This Week · Shadow of the Erdtree DLC Year One Retrospective New Series · Helldivers 2 Major Order Field Reports Free for Subscribers · 2026 Indie Game Watch List, 30 Picks Now Live · Black Myth: Wukong Boss Encyclopedia, 13 Fights Broken Down This Week · Shadow of the Erdtree DLC Year One Retrospective New Series · Helldivers 2 Major Order Field Reports Free for Subscribers · 2026 Indie Game Watch List, 30 Picks Now Live · Black Myth: Wukong Boss Encyclopedia, 13 Fights Broken Down

ABOUT
GAMEPULSE.

An independent gaming magazine for people who actually finish the game. Since 2024, we've been doing one simple thing — taking every game worth talking about, and actually talking about it.

★ MANIFESTO · WHERE WE STAND

Games deserve to be
taken seriously.
Even when that's getting harder.

By the time we started GAMEPULSE in 2024, the gaming press had been quietly hollowed out for years. SEO bait, embargoed praise, sponsored coverage dressed up as a review, and the slow creep of AI-generated "guide" pages — an industry that should have been the most loved by enthusiasts had become the one giving them the least to read.

We're not here to pretend this is a return to anything. We're not here to "fight" the trend either. We just figured: if there are still a few thousand people who, after rolling credits on a game, want to read someone actually engaging with it — there should be at least one place where that piece gets written.

That's GAMEPULSE. No paid coverage. No AI-assembled walkthroughs. No "best games ever made" listicles. What we publish takes time to read. We think it's worth your time.

★ THE STORY

It started as a
shared Notion doc.

In spring 2024, our editor-in-chief Marcus Reed opened a Notion page titled "Games Worth Talking About This Week." He emailed it to a dozen friends every Wednesday morning.

Three months in, that mailing list was 200 people. Six months in, 2,000. That was when we realized this might not be a hobby — there was a real, underserved audience for games coverage that took itself seriously.

In 2025 we incorporated. Today GAMEPULSE has six full-time editors, twelve contract writers, and over 18,000 newsletter subscribers. We still ship every Wednesday at 9 AM Eastern. That part won't change.

GAMEPULSE newsroom
18.4K
Newsletter Subscribers
412
Long-Form Pieces Published
87
Weekly Issues Shipped
0
Sponsored or AI-Written Posts
★ 06 PRINCIPLES · HOW WE WORK

Six commitments
we'll be held to.

01

Finish the game first. Then write.

Every review and guide requires the writer to have completed the main campaign. For RPGs, we ask for a minimum of 60 hours. That's the floor, not the ceiling.

02

No publisher money. Ever.

Every game is bought by the editorial team out of pocket. Sponsored posts, undisclosed promotions, embargoed messaging coordinated with PR — all hard lines we won't cross.

03

Write short. Write right.

We don't pay by the word. If a piece can land in 3,000 words, we won't pad it to 8,000. But every claim we make, we stand behind.

04

No "GREATEST EVER" headlines.

Those words have been used to death. We spend the column inches on why and in what way a game works — not on superlatives that flatter the reader and tell them nothing.

05

Indies get the same column inches.

A triple-A release and a five-person studio's debut get treated the same way at GAMEPULSE. If it's worth talking about, it's worth talking about — regardless of marketing budget.

06

We get things wrong. We say so.

Mistakes get a correction note in the article. Big ones get a re-published update. When readers email us to push back, we read it and we reply. That habit is the whole point.

★ WORKFLOW · HOW A FEATURE GETS MADE

Fourteen days
from pitch to publish.

01
Monday Pitch MeetingD-14 · MONDAY MORNING
The full editorial team meets every Monday to scope three or four features for the week — which games warrant a deep dive, which get a short news write-up, and which we skip entirely. The bar is one question: does this game have something worth taking apart?
02
The Writer PlaysD-12 → D-3 · GAME COMPLETION
The assigned writer buys their own copy, completes at least one full playthrough, and takes notes throughout. No drafting yet — just play, document, capture screenshots.
03
First Draft & Peer ReviewD-3 → D-1 · DRAFT & PEER
The first draft goes to a second editor who's also played the game. Their job is to push back: what did the writer miss, where did fandom override judgment, where is a claim soft?
04
Editor-in-Chief PassD-1 · FINAL EDIT
Marcus runs the last pass on tone and argument. This step usually trims 30% of the word count. We've never lost a reader because a piece was too short. We've lost plenty because a piece was padded.
05
Wednesday 9 AM ET — ShipD-0 · LIVE 09:00 AM
Since Issue 087, GAMEPULSE has never missed a Wednesday. Not when the editor-in-chief had a 102°F fever. Not over the holidays. Not when our mail server caught fire — we sent that issue from a backup mailbox.
★ TEAM · THE NEWSROOM

The people who actually
write GAMEPULSE.

M
Marcus Reed
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

A decade in hardcore action games. Former fighting-game tournament commentator. Covers Soulslikes and character action.

J
Jordan Wallace
SENIOR EDITOR · RPGs

RPG lifer. From Final Fantasy VI through Baldur's Gate 3. Writes RPGs, open-world games, and narrative-led releases.

R
Riley Chen
SYSTEMS · GAME DESIGN

Former indie developer. Specializes in mechanical and numerical breakdowns. The person you ask when something is good and you can't say why.

C
Casey Park
INDIE GAMES

Full-time indie player. Steam library north of 2,400 titles. Hunts down the games nobody is talking about yet — but should be.

D
Devon Walsh
INDUSTRY & BUSINESS

Former publishing exec. Writes the business desk: layoffs, mergers, console wars, and what's actually happening behind the press releases.

A
Alex Morgan
VIDEO & VISUAL

YouTube veteran. Runs the GAMEPULSE video channel, designs covers, and produces every motion graphic on the site. Quietly fanatical about kerning.

★ CONTACT

Three ways
to reach us.

PITCH A STORY · WRITE FOR US
Want to write for GAMEPULSE?

We're always looking for contract writers. The bar is simple: you've played it, you've thought about it, and you'll stand behind your read. Rates start at $0.20–$0.80 per word, with no ceiling on the best work.

writers@gamepulse.best
BUSINESS · PARTNERSHIPS
Business Inquiries

We don't run sponsored coverage, but we do work with conferences, podcast networks, and brand partners outside the editorial wall. Email us — we usually reply within two business days.

biz@gamepulse.best
CORRECTIONS & FEEDBACK
Found a mistake?

We get things wrong. Often. Factual errors, missed nuance, calls we should have walked back — please tell us. We respond within seven days and update the article publicly when we should.

corrections@gamepulse.best
★ WEEKLY ISSUE · IN YOUR INBOX EVERY WEDNESDAY 9 AM ET

Get GAMEPULSE
delivered weekly.

Five hand-picked guides + three industry stories + one indie spotlight. No sponsored posts, no AI filler, no clickbait — just the magazine we'd want to read ourselves.

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