>>725611827
Quite a bit. People formed their own opinions but the writers were reasonably charismatic and were able to find things that might not be possible on one’s own (e.g. playing through every pathway to find bugs, playing through to tell if a game was uncommonly short, checking localization to tell if a game was barely trying).

That time was marked by an increase in avant garde games like Army of Two, Portal, and WarioWare: Smooth Moves. Reviewers were more necessary than normal and the Gerstmann debacle broke the trust. GamerGate later broke games journalism entirely.

If you want to destroy your childhood and remember that time, go to gamespot.com now and weep.