We think we have numerous choices when it comes to game reviews and news.  But if you've ever taken a look at the source of that news, you may be in for quite a surprise. I'm going to break down a few of the better-known "news" sites out there and let's see where the money trail ends up.

In rough alphabetical order:

1up - owned by Hearst Corporation, which owns GameTab, GameVideos, MyCheats, UGO, Cosmopolitan, Popular Mechanics, Seventeen, the Houston Chronicle, A&E Television Networks (partial), ESPN (partial), and multiple others. No worries though. Those corporate execs have got you covered.

Evil scale: (super evil)

G4 - owned by Comcast,  which owns AT&T Broadband, Adelphia Cable, Charter Communications, E!, and a shitload more.  

Evil scale: (super evil)

GameDaily - see Joystiq

Evil scale: (super evil)

Game Informer - owned by GameStop Corporation, which owns GameStop, EBGames, Rhino Video Games, and Micromania. Not much more needs to be said here.

Evil scale: (pretty evil)

GamesRadar - owned by Future Publishing, which owns Xbox World, GamesMaster, NGamer, ComputerAndVideoGames.com, TechRadar.com, and many others.

Evil scale: (pretty evil)

GameRankings - See GameSpot

Evil scale: (very evil)

GameSpot - owned by CBS Interactive, which owns MetaCritic, GameRankings, CNet, TechRepublic, ZDNet, CBS, Last.fm, and many more. But they really do have our best interest at heart.

Evil scale: (very evil)

IGN - owned by IGN Entertainment, which is owned by NewsCorp. NewsCorp owns MySpace, Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, 20th Century Fox, Photobucket, and a shitload of other companies. Oh, but you can totally trust NewsCorp to be objective.

Evil scale: (super evil)

Joystiq - owned by Weblogs, which is owned by AOL, which is owned by Time Warner. Time Waner owns Warner Bros., CNN, Road Runner, Time, Entertainment Weekly, GameDaily.com, MapQuest, WinAmp, GameTap, Adult Swim, Amazon.com (partial), and dozens more. But don't worry, it's not like they'd slant their reviews or articles to nudge you towards any of their other companies. That'd be unethical, and TW wouldn't do that.

Evil scale: (super evil)

Kotaku - owned by Gawker Media, which owns Gizmodo, Jalopnik, Lifehacker, and a few more. No worries - media companies allow their writers to be completely impartial.

Evil scale: (pretty evil)

MetaCritic -  see GameSpot

Evil scale: (very evil) 

I hope this helps to clear a few things up. Most of your gaming resources are controlled by just a handful of conglomerates. Why should you care? Because only a few key people decide what you hear, see, play, read, and buy. They influence you in subtle ways through multiple venues to get you to spend your money. After all, if you hear the same news from five different sources, it starts to have a ring of truth to it. Right?