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How we review

How games earn a place on the ring, how we play them, how the score works and what we flag about time and money.

What earns a place

A game can join the ring when players in the UK can buy or download it on at least one mainstream platform today. New releases and older games are equally welcome, as long as they are still available and supported.

Where picks come from

We start from worlds with a clear identity: a distinct art direction, a strong idea and something to say. Reader suggestions, long-time favourites and small independent releases share one list, and nothing can pay its way onto it.

How we play

Each game is played by at least one of us, to the credits where it has them, or long enough to understand its whole structure where it does not. Online and co-op games are played with friends and with strangers. If we could not play a game properly, it stays off the ring.

The four buttons

We press on the same four things in every game:

  • World (story, place and purpose): What the game is about, how its world is built and whether it still holds together in the final hours.
  • Feel (controls and pace): How it plays minute to minute: input response, pacing, challenge and the pleasure of getting better at it.
  • Craft (art, sound and polish): Art direction, music, performance and stability: the details that show a team cared about the finish.
  • Access (comfort and options): Difficulty assists, subtitles, remapping, motion comfort and how easy it is for a new player to start.

The score

Each game gets one editorial score out of five, in steps of one tenth, drawn as a radial gauge. It sums up the four buttons and how the game felt to play. It is an opinion, not a measurement.

Before you press start

Every review ends with a small kit: a save point, the natural pause where a session can end well; a price tag, what the game can cost beyond the first purchase, such as expansions or packs; and a reminder to check the PEGI label. We flag daily rewards, streaks and long-session designs whenever a game uses them.

What we never do

We do not run polls, publish audience figures, claim sales data or accept payment for coverage. We do not write reviews from trailers, previews or press releases.

Keeping reviews current

Platforms and links are checked regularly and fixed as soon as we learn of a problem. When a major update changes a game, we play it again before changing what we wrote.