A Game Blog · Surry Hills, Sydney
Charting the worlds worth playing.
We map RPGs, roguelikes and open-world epics the way old cartographers charted uncharted coasts — slowly, honestly, and with an eye for what's over the next ridge. No hype cycles, just field notes from hundreds of hours played.
Charting coverage across every corner of the map
640+
Games logged & reviewed
9 yrs
Charting the frontier
31k
Weekly newsletter readers
1,200+
Playtest hours a year
The Field Guide
How we chart every game we cover
A four-stage expedition, from first landing to final atlas entry. Every review follows the same route so you always know how we got there.
First Landing
The blind first 10 hours — no wiki, no guide. We log the opening's pacing, tutorial friction and whether the world earns your curiosity before the map fills in.
Full Survey
A complete playthrough to credits, tracking systems depth, difficulty curve, quest design and how well side content holds up against the mainline expedition.
Lore Cartography
Deep-dive essays mapping a game's worldbuilding, factions and hidden history — the layer most reviews skip. Published within two weeks of our verdict.
Atlas Entry
The final scored review lands in our permanent atlas, revisited after major patches and DLC so the verdict never quietly goes stale on you.
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Cartography
Before the guide, after the guide
Drag through what a region looks like on your first blind landing versus once our lore map and route notes have charted it. Two hundred hours of confusion, distilled.
Readers
Notes from the expedition party
"Their Elden Ring lore map saved my second playthrough. I finally understood the Carian storyline instead of nodding along to cutscenes I didn't follow."
"The only blog that told me a hyped RPG wasn't worth AU$99 at launch. They were right — I waited for the patch and had a far better time for it."
"I read the Thursday newsletter with my coffee every week. It's the one gaming voice that never chases outrage — just honest, thoughtful cartography of what's out there."
Reader Ratings
Rated 4.8 by 2,940 subscribers
Collected from our annual reader survey and newsletter feedback across 2025–2026. We publish the full breakdown every year, the good and the grumbling alike.
Contact
Join the expedition
Pitch a game we should chart, ask a question, or sign up for the Thursday field notes. We read every message ourselves.