[QUOTE=a] I honestly don't think either of you are correct here. No reviewer is going to match your tastes completely. IGN is just as "all over the place" as the critic is.[/QUOTE]
IGN is known to have a disproportionately large number of Sony fans. This is because of the way they structure themselves. They divide themselves out into several "offices". Each one concentrates on their given hardware. The DS has its own office. Gamecube, PSP, PS2, XBOX, XBOX 360 -- the list goes on. Each one has its own office. The offices that handle the Sony products are together, almost as large as the rest of the organization put together.
This particularly influences their GOTY award (as of course, Sony has the most almost-guaranteed votes on any given year), but it affects them in many other ways too. All of their departments are way too positive on their given platform, it's just that Sony's is the largest and most vocal.
Other outlets, like Gamespot, purposefully force their reviewers to rotate platforms. It works to their advantage. While the IGN review wants to be more positive, the Gamespot review is much more realistic. At least -- in this case