In previous blogs I've asked you, the people of Giant Bomb, if you thought professional reviews are "just opinions" and whether or not they are preferable to community reviews (jury's still out on that one, by the way). Well, this blog follows in the same vein. After reading this article on Kotaku, I'm curious to know what Giant Bomb thinks about review events, how they impact the industry and whether or not they are a necessity of today's video game scene.
 
Personally, I think a lavish review event could easily color the opinion of a professional journalist, and in that respect, yes, it's bad for the industry. However, I also think that any journalist who allows themselves to be influenced by such external factors probably
 
A) Doesn't have a lot of pull in the industry anyway, or won't for long.
B) Would find a way to be influenced even if the event wasn't around.
 
Basically, I'm saying that any journalist who allows their opinion to be colored in such a way is probably pretty dishonest and need not be listened to, which would be all fine and dandy if we could just weed the buggers out. Unfortunately, the dishonest journalist is not so quickly plucked from a crowd.
 
So to sum up, let me restate my question: what do you think about AAA-title review events? Do they hurt the industry, and if they do, is there a way around them?