ABOUT

G'day. I'm Michael, a programmer and lifelong gamer from Sydney, and this is where I write down what I actually think about the games, films, anime, books, board games and gadgets I spend my time on.

NO SPONSORSNO PR FLUFFSELF FUNDED

HOW WE SCORE

Every review carries one number out of 10, plus a breakdown of the three to five things that number is made of. The breakdown matters more than the headline figure: a game can earn an 8 on the strength of its systems while its story sits at 6, and you deserve to see which half you are buying.

9.0-10

Drop what you are doingGenuinely special. We will still be talking about it next year.

8.0-8.9

Great, go play itDoes what it set out to do, and the flaws never spoil it.

7.0-7.9

Good, with caveatsWorth your time if the premise appeals. Something real is holding it back.

6.0-6.9

For the curious onlyInteresting ideas, uneven delivery. Wait for a sale.

4.0-5.9

Not worth it yetHollow, broken or unfinished. Maybe later, after patches.

0-3.9

AvoidWe would be asking for our money back.

We do not round up to be kind. If a review lands at 5, that is the review.

HOW A REVIEW GETS MADE

We buy nearly everything we cover. Where a review copy, press key or early access build was provided, the review says so in plain text at the top.
We say roughly how long we spent with something before scoring it, because twenty hours in a roguelike and twenty hours in an RPG are not the same claim.
Reviews of live service and early access titles are dated on purpose. They describe the thing as it was on that date, not forever.

IMAGES AND VIDEO

Every image here is real: official key art, press kit material, storefront screenshots or publisher stills, credited in the caption. We do not use AI generated images, and we do not lift another outlet's screenshots. Trailers are embedded from the publisher's own channel, never from a reupload.

AFFILIATE LINKS AND ADS

Some links to storefronts earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. They never affect a score, and no review is commissioned by a retailer. The full detail is in the affiliate disclosure. Display advertising is served by third parties and kept out of the body of an article, and members who support the site directly see no ads at all.

CORRECTIONS

We get things wrong sometimes. When we do we fix the article and say what changed, rather than quietly editing it. If you have spotted an error, a broken fact or a miscredited image, tell us on the contact page and we will sort it out.

WHO WRITES HERE

Reviews and news are written by named humans, and every article links to its author's page so you can see everything else they have written and judge their taste against your own. Where an article builds on reporting by another outlet, that outlet is linked in the text, because they did the work.