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LarkwickUK games honours

How the honours are decided

Method

Follow, shortlist, play and weigh: how the list is built and ordered.

01Eligibility

A game qualifies when players in the UK can get it on at least one mainstream platform during the edition. Older games qualify when they are still widely played and actively supported: the list follows what people play, not only the release calendar.

02Stage one: follow

Through the year we watch the public signals of what is being played: weekly retail and download charts, platform best-seller lists, community forums and the messages readers send us. These signals tell us where to look. We do not treat them as a vote and we do not publish figures from them.

03Stage two: shortlist

Games that keep coming up go on the board next to the releases, major updates and long-running favourites the desk has followed all year. The shortlist is deliberately broad, from big studio productions to small independent projects.

04Stage three: play

Every contender is played properly by at least one desk member, to the credits where a game has them or long enough to see its whole structure where it does not. A game we could not play properly is left out rather than guessed at.

05Stage four: weigh

Each finalist is scored out of ten on four criteria and the four scores are averaged into the desk score shown on its file. When games are close, the desk plays them side by side and settles the order together.

06The four criteria

  • World — art direction, sense of place, story and atmosphere.
  • Feel — controls, pacing, challenge and the moment-to-moment play.
  • Craft — performance, sound, stability and care in the details.
  • Access — difficulty and assist options, readability, remapping and how easy it is to begin.

07What the list is not

The list is an opinion. It is not a survey, a sales chart, a forecast or a promise that you will enjoy a game. Prices, age ratings, requirements and availability are always stated by the official site.

08Corrections

The order is fixed for an edition. Platforms, links and factual details are corrected as soon as we learn about a problem, and any change that affects a game’s place is noted on its file.