I actually posted this in response to some of the garbage that I came accross glancing at the System Wars forum  at GameSpot, and didn't want to loose the thought, as I'm actually writing a piece on "System Warriors" for another site:

I try not to pay too much attention to the System Warriors, but I noticed alot of people slagging 1UP.com for giving their beloved Resistance an 8.0 rating, which is a good score. Generally when a game scores 80% on my personal scale, it's one that was completely worth playing.

I honestly don't know why people always resort to conspiracy theories like "MS/Sony/Nintendo paid off XXXX to write that review", but in most cases its simply not true. If anything, publications like GameSpot, IGN, 1UP, Game Informer, GamePro and the like make arrangements to have exclusive interviews, pre-release reviews, video footage and screenshots.

Anyways, I'd just like to point out that 1UP.com is actually "Copyright © 2002-2006 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. 1UP and the 1UP.COM logo are a trademark of Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc."

Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc. also happens to own something called, get this:

OFFICIAL PLAYSTATION MAGAZINE

...which has been promoting Sony's consoles since the days of the original PlayStation. The fact that they will no longer be publishing after January 2007 is moot. I'm sure people on this lovely forum have said in the past that OPM was not credible for for PlayStation reviews just as they would consider Nintendo Power biased towards Nintendo.

Ziff Davis also publishes Electronic Gaming Monthly, which has been in circulation since 1989. Along with GamePro magazine, it was one of the only reliable and trusted ways for people to get video game console news for quite a few years. Whatever your opinion of these publications is you must realize that publications (not including those such as Nintendo Power or Oprah Magazine), whether they be online or in traditional print, don't stay around for that long if they don't have something relivant to say to their audience with their content, be it editorials, reviews or hard facts.

While promotion of products is very important to Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo and billions of dollars are spent advertising not only to consumers but to the media as well, it is simply ignorant to think that reviewers all all "paid off" by companies.

The editors of publications like GameSpot, IGN and 1UP are (for the most part) journalists at heart, and speaking as a man who's wife works in the field, and are generally hired because of their ability to be objective. Those that are not don't last very long working for independant media and instead move into public relations, or work for tabloids...or Fox News.