Mainstream Outside writes reviews for gamers who don’t want to read PR fluff, but want honest buying advice: independent, critical, and—when a game deserves it—happy to deliver a small kick to the shin. Since we love video games, we don’t just dabble; we play them through to the end credits. Unless we’re dealing with a true content monster, that is. Which brings us to it: how exactly do we review?

What matters to us

We always look at games as a whole, but we do set priorities. The heaviest weight goes to:

• Originality & creativity: Is the game doing its own thing, or just recycling trends?
• Story (if there is one): Not every game needs a plot. But if it has one, it better hold up.
• Atmosphere, design & tech: Mood, game feel, audio / direction, level design, system stability—the full package counts.
• Visuals are secondary at Mainstream Outside, unless a game delivers truly exceptional work. Then it gets its due.

Platforms

Mainstream Outside mainly reviews PC games. That said, we don’t rule out consoles if a title is interesting. Right now, we can review games on:

• PC
• PS4 / PS5
• Nintendo Switch
• common retro systems

Our test rigs

We currently test on two PC setups, so we can judge performance and tech from more than one angle:

Test system 1 (weaker)

• Intel Core i7-8700K
• GeForce RTX 3060 (12 GB)
• 16 GB DDR4 (4×4 GB)
• older SSD

Test system 2 (stronger):

• AMD Ryzen 7 7700
• Radeon RX 7900 GRE (16 GB)
• 32 GB DDR5-6000 (EXPO)
• WD Black SN850X 2 TB (PCIe 4.0 NVMe)

Plus, when needed, a standard PS4, PS5, and Switch.

How a review works for us

We don’t review games for ourselves or “the headline”—we review them for our readers.

• Finish it, if that’s realistic:

Games of average length we usually play all the way through. Very long titles we test for at least 20–30 hours (or longer if that’s what a fair verdict requires).

• We play “blind”:

Normally without walkthroughs or guides. We only look up help when we truly have to; thanks to gaming experience since 1982, that’s pretty rare.

• Documentation:

Per game, we produce at least 500 to over 1,000 targeted screenshots. When needed, we add notes too (e.g., bugs, performance oddities, design issues).

• A deliberate tech check:

We intentionally test common weak spots (streaming hitches, frametimes, UI quirks, save issues, script errors, weird triggers, etc.). With professional game dev experience since 2015, we know exactly how to push games into situations where they show their ugly side.

Performance measurement (PC)

We don’t measure performance “by feel”—we use tools:

• MSI Afterburner & CapFrameX
• We measure, among other things: Avg FPS, 1% Low, p95 frametime, VRAM peak, CPU / GPU bound
• V-Sync is always off, so measurements stay comparable
• We measure three busy and / or effect-heavy scenes for 20 seconds each and use those values as the baseline

Depending on the game, we’ll also call out stutter, streaming problems, shader compilation, and the rest. In the end, it’s not just the FPS number that matters—it’s how clean the whole thing feels.

Our scoring system

Mainstream Outside awards a score from 0 to 100. That score is partly made up of (differently weighted) sub-scores:

• Originality
• Gameplay
• Story
• Tech
• Presentation

Each category is rated from 0 to 10; half steps (e.g., 7.5) are possible.

• Value (price/performance) is a separate rating that shows how much game you’re getting for your money

What each number means

• 0–29: Miserable—stay away
• 30–49: Bad—the competition does it better
• 50–69: Average—try it first / watch gameplay videos
• 70–79: Good—but with flaws
• 80–84: Very good—only minor shortcomings
• 85–89: Excellent—nitpicking at a very high level
• 90–94: Must play—a milestone
• 95–100: Practically perfect—basically never happens

A 96+ at MSO is statistically about as likely as a battle pass without a shop. But hey, never say never.

Still, the final score isn’t an Excel value: it’s a responsible overall verdict based on decades of experience. Fairness is non-negotiable: if we personally don’t like a game but it’s objectively strong, it still gets a strong score from us. Period.

Transparency: keys, ads, affiliate, AI

We sometimes receive press keys and actively request review copies. That changes nothing, though: publisher sensitivities don’t interest us. Any potential ads or partnerships don’t influence our scores either (and we don’t go begging for them, anyway).

Affiliate links are possible, but won’t be placed in reviews. If there are affiliate links elsewhere, they’ll only ever point to things that fit Mainstream Outside’s philosophy (no garbage, no gambling, no exploitative mechanics).

AI is used neither for the review process nor for writing reviews. Not out of ideology—we simply don’t need it for that.

And now: enjoy our review articles!