company sees them as nothing more than a "customer", another sales statistic. I think that, on a subconcious level, they've convinced themselves to believe that their favourite corporation actually cares about them, on a personal level. If that's the case, then that is just beyond sad.
If it's as simple as, "I bought their product, and therefore I shall defend them", then that also brings about some questioning about their level of intellect, and of course, ignorance.

But, I can sit here and moan about the nature of the N4G community all day if I want, but that would be hypocritical of me, as I recently criticised others for, in my own words, "complaining about the state of gaming journalism and how it's in a shambles". So, I think I better shut up now :)

If I could give you another bubble I would, since you're cool.

I agree with almost everything you said here except for one thing. If a game has long load times I believe that the reviewer can knock the score down. The only thing that I am angry with is the fact that all the reviews that gave it an 80% all pissed on about how long and complicated the cut scenes are. If you are to mentally handicapped or ADD to sit still during some of the best story driven short movies ever than let someone else do review you dip s****. What's really sad is that people in this day and age can only sit down and pay attention for thirty seconds unless of coarse it's got boobs or bloody heads flying to and fro. I think it's nice to see a game that really cares about a strong story plot and dynamic, interesting characters. Can't wait for the game.

Been quite a while since somebody called me cool, but thanks anyway. :)
Well I tend to agree with what Yahtzee said in one of his videos, most people only have the money to afford one console and then defend their console by all means to justify that they chose this one. All the games that won't come out for their console are crap just for the hell of it, every superior port becomes like winning a fight in a war and sales are means to show just how good your console is.
I completely agree with you on that defending it like that is senseless thing. There is a difference between recommending a console or a game to someone and to put someone down because he doesn't think what you bought is awesome. I sometimes wonder if every fanboy/fangirl gets mail for their birthday, the company thanking them for the advertisement.
About the intelligence thing: Well, I don't want to offend somebody, but every one that can't admit that their console has flaws is crazy. Even the XBox360 and PS3 could be improved just by upgrading the availabe RAM to, let's say, 1GB. The Wii could need a HDD and so on.

Yeah, I own and prefer the PS3 to the other available consoles, but I'm not going to delude myself. There was, let's face it, barely anything to play on the thing for a while after launch. As for the RAM thing, well, I'm not a developer, but Insomniac, Guerrila Games and Naughty Dog don't seem to mind it :)