How We Actually Score A Game

People sometimes ask why we don't just score everything out of ten. Honestly, a five-point-ish scale forces us to be clearer. A 4.0 from us means a solid, enjoyable game with a couple of rough edges — not a disappointment.

We play a title across multiple sessions before settling on a number. The first hour of almost any game is designed to impress; we're more interested in hour five, when the real pacing shows up.

Genre matters too. We don't judge a cozy puzzle game against a sprawling RPG. We ask whether a game does what it set out to do, and whether it respects your time while doing it.

The number is always the last thing we write. If the review and the score ever disagree, we rewrite the review.