I believe that game reviewers are at a distinct disadvantage vis a vis journalists (or "journalists", depending on one's view of the game-news business) who review movies, books, and so forth. Games typically take much longer to complete; it's almost impossible to do so in a reasonable amount of time. It's often a year or more before some games are revealed to be the true gems that they are; sometimes, it takes several years, if the game is niche and it takes a while for people to slot the game into their personal play-schedules.

I'm going to float an idea here - and I expect it to be a bit controversial even as I formulate this idea - but anyways...

It is in the best interests of everyone involved, I think, if game creators were to either create a "special version" of their game or to inherently enable "cheat codes" into all versions of the game to enable people to automatically skip around to any and all places in the game at any time. I'm sure that the creators must have something like this internally to enable them to test the game before sending it out; it's not too much of a stretch for them to create some kind of "test" version for game reviewers.

I realize this is kind of a dangerous concept. It means that there might arise a whole "bootleg" market for these "test versions" of the games, even if the companies required the game (which could certainly be copied) to be returned to them after the reviewer is done playing. I suppose each "test" version could have hard-coded info on the person to whom it went, but there are probably ways around that, too. That's why I'm suggesting the possibility that game developers would incorporate a "skip to the end" or "god mode" feature in each and every copy of the game they sell - possibly unlockable via an inputted code, or something.

The ramifications for that would be enormous. Imagine having every long JRPG having a god mode, that would allow one to skip at any point in the story (possibly with cookie-cutter party setups), at any time, and / or to give one's self any item at any time. It has the potential to completely "ruin" the game.

But - you know what? Who cares? With the possible exception of something like Pokemon, where players are trading with each other, and where they'd obviously want people not to be able to cheat like this, the "cheater" here is "hurting" nobody but themselves. Even with Pokemon, people already give themselves these "god-like" powers with just a little bit of effort and a flash-cartridge / save editor. Game Genie or Gameshark or Action Replay or whatever its current incarnation is these days would become obsolete - but their existence proves that there is a demand for this kind of feature.

It's the kind of feature that any and all board games have always had. It's totally possible to create a chess game that is halfway, or three-quarters, or whatever amount near its conclusion - a lot of good chess players probably do this to put themselves into various scenarios. One could do the same with any board game - it's just that people typically don't. They do have the freedom to do so, though.

I think video game designers / creators need to start recognizing the need for this sort of feature. This would allow any reviewer - great or small - to play a more comprehensive part of the game, and to give it a much fairer and balanced review than they'd otherwise be able to do. This might, in turn, help the good games to shine, and the bad games to be revealed, a lot more easily. At least...that's my theory. Maybe there are holes in it.