How We Actually Review a Game

People sometimes ask how long we spend with a game before writing. The honest answer is: until we feel we understand it, which is rarely less than a few days.

We install on a normal phone, not a flagship, so we catch problems most players will hit. Battery drain, heat, and stutters all make it into our notes even if they never make it into the final review word for word.

Each reviewer plays past the tutorial and into the part where a game's real systems open up. Lots of games look great for ten minutes and fall apart at hour three, and that is exactly where we want to be looking.

Scores come last. We talk through the experience as a group, note the highs and lows, and only then settle on a number. It is subjective by nature, and we would rather be honest than pretend otherwise.