That's the thing dumbass detractors saying reviews aren't "paid" don't get.

Sure, literal sacks'o'cash aren't being hand delivered to these people by the monopoly man. But there's tons of benefits to be had if you suck off AAA publishers. Be it getting invited to special events, or early review copies of games.

And that's not counting the ones that do it for free, just so they can stroke their ego and pretend saying that a shitty video game is "art" makes them look intelligent.

Couple that with the fact that they'll even have negative reviews deleted.

Not to mention ad revenue. Gamespot's review of the game is riddled with actual advertisements for tlou2. In any other medium, that would be immediately suspicious, but here it's expected.