How we actually test the games we review

Every so often someone asks whether we really play everything, so here's how the sausage gets made. Short answer: yes, and it takes longer than you'd think.

We install a game on at least two different phones, one older and one recent, because performance varies wildly. A game that's smooth on new hardware can stutter badly on something two years old, and that matters for a verdict.

Then one of us commits to real playtime, usually a few hours minimum, spread across short and long sessions. We want to know how it feels on a quick break and during a longer sit-down, because those are very different experiences.

We take notes on battery drain, how pushy the notifications are, and whether it works offline. Those practical details often decide whether a game stays on our phones.

Only after all that does someone write the review. The rating is a conversation between whoever played it and the rest of us, so it's not one person's hot take.