How we rate games

We publish two kinds of reviews. Every review says at the top which kind it is.

Hands-on reviews

We play the game before we score it. The review says how many hours we played, how far we got, on what setup and when. The score from 0 to 10 weighs how the game plays in its first hours and later, how fair it is to players who never pay, how well it runs, and how much it respects your time.

Research reviews

For games we have not played yet, we write a research review from official sources (the publisher's own pages, store listings and rating boards) and from what players say in store reviews. A research review never claims play time. Its score is a fixed formula, and every research review shows its parts:

• Player reviews (40%). Steam's share of positive reviews divided by 10, and app-store stars mapped from 1–5 to 0–10, averaged with more weight for more ratings (logarithmically, so one huge store does not drown the others). Sources with fewer than 500 Steam reviews or 1,000 store ratings are left out. If none are left, we do not score the game.
• What money buys (30%). Starts at 10. Minus 3 if official information shows money buys strength against other players, or 2 if it buys strength against the game only. Minus 1.5 for paid time-savers such as boosters or a premium account. Minus 2 for paid random items such as gacha or loot boxes, and 1 more if their odds are not published (0.5 if only some are). Minus 0.5 for a monthly pass or subscription.
• Access (10%). Starts at 10. Minus 2 if the game costs money, 3 if it is not offered in the US, 1 if it runs on one kind of device only (PC, mobile, browser or console), and 1 if the minimum PC needs 16 GB of RAM or 100 GB of storage or more.
• Updates (20%). 10 if the latest official update is at most 3 months old, 7 up to 6 months, 4 up to 12 months, 1 after that.

The pay-to-win label of a research review follows the same facts: “strong” when money buys strength against other players, “mild” when it buys strength against the game or sells time-savers, “no” otherwise. When we play a game, its research review becomes a hands-on review, and the score can change.

What money buys

Every review has a table of what money buys: whether spending gives a real advantage, whether there are loot boxes or other random paid items and whether their odds are published, and whether there is a battle pass or subscription.

Lists and partner links

Our lists are ordered by our review scores. Whether a game has a partner link, and how much any partner pays, has no part in the score or the order. Good games without a partner link still appear in our lists, without a Play button.

Age ratings

We quote the official age rating (ESRB, PEGI or the store's IARC rating) as text with a link to where we read it.