That sour electric aroma you can smell is the collective anxiety-stench of games journalists trying to decide whether it's worth sitting through the full investor presentation in the hopes of discovering some proper context for these pitiful morsels - perhaps even a unique angle which none of those other hacks have discovered, the feckless layabouts.
So he's taking his frustrations out on the reader by padding his article with sympathy-bait? I've come to really dislike Rock Paper Shotgun articles lately