How We Score Games (And Why We Don't Give Perfect Tens)

People ask us fairly often what our ratings actually mean, so here's the honest breakdown. Our scale runs from about 3.8 to 4.9, and yes, that's deliberately narrow — if a game is bad enough to score lower, we usually just don't cover it.

A rating reflects how well a game does what it sets out to do, not how it stacks up against every other genre. A simple casual game and a deep RPG can both score highly if each nails its own goals. Comparing a fishing game to a strategy epic makes no sense, so we don't.

We never hand out a perfect score. There's always something we'd change, and pretending otherwise would make the whole scale meaningless. A 4.9 means 'we struggled to find real complaints,' not 'flawless.'

Most importantly, the number is a summary, not the review. Read the actual text — that's where we explain what worked, what didn't, and whether it'll suit how you play. The score is just the headline.