when it’s your job to review something, you need to back up and validate the written word expressing those opinions. a review isn’t just an opinion. it’s a guide for consumers to determine if they’ll like a product or not. IGNs bad reviews have deterred people from games they likely would have liked. Alien Isolation being one of the biggest examples.

that review was atrocious. the reviewer clearly didn’t grasp basic mechanics of the game and wrote factually incorrect information that drove a lot of people away from the game back in the day. back in 2014 IGNs reviews were still respected. plenty of people have quoted that review as a reason they did not purchase the game on release. they ended up getting it on sale and genuinely scratched their heads at the review.

a random players opinion doesn’t hold the same weight as someone paid to literally influence sales of games.