How we actually decide a score at Pocket Verdict

People ask how we land on a number, and the honest answer is that it starts long before the score. We install the game and just play, the way anyone would, usually across several days.

We take notes on four things: how it feels to control, how it respects your time, how deep it stays after the first hour, and whether we'd actually keep playing. The number comes at the very end, once we've argued it out as a team.

No rating is bought, and no developer sees a review before it's live. If a game drops in quality after an update, we revisit it. Scores aren't frozen in stone.

A 4.2 isn't a failure, by the way. We review across every genre, and a solid casual game and a sprawling RPG are judged against what they're trying to be, not against each other.