The Myths of Game Criticism! This week we challenge commonly held assumptions about criticism, writers, review scores, finishing games and much more. So much more, in fact, we had to split the episode in half. Plus, if you're a Borderlands fan, get ready to hate us. Our quick hit is less than flattering. Featuring Chi Kong Lui, Brad Gallaway, Mike Bracken, and Tim Spaeth.

For your reference, the eight myths we discuss are:

1) Critics should be required to finish games before writing a review.

2) The goal of a "proper" game review should be to inform the reader as to whether they should or should not buy a game.

3) Those who write about games are not journalists, rather, should be considered "enthusiast press" or simply "games writer."

4) There is no difference between a "review" and a "critique".

5) The explosion of blogs, podcasts, and Twitter has rendered formal game reviews obsolete.

6) Individual game critics and review sites are under constant, unrelenting pressure from publishers to change scores.

7) Game scores are often purposefully tweaked to either generate controversy or avoid it.

8) A reader should not need to be familiar with the author of a review in order to derive value from it.