How we score games, and why the number isn't the point

Every review here ends with a number, and I have mixed feelings about that. Numbers are useful shorthand, but they flatten everything that makes a game interesting into a single decimal. So here's how we actually arrive at them.

We don't use a rigid checklist. A score reflects how the game held up over the time we played it: did it stay fun, did it respect our time, did it do the thing it set out to do well. A focused little racer can score as high as a sprawling RPG if it nails its goals.

That's why two games with the same rating can feel completely different. A 4.3 for an arcade racer means something distinct from a 4.3 for a strategy game. The context is in the paragraphs, which is where the real review lives.

If you take one thing from this, let it be this: read the words. The number is a starting point, not a verdict. We put the honest opinions in the text, quirks and gripes and all.