How We Score Games, And Why Numbers Lie

Every review here ends with a number, and I have mixed feelings about that. A rating is a useful shorthand, but it flattens a lot of nuance that only the written review can carry.

Our scores run from about 3.8 to 4.9, which some people find suspiciously high. The reason is simple: we don't bother writing full reviews for games we actively dislike. If it made the site, it already cleared a bar.

When we assign a number, we're weighing how well a game achieves what it set out to do, not comparing a cozy sim against a hardcore strategy game on the same scale. A 4.2 casual game and a 4.7 RPG are answering completely different questions.

So read the words, not just the digit. The number tells you roughly how much we liked it. The paragraphs tell you whether you will.