How we actually test the games we review

People ask how long we play before writing. The honest answer is: until we've seen the part of the game that matters. For a puzzle game that might be a dozen levels; for an RPG it's usually a full act.

We play on real phones, not emulators, because battery drain, heat and touch response are part of the experience. A game that runs beautifully on a flagship can stutter on a three-year-old device, and that's worth mentioning.

One editor writes the first draft, then a second person checks the specific claims on their own hardware. If we disagree, we talk it out in the review instead of pretending there's one objective truth.

Finally, we revisit pieces after big patches. A game can change a lot in six months, and a stale review helps nobody.