There was recently the polygon bullshit, and the gamespot kane & lynch stuff (lol).
But also giving "caresses" to revieweres is a regular thing. I remember looking at a vid in gametrailers were the skinny guy bloodworth said that for forza they wanted to give him a ride in some fancy car so he could hear how realistic the game was or some bullshit like that, but he didn't do it.
Also banning different journos and stuff.
Gaming journalism is PR and promotion, and we kinda like it, but becomes old kinda fast. It's not even that the big creators can go talk about the game without permission and stuff like that. So pretty much the only thing you can do is:
- Talk to indie guys that need coverage (but no one cares).
- Translate what is on every site.
- Reviews and criticism.
- More "academic" stuff, that caters mostly to game developers than general public.
Then you can see why it's pretty stale, why they do clickbait and why they get bribed.