Shoreditch · London gaming desk
Long-form raid strategy, honest reviews scored without the hype, and retro deep-dives — brewed daily in a Rivington Street back room by people who still finish the games they cover.
What we cover
Four editorial beats, each with its own tempo and its own writers. Everything is free to read; a small membership keeps the lights on.
Weekly · Members from £4/mo
Boss-by-boss breakdowns with role callouts, DPS checks and mechanic timers you can actually pause on. Each guide is stress-tested by our clear team before it ever goes live, so the rotation you read is the rotation that worked.
2–3 per week · Free
We finish the campaign, log the hours and score out of ten with the caveats spelled out. No embargoed puff pieces and no publisher junkets — just what a game costs your time, your wallet and your patience.
Fortnightly · Free
The design decisions, the doomed sequels and the cartridges that shaped a genre. We interview the developers where we can and emulate the rest, so the history holds up to anyone who was actually there.
Fresh off the desk
Filter by beat to find your read for the commute back to Old Street.
The add-swap that turns an enrage wipe into a clean kill.
A gorgeous 60-hour RPG that only stumbles in its final act.
A hardware post-mortem 25 years on, told by the people who shipped it.
The comp that trivialises the timer without a meta cheese.
By the numbers
From the comments
Reader story · 2:14
"Your Molten Vault guide got our guild its first clear after three weeks of wiping. The timer callouts were spot on — we printed them out."
"Finally a review site that admits when a game gets boring in the back half. I've cancelled two pre-orders on your word and saved a fortune."
"The Dreamcast piece made me dig my old console out of the loft. Beautifully researched — I read it twice."
Good to know
Every review, retro feature and news post is free, forever. Our detailed raid guides sit behind an optional £4-a-month membership that funds the clear team's play-testing. Members also get the guides a day early and an ad-free experience.
We finish the main game before publishing and score out of ten across systems, pacing and value. There is no half-point inflation and no publisher influence — we buy most copies ourselves. Where we receive a review code, we say so at the top of the piece.
Yes — we run two or three guest pieces a month and pay a flat rate for accepted work. Send a short pitch and a writing sample to our contact address and the editors will reply within a week. We especially want under-covered indie and retro subjects.
We run a monthly retro games night at our Rivington Street office, usually the last Thursday, from 7pm. It's free and open to members and newsletter subscribers, with a rotating cabinet and BYO controllers. Watch the newsletter for the next date.
Say hello
One email a week: the best new guide, the sharpest review and whatever the retro night is playing next. Or just drop us a line — we read everything.