The BuffNerfRepeat Review Policy

Our reviews give you our honest, unbiased opinion on the video game in question, ultimately giving you what we deem to be the important points to consider when deciding whether a game is worth your time and money.

We review as many of the latest triple-A games across all platforms that time will allow us to, with each titles reviewer selected based on their experience of the genre and/or previous titles in the series where applicable, so that appropriate and fair comparisons can be made with a sizeable amount of experience and knowledge. Where this is not possible due to time and/or platform constraints, the reviewer will always acknowledge their lack of experience in a particular genre/series, instead giving their opinion on that game as a new player.

We do not currently receive any kind of promotional or pre-release copies of games for us to review, so anything that we review has been bought by us with our own money on the games official day of release. Because of this, our reviews will likely be published later than those of other, similiar sites who do receive such copies. While we will strive to complete and release our reviews as soon as possible, we will always prioritise quality over speed, so a review will never be published until the reviewer has experienced enough of the game to make a fair and considered judgement. While this is left to the reviewers discretion, reviewers are expected to have significantly experienced all components of a game (single player, multiplayer) to a point that could be considered as “completion”, such as finishing a single player campaign or playing “endgame” content in a multiplayer title.

If, at any point, we do receive a promotional or pre-release copy of a game to review then this will in no way affect our judgement of a game. We pride ourselves on our honesty and, as passionate gamers, will never sacrifice our credibility to enhance our relationship with a publisher or for financial incentives.

On occasion, we will publish reviews for older titles that have been released for some time. We’re pure gamers at heart, and in our time away from keeping you up to date on all of the latest goings-on in the gaming world we like nothing more than to relax and play games. This sometimes means that we will be playing older titles that we missed when they were first released, either because they have been given away for free through a service (Games with Gold, PS Plus, Epic Games Store), have been added to a subscription service such as Xbox Game Pass, or we simply decided to buy them. We believe that gaming isn’t just about being obsessed with the latest releases—there are hundreds of great games out there that you have likely never experienced—so we look to cater to those people who, like us, are always looking for a gem that they may have missed. When we review an older game, we will always provide information on how we accessed a title and why, such as whether we’re experiencing it for free or not and if it was recommended by a friend.

Where a game has evolved over time, as is often the case with online-only games, we may update a review so that it is representative of how the game should be scored at that moment in time. Where this is the case, we will clearly state that the review has been updated and discuss how the game has changed since the initial review.

All reviews, whether of a new title or an old title, are submitted by the reviewer for editing before publication to ensure that they are accurate (to the Editor’s best knowledge) and don’t contain any inappropriate material. The editor will not make any changes to the review that aren’t grammatical without discussing them with the reviewer first. While the editor can give the reviewer their opinion on an aspect of a game or the game as a whole, we consider all reviewers to be credible, knowledgeable gamers and therefore the opinion of the reviewer will always be maintained. The editors own opinion will never be forced into a review.

When scoring a game, we provide a numerical score out of 10. While it is very difficult to assign a game a single number to indicate its quality, we assign a number based on how we think a game is best described as a single word (as seen below). Half a point (such as a 6.5 rating) is awarded where we feel that a game is ultimately best described as that single word, but is creeping towards the next rating up. Our ratings are as follows:

1 – Embarassing

2 – Painful

3 – Avoid

4 – Poor

5 – Mediocre

6 – Okay

7 – Good

8 – Great

9 – Amazing

10 – Flawless

While a game could simply be considered by this single number score, it would be unfair to compare the scores of two games from completely different genres. For example, when scoring the likes of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, we are considering both the quality of the game as a whole and how it stacks up against other games from the shooter genre, such as Battlefield V for example. Different genres have different criterias, so comparing the scores of Call of Duty and Forza Horizon would be unfair. While the final score does represent our overall single word summary of a game, our reviews will always provide in-depth analysis for all aspects of a game and our scores will be accompanied by a brief summary of our thoughts and a list of pros and cons.

While the utmost care and effort is made to ensure that all of our reviews are completely accurate, mistakes do happen from time to time. If you feel that we have made a mistake in one of our reviews then please use the Contact Us page to let us know. Equally, if you disagree with our review then that’s fine, gaming is subjective and we know that, so please use the comment section below a review and we’ll always be happy to hear your opinions and discuss them with you.

If you would like to request a particular game for us to review then we would be happy to hear from you. Please use the Contact Us page to get in touch.