How we actually test a game before writing about it

People ask how long we play before publishing. The honest answer is: until we have something real to say. For most games that's several sessions across a few days, on more than one phone.

We check the obvious stuff — framerate, load times, how bad the pop-ups get — but we also just live with a game. Does it survive a week on the home screen? Do we open it without being nagged?

Different genres get different treatment. A racer earns its score on feel and controls; an RPG has to hold up over hours. We don't pretend a five-minute look is a review.

And we buy or download everything ourselves. No early access from publishers, no strings. That's the only way the scores mean anything.