How we actually review a game

People sometimes ask how long we spend with a game before writing about it. The honest answer is: as long as it takes to have a real opinion, which varies wildly by genre.

A quick arcade racer might reveal everything it has in an hour. An RPG can take ten before we're comfortable judging it. We don't publish until whoever's playing feels they've seen the game's real shape, good and bad.

We take notes constantly while playing, mostly about small friction points, because those are what you forget by the time you sit down to write. A single annoying menu or a clumsy control scheme can quietly ruin an otherwise good game.

Then we argue. Scores get debated, sometimes heatedly, and that back-and-forth usually sharpens the final piece. What ends up on the site is the version we all stand behind.