IGN has published a long article talking about problems with Metacritic, the review aggregation site similar to what Rotten Tomatoes does for movie reviews.
The problem, according to IGN, is how the games industry is so focused at getting high ratings at Metacritic that it is hurting the development of games. Industry contracts are actually bonus-enabled in some cases and dependent on the Metacritic score. Chris Avellone accidentally admitted, for instance, a bonus for Fallout New Vegas was not paid because the Metacritic score of 85 was not reached. Fallout New Vegas is at 84.
From the article:
You don’t need to cast around for long to find evidence of the publishing world’s obsession with the Metascore. In 2011, Take-Two’s CEO Strauss Zelnick said that, “unlike many other entertainment business[es], ratings by Metacritic and others' reviews really can influence the success of a newly-released title… if your ratings go below a certain level, it can really hurt your ability to sell the title, and above a certain level can make a real difference in your success.” Both Telltale and Bioware have been caught messing with the user scores. EA’s Peter Moore, head of EA Sports at the time, set the FIFA 10 team a Metascore target of 90 – and then went on to say that basing success on Metacritic scores is a “slippery slope”.
Read more on this at http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/07/16/is-metacritic-ruining-the-games-industry
Things such as this were the reason Lagspike.tv strives to be more user driven in the future. We want you, the reader, to give your reviews and news. The best determiner of whether a game is worth the money is not some paid critic somewhere working for the game companies but you, the person who plunks down the money and pays for the game.