Behind the desk: how a review actually gets made here

People sometimes assume we get press builds and fancy access. We don't. We download the same version everyone else does and start playing.

The rule is a minimum of a week with any game before we write. Some games need less to reveal themselves, but a week catches the things that only show up once the novelty wears off.

One of us plays, takes messy notes, and then argues about it with the rest of the team. Half the time the final rating shifts after those arguments.

Only after that does Lukas edit the piece into something readable. If a game bored us by day three, we'll say so — that's the whole point of doing this independently.