Is there REALLY such a thing as "journalist mode?" or is it just a meme? How could people who make a living reviewing and reporting on video games be so terrible at them that they would need a literal hand-holding mode dedicated solely to them?

It doesn't make any sense!

Yeah, it's a real thing. There is a whole pile of reasons why people dont take vidya journalism seriously and being shit at video games is one of them.

>>715323105
But HOW? How could someone who plays video games for a LIVING be terrible at it???

>>715323256
The bulk of games journalists wanted to be "real journalists" but couldn't hack it, so they've taken their college degree to become AAA studio advertisers. They don't want to be playing games for money; they want a pulitzer prize.

>>715322939 (OP)
Journalists don't actually play video games, they aren't going to indulge in a 20-hour game where worlds will be traversed across and subsequently saved, they want to fuck around with it for a few hours, shit out something AI could've written, and fuck off for the rest of the day.

This has been going on for years, they had an easy mode in Monkey Island II that was for "game journalists" and that was in the mid-1990s.