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Yeah... The problem is that there aren't too many people who realize that. Like I said, when I worked at a game retailer, I'd recommend a game to some people and they'd be like, "Okay, I'll keep that in mind. We'll see what IGN has to say about it!"

Yeah, but things like that would be mentioned by the published reviewer too. Usually, I go to RPGfan.com for my RPG reviews. They're usually pretty fair when it comes to RPGs, because they've obviously been playing them for a long time.

But I can't say the same for all genres. Some genre-specific websites are full of crap.

Well, most of the time, they at least describe what the gameplay is like and whether or not there are glitches.

I think nowadays, there should be more emphasis on critiquing the storyline in games too, but the problem with that is, how do you do it without giving away spoilers?
Still, it would be nice if critics started judging storylines. Then game developers would actually buckle down and give us good storylines.
Cause it's kinda not fair when a single player game with a good storyline gets a lower score because there's no multiplayer.
But a game that's ALL multiplayer still gets a higher score, even though there's no story mode.

Yeah, but the thing is, those who haven't played the game yet, don't want to know the spoilers. But at the same time, they'd wanna know if the storyline is worth their time.
So it's kind of a lose-lose.

Yeah, but if they don't know the spoiler, then the might not know if they'll enjoy the storyline.
It's like, if the spoiler said, "The character is actually a clone."
And it's a big, major spoiler... So like, you don't want to know, so you get the game, and then you find out that the character has been a clone all along, and you're like, "Man, this sucks. That's the dumbest twist ever!" So there's no absolute winning formula. Besides, sometimes if a person REALLY cares about the storyline, they want to go in as fresh as possible, so even things like, "Toward the end of the first chapter of the game, you go into this town," and that's already a spoiler, even as simple as that.

Yeah, but that doesn't mean storylines shouldn't be critiqued.

Either way, storylines are an iffy thing. I mean, it's all a matter of opinion, too. Like, look at FFX, for example. I wasn't impressed with that storyline at all. So it's not even a matter of like or dislike...
But maybe the games should at least be critiqued on whether there WAS a storyline, character development, whether the script was well written, whether the characters actually had distinct personalities. That kind of thing.

Well, like I said, game journalism has a long, long, long way to go.