Now that I've taken the plunge into gaming again I am wondering what are the best websites out there that I should bookmark for reviews and videos and news?

Also, I've read about places online that have you fill out surveys and such for "points" that can be redeemed for XboxLive memberships, controls, etc. Some reviews of these state they are legit and others say they are tedious. Any truth to these sites?

They're all pretty interchangeable, just a matter of finding the "tone" that you like.

www.1up.com
www.gamespot.com
www.joystiq.com
www.kotaku.com
www.destructoid.com
www.ign.com

I know at least one of those offer sites does work. I don't think we're allowed to discuss them here though. I got 8-10 free games (3 of which were the $100 Guitar Hero III bundle). I haven't used them in about a year though.

I agree with the sites in chuckd's post....and I'll add my weekly gaming column *caugh* in there for the shameless plug portion. *scampers away*

www.videogametalk.com

(but stay out of the forums, their community SUCKS)

www.gamerankings.com

Kokatu and Joystiq I heard are pretty good.

http://www.gametrailers.com/


great reviews, and a lot of great high def videos of games....

http://www.giantbomb.com
http://www.computerandvideogames.com
http://www.fidgit.com --> Tom Chick (of CGW's Tom vs. Bruce fame) reviews and blogs here, covers all videogaming genres.

Cheapassgamer.com

Kotaku is my site of choice. I like that their reviews basically just list the pros/cons of a game along with an overall impression without assigning an arbitrary number score to it. But chuckd21 is right, they're all pretty interchangeable. Any major news story will appear at about the same time on all major gaming sites. I will say that I hate Gamespot's website. It's disorganized and a bit too ad-happy for my tastes.