We live in the information age. Most tech-savvy individuals refuse to buy anything without first reading the relevant reviews online. As such, you can understand why gamers reacted ferociously when the ‘Resident Evil: Requiem’ controversy unraveled in the final hours of February 2026. ‘Requiem’ is already a hit. It sold 5 million copies in the first five days. Critics and audiences alike are already calling the title 2026’s Game of the Year. Does that mean every enthusiastic gamer bought ‘Requiem’ the moment it came out? Of course not. The game is $79. Most consumers won’t throw that kind of cash at a video game without receiving assurances that it will give them value for their money. Metacritic is one of the entertainment industry’s biggest review platforms. People visit the site, not just to look at the overall scores it aggregates, but to read reviews posted by popular gaming critics. Imagine the shock that rocked the gaming world when it came to light that Videogamer, a reputable UK outlet, had posted an AI-generated review of ‘Resident Evil: Requiem’ on Metacritic. To make matters worse, the author who supposedly wrote the review was equally fake. They have no social media presence to speak of, which the outlet could have explained away if the author’s profile picture wasn’t also AI-generated. Videogamer is one of numerous outlets that adapted to the changing digital landscape by laying off most of their human staff after realizing that AI programs like ChatGPT could churn out legible content quickly and reliably. Why pay real writers to generate your essays and articles when AI can perform similar tasks for free in a fraction of the time? Metacritic was unamused. Once the allegations came to light, they banned Videogamer from their platform. They have also initiated an audit intended to identify and root out any AI-generated slop hiding on their site. Amazon is fighting a similar battle. Many of the reviews on their website are AI-generated. Why is this concerning? Well, think about it from a practical perspective. I will only read your ‘Requiem’ review because you played the video game to completion. I’m not asking you to tell me whether or not I should buy the game. All I need is an honest explanation of your experience. Telling me what you observed allows me to determine whether or not ‘Requiem’ is worth my $79. Even if you hated the game, I may still buy it because the negatives you outlined in your review sound like the sort of thing I would like. ChaptGPT cannot play ‘Resident Evil: Requiem’. AI reviews are merely a collection of the opinions it scoured from the internet. None of the pros and cons it highlights are true observations. It cannot provide useful feedback. This makes AI-generated reviews deceitful. Some people argue that they do the hard work of feeding ChatGPT their honest opinions. The AI tool merely organizes their genuine thoughts into a coherent review. It does not actually write them. However, we have no reason to trust those claims. Metacritic keeps assuring people that it is taking every conceivable step to eject AI reviews. The public is also learning to identify AI- written content. They usually reject anything that sounds too vague, robotic, or extreme. Perfect grammar is another concerning sign. Human sentences are typically all over the place. But AI will eventually eliminate these weaknesses, making it all but impossible to differentiate between AI and human-written reviews. So, maybe we have to abandon reviews altogether as a tool that shapes our purchasing decisions. Maybe we should go back to trusting our sketchy instincts, although I don’t relish that option. Let’s be honest. No matter how reliable your instincts seem, if you audited them honestly, you would realize that they are wrong more often than they are right. In other words, we are doomed. katmic200@gmail.comThe post We are doomed as AI starts dishing out reviews appeared first on The Observer.