How we actually decide on a score

People email asking why a game got a 4.2 and not a 4.5, so here's the honest answer: our ratings are opinions, not measurements. There's no spreadsheet with weighted columns. There's a person who played the game and how they felt at the end.

That said, we do talk it out. A game usually gets played by two of us, and we compare notes before a number goes up. If we disagree wildly, we say so in the text rather than splitting the difference into a fake average.

What pulls a score up is a game doing its one thing with care. What pulls it down is friction, usually controls that fight you or a design that nags you to come back. A beautiful game with bad touch handling will still lose points.

So read the words, not just the number. The paragraphs are where the real review lives. The rating is just a quick signal for people in a hurry.