How we actually test the games we review

People sometimes ask how long we spend with a game before writing about it. The short answer is: until we've seen enough to be fair. The longer answer is a bit more involved.

We play on more than one device. A game can run beautifully on a new phone and stutter badly on a two-year-old one, so we check both before we comment on performance.

We also track how we feel over several days, not just the first hour. First impressions lie. Some games dazzle early and get boring fast, while others take a while to show their best.

Finally, we note the small annoyances most reviews skip, like intrusive loading screens or awkward menus. Those details are what you actually live with, so we think they deserve a mention.