How we actually review a game here

People sometimes ask how we decide what's good, so here's the honest answer. It starts with someone on the team playing a game properly, not for twenty minutes but for days, taking notes as they go.

We try to judge a game against what it's trying to be. An arcade racer and a slow strategy game want completely different things from you, and scoring them on the same checklist would be silly.

We also play to the point where the novelty wears off. Lots of games are fun for an hour. The real test is whether they still feel good in week two, when the shine is gone and only the design remains.

Then we write it up plainly: what we liked, what annoyed us, who it's for. The rating is one person's informed opinion, edited by another. It's not science, and we'd never pretend it is.