How we actually decide a score

Every so often a reader asks why one game got a 4.5 and another a 4.3 when they seem similar. Fair question, so here's how it works behind the scenes.

We don't use a strict rubric. A number out of ten for graphics plus a number for sound tends to produce scores that feel accurate on paper and wrong in practice. Instead the whole team plays, we argue, and we land on a number that reflects the overall experience.

That means a simple game can score high if it does its one thing perfectly, and an ambitious game can score lower if it stumbles. Context matters. We judge a casual time-killer against other casual games, not against a hundred-hour RPG.

The score is a shorthand, honestly. The review text is where the real information is. If you only read the number you're missing most of what we're trying to say.

And yes, we change scores sometimes after updates. A patch that fixes a broken game deserves a second look, and we'll say so when we revisit.