There have been few attempts to introduce frameworks that can help support tutors evaluate educationalgames and simulations that can be most effective in their particular learning context and subject area. Thelack of a dedicated framework has produced a significant impediment for the uptake of games and simu-lations particularly in formal learning contexts. This paper addresses this shortcoming by introducing afour-dimensional framework for helping tutors to evaluate the potential of using games- and simulation-based learning in their practice, and to support more critical approaches to this form of games and simu-lations. The four-dimensional framework is applied to two examples from practice to test its efficacy and structure critical reflection upon practice.