chubigans said:
I really wish every review would show a picture of their setup where they're playing it.
I agree. I also wish every review would post the reviewer's gamertag and achievements list.
Kotaku, despite the fact that I'm not fond of their reviews, does one good thing by mentioning the play circumstances at the bottom of the review ("Played through on normal [the second difficulty of three] once to completion, spent about three hours playing online, played the first three campaign missions on hard to compare difficulties, all on a review copy provided for free by Publisher X").
In the case of Sonic Free Riders, it doesn't look like they played much:
Sonic Free Riders was developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for the Xbox 360 Kinect, released on Nov. 4. Retails for $49.99. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played through more than a dozen races and modes. Tried single and multiplayer races. Struggled mightily with the menu. Attempted several recalibrations to improve the control issues.
I mean, I'm sure the game is an enormous pile of shit, but "played through more than a dozen races" suggests a relatively low amount of playtime.
cf Dance Central's Kotaku review
Dance Central was developed by Harmonix and published by MTV Games for the Xbox 360 Kinect, released on Nov. 4. Retails for $49.99. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Danced through all 32 songs, some multiple times and on multiple difficulties. Danced about 8 feet from the camera. Had dance battles, snapped fingers at appropriate times.