Actually I think the article is more of a reflection of how society is increasingly self-aware. Most people see ads more as just a piece of media rather than something that will actually get them to buy something. Recently when EA's Moore spoke about his satisfaction with the Madden franchise, he pointed towards 'metacritic' - i thought that was interesting, but also quite clever. He wasn't saying that 'hey the ny times gave it 5 stars', it was pointing to the consolidation of many reviews and opinions to reveal multiple perspectives of the game still come away positive. - ( I don't think it even deserves it metacritic rating,but that's a diff topic.) you as the consumer, provided you are interested in a product - can go to great lengths to find out more about it without leaving getting off your ash. This is a reflection of that to me.
Anyway I did the same thing the article suggests w/ madden 08 and took a pass w/o even renting.
One thing I wish game journalists would lose is their language 'buzz word culture'. The term "sadly" is WAY overused, and when I see it, it actually pisses me off now. I guess it started a year or more ago, and continues to thrive. years ago there was "the house that microsoft built" ex. "the house that ________built". You would see that on every site almost daily. Now "sadly" is much worse - it's multiple sites, multiple times daily to the point where it is used by Forum posters! It isn't 'sad' dammit ...I wish every article would be edited automatically and 'sadly' would be replaced with the much more fitting 'too bad', or 'bit of a shame' or something more appropriate.
SPREAD THE WORD..."SADLY" NEEDS TO BE BURIED IN VIDEOGAME JOURNALISM FOREVER AND EVER! NEVER LET YOURSELF USE IT AGAIN! STOP THOSE AROUND YOU FROM DOING IT TOO! ...but, sadly, it will probably continue to be used until I rip my own face off.
ps. nice soap opera going on above .. ooooh i wonder what's going to happen next!?