How We Actually Review a Game

People ask how a game ends up with a number next to it on our site, so here's the honest answer. It starts with someone on the team installing it, usually because they saw it somewhere and got curious. There's no submission queue we work through in order.

We play for at least a couple of sessions before writing anything. First impressions lie — some games open slow and get great, others hook you and then fall apart. We try to give each one enough time to show its real shape.

Then we argue. Ratings come out of a group chat where at least two of us have played the thing, and we push back on each other's scores. If one person loved it and another bounced off, that tension usually makes the review better.

We don't take money to review anything, and studios can't see a score before it's published. That's the whole point of doing this ourselves.