Yeah, all bigger game review companies have to be like that tho. I honestly only listen to zero punctuation and reader reviews.
Zero Punctuation is pretty good. And speaking of reader reviews,
I happened to review them once and let's just say that if I were writing a reader review, uh, review on GameSpot, I'd be fired.
I thought EA bought like 3 or 4 companies, including Valve.
Negative; Valve and EA are simply business partners. Thank goodness. You can read the specifics on the deal here:
http://www.ea.com/redesign/editorial.jsp?src=valve_071805.
It almost reads like a marketing blurb (well, it
is on EA's site) but all it basically states is that EA will help Valve's games get more exposure. Hence, a publishing deal.