How we actually score a game

People ask why we don't just give everything out of ten with decimals to two places. The honest answer is that a number is a shorthand, not a science, and we'd rather you read the words.

Our scale runs roughly from 3.8 to 4.9 because we don't review games we'd give lower — if something's genuinely bad, we usually just don't cover it. A 4.0 means solid and worth trying; a 4.6 means we'll be recommending it to friends for months.

We weigh how it feels to play over how it looks, and we knock points off for things like aggressive timers that get in the way of fun. Story, controls, and whether we wanted to keep playing all factor in.

If two of us disagree hard, we say that in the review. A single number can't capture that a game is brilliant for one player and tedious for another.