April 3, 2026
What Matthew thinks of Crimson Desert, new DLC for old games, how 360-era classics would score now in reviews, dream Helldivers 2 warbonds and more nonsense in the latest mailbag episode.
This week's music is from the Deadly Premonition soundtrack by Riyou Kinugasa, Takuya Kobayashi and Hiromi Mizutani.
This is the From Russia With Love PS2 clip mentioned in the episode.
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March 27, 2026
Former Eurogamer reporter Emma Kent is our guest this week! What's it like doing actual journalism, rather than just dropping hot takes about Uncharted and Mario? That's what we ask Emma about in this one.
You can sign up for the (free) Eteo Archetypes newsletter discussed in the second half of this week's episode here.
This week's music is from the Valheim soundtrack by Patrik Jarlestam.
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March 20, 2026
Two top 10 lists from an amazing year for video games.
This week's music is from the Tetris Effect soundtrack by Hydelic.
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March 13, 2026
VGC's Andy Robinson is this week's guest. Andy discusses his days on PC Zone and CVG, and why he's made the effort to built relationships with Japanese game developers in the last few years.
This week's music is from the Yooka-Laylee soundtrack by Grant Kirkhope, David Wise and Steve Burke.
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March 6, 2026
What we've been playing lately that doesn't feature Leon S Kennedy. Games discussed: Reanimal, Dark Auction, Marathon, Yakuza Kiwami 3 + Dark Ties, Pokémon LeafGreen, Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse, Dragon Quest VII: Reimagined, Romeo is a Dead Man, Wild Blue Skies, Denshattack!, Dusk Index Gion.
The two Pokémon-themed media projects mentioned in this episode – Matt Reynolds' One More Catch and James Batchelor's history of the series.
Music in this week's episode is from the Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen soundtrack by Go Ichinose, Junichi Masuda and Morikazu Aoki, and the Dark Auction soundtrack by Yuko Komiyama, Tsukasa Masuko and others.
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February 27, 2026
A deep dive into the year's first big game (sorry, Mario Tennis). Section one is spoiler-free, and the much shorter section two has clearly marked spoilers. But, you still might want to listen to this after you've played the game if you want to experience everything fresh.
Pretty much everything discussed in the first hour is in Capcom's marketing materials for the game.
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February 20, 2026
Judge Castle tackles listeners' moral dilemmas in the return of podcasting's worst format.
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February 13, 2026
Our first draft episode of the year is here! Who can pick the best levels out of Samuel, Matthew, Dave and Ash? You decide. Vote for the winner in the announcements channel of the Discord.
This week's music is from the Sonic 2 soundtrack by Masato Nakamura, the Grand Theft Auto V soundtrack by Tangerine Dream and Woody Jackson, the Super Mario 64 soundtrack by Koji Kondo and the Mario Kart World soundtrack by Atsuko Asahi, Maasa Miyoshi, Takuhiro Honda and Yutaro Takakuwa.
These are the categories if you need a refresh:
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February 6, 2026
Five years later, The Guardian's Keza MacDonald returns to the podcast to talk about her new book, Super Nintendo (UK link here, US link here). We then close out with Keza's quickfire list of the 10 most underrated Nintendo games.
This week's music is from the Diddy Kong Racing soundtrack by David Wise.
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January 30, 2026
Having conquered GTA III (kind of), Vice City and San Andreas (plus Bully, which is sort of a GTA), it's time for the definitive Back Page podcast on 2008's Grand Theft Auto IV. Joining us to dissect the first HD GTA is beloved third host and freelance writer extraordinaire Jeremy Peel.
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January 23, 2026
A mop up of some neat games we missed from 2025, plus Matthew's thoughts on the newest game from Inkle.
Games discussed: TR-49, Skate Story, POPUCOM, Wheel World, Earthion, Routine, The Séance of Blake Manor, Demonschool and The Berlin Apartment.
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January 16, 2026
What makes a 9/10 game not a 10/10 game? Why do video games end up bad? Which NPC would you least like to be stuck in a lift with? What food do they serve at the hypothetical Matthew Castle-themed cafe in Shibuya? These are some of the questions tackled in our first mailbag episode of 2026.
Feel free to submit future mailbag questions in the Discord, or to [email protected].
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January 9, 2026
26 (or so) predictions about 2026, based on nothing whatsoever. Plus: our 2025 predictions revisited, and our 5 picks for this year's fantasy draft.
This week's music is from the Trauma Center: Second Opinion soundtrack by Kenichi Tsuchiya and Shingo Yasumoto.
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December 26, 2025
Two top 10 lists of the best games from 2025. This week's music is from the Promise Mascot Agency soundtrack by Peter McCaughan and Ryo Koike.
Want to play Matthew's number 3? Head here.
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December 19, 2025
Need a video game awards show with dumb categories no company would ever sponsor? We've got your back, once again.
Thanks to all our returning guests from this year for dropping in!
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December 12, 2025
This episode is all about the games that hit players with emotional gut punches. You get 50 minutes of nice preamble with returning guest, indie developer Lucy Blundell, then 1 hour+ of our combined 15 top emotional moments in games.
After the 50-minute mark, this episode features spoilers (some light, some heavy) for these games: Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Final Fantasy X, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Final Fantasy VII (and the remakes), Botany Manor, Ori and the Blind Forest (just the intro), The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Fable 2, What Remains of Edith Finch, Halo: Reach, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy.
But...most of it is pretty topline, and it's well worth a listen. Find Lucy's latest game VIDEOVERSE on PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch.
This week's music is from the Final Fantasy X soundtrack by Nobuo Uematsu, Masashi Hamauzu and Junya Nakano.
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December 5, 2025
Cassette Beasts developer and all-round great video game thinker Jay Baylis joins us once again! In time for the release of Metroid Prime 4, Matthew and Jay each share their top 5 games in Nintendo's series.
This is the Critical Hit article Jay mentioned on Metroid's possible influences. This week's music is from the Metroid: Zero Mission soundtrack by Kenji Yamamoto and Minako Hamano.
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November 28, 2025
The podcast eats itself! The Back Page finally dedicates a whole episode to its namesake. How do back page jokes go wrong? And what about the less frequent times when they go well? Returning guest Phil Savage, Global Editor-in-Chief of PC Gamer, helps us examine the creation of these gags. There's also a 20-minute bit on ARC Raiders near the start if that's your sort of thing.
This week's music is from the Yakuza 0 soundtrack by Hidenori Shoji.
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November 21, 2025
The drafts return! Four giant men compete to pick the best games on the Mega Drive (or Genesis, if you're American), SNES and Neo Geo across 8 categories – plus a 9th bonus category specifically for the Amiga.
This week's music is from the Streets of Rage 2 soundtrack by Yuzo Koshiro and the Chrono Trigger soundtrack by Yasunori Mitsuda (not Rick Astley).
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November 14, 2025
This week's guest is Matt Leone, former Special Projects Editor at Polygon. Hear all about his new website Design Room, and his work on the oral history of Final Fantasy VII and and Shadow of the Colossus.
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November 7, 2025
A deep dive into an all-time classic on Wii. We'll do this again on Monday for Super Mario Galaxy 2, exclusively for Patreon XL Tier members!
This week's music is from the Super Mario Galaxy soundtrack by Koji Kondo and Mahito Yokota.
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October 31, 2025
Games discussed: Dispatch, Absolum, The Séance of Blake Manor, Ninja Gaiden 4, Hell is Us.
Then, Samuel butchering a bunch of Zelda quiz questions. It has to be heard to be believed.
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October 24, 2025
A deep dive on the demos we tried during Steam Next Fest, hopefully giving you a few things for your wishlist consideration.
Samuel's games: Reanimal, Birdcage, Lumines Arise, The Killing Stone, Evil Egg, Skate Story, Ambrosia Sky, Cairn.
Matthew's games: CiniCross, No More Work For Ito, Opus: Prism Peak, The Remake of the End of the Greatest RPG of All Time, The Seance of Blake Manor.
We won't list the duds, but one was Bubsy 4D.
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October 17, 2025
Following our moderately good episode about games set in Britain earlier this year, we assemble a list of the 10 key games set in Japan. Did we get it wrong? Probably. Plus: a mini 'What We've Been Playing' episode about two recent download games we've been digging!
This week's music is from the Persona 4 soundtrack by Shoji Meguro.
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October 10, 2025
Matthew has Covid! Poor chap. At least he got through all six seasons of Justified while recovering. Here are the games discussed this week: Silent Hill f, Ghost of Yotei, Baby Steps, No, I am not a human, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and the latest Golden Idol DLC.
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October 3, 2025
Music podcaster and former games journalist Jon Denton is our guest this week! Hear about Jon's journey from gamesTM to being pals with The Weeknd.
This week's music is from the Super Mario World soundtrack by Koji Kondo.
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September 26, 2025
A massive year for games, a bleak year for at least one giant man. One of our oldest and most popular podcast formats is back, more than two years after our 2016 episode!
This week's music is from the Yakuza 0 soundtrack by Kensuke Inage and Yoshihiro Arai.
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September 18, 2025
It's another mailbag. Topics discussed: Mr Kipling's Angel Slices, why Tomb Raider keeps needing reboots, Nintendo's struggles on the GameCube, Steve Martin and matching sandwiches to video games.
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September 12, 2025
If you enjoy this episode, consider supporting us so we can make more Two Giant Men episodes just like it!
As voted for by the listeners, we revisit Rockstar Vancouver's 2006 ode to high school life – as well as our own cursed teenage years.
This week's music is from the amazing Bully soundtrack by Shawn Lee, which we neglected to talk about in the episode. Thanks to Michael 'BanyaBat' for the edits.
These are the two articles mentioned in the episode – Samuel Horti's Bully piece and Game Informer's Bully 2 piece.
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September 5, 2025
The stack of games we've been chewing through lately, plus our reactions to the 007 First Light footage released this week.
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August 29, 2025
Our quarterly four-person draft is here! The Two Giant Men are joined by two further giant men as we compete to pick the best 11 games from some of our favourite Japanese game developers. To mix things up, expect a couple of twists on the usual draft format...
This week's music is from the Street Fighter 2 soundtrack by Yoko Shimomura and Isao Abe.
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August 22, 2025
The Back Page's road to GTA 6 – a borderline-unviable series of playthroughs of older GTA games – continues! You don't need to have revisited San Andreas to enjoy this episode. We give you a nice overview of everything going on in the story and missions. We dig deep into the game's early '90s Californian setting, the ways it pushed the GTA mission formula forwards, and why its Definitive Edition solves many of the original PS2 version's problems.
This week's music is the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas main theme by Michael Hunter.
A few show notes and small corrections: Samuel is wrong about GTA 4 having checkpoints. The Breaking Bad episode referenced is called 'Caballo Sin Nombre', not 'Caballero Sin Nombre'.
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August 15, 2025
With 750 Metacritic 'points' each, who can pick the best 10 games based on their critical averages? A panel of judges will decide, and we'll talk about who won in a future episode! Let us know what you think of this episode format in the comments. It resulted in at least one incredibly wild choice...
This week's music is from the Binary Domain soundtrack by Hidenori Shoji and Mitsuharu Fukuyama.
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August 8, 2025
More pre-owned game purchases go on trial in Judge Castle's Games Court. It's a fun one! We welcome more entries for future Games Court episodes, if you have them, at [email protected].
This week's music is the Games Court theme by listener Adam Saucier. Cheers for your fine work!
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August 1, 2025
Matthew is away, lying in a hot tub in Scotland somewhere! So, this week Samuel is paired up with his former gamesTM colleague and draft menace Dave Scarborough. You get 45 minutes of magazine memories, then around 80 minutes on the history of Ghostbusters in games (spoiler alert: many of them are rubbish).
Apologies for the slight headphone bleed you'll hear in this episode – our audio engineer, Matthew Castle, is away this week as mentioned (AKA the 'Samuel did his best' excuse).
This week's music is from the Ghostbusters for Master System soundtrack by Tohru Nakabayashi, as well as Ray Parker Jr. and Neil Cicierega.
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July 25, 2025
The main event of the Switch 2's post-launch period is here. But does it have the juice, the sauce or the gravy?
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July 18, 2025
Former gamesTM features editor Matt Handrahan is our guest this week. Having spent a decade working on GamesIndustry.biz, he's now Portfolio Director at Kepler Interactive.
The most recent game he worked on? Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which you might have heard of. This episode, though, gets into the far more important business of discussing the price of pints in Bournemouth's Sixty Million Postcards pub circa 2007.
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July 11, 2025
A delightfully unusual episode with a guest we like a lot. Matthew Castle lore fans are in for a treat.
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July 4, 2025
Matthew is fetching koalas for Chvrches in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, while Samuel is having year 11 lunchtime PTSD in Sloclap's football game Rematch. It's another WWBP episode!
Games discussed: Death Stranding 2: On The Beach, Rematch, Date Everything, MindsEye, Pipstrello and the Cursed Yoyo, Helldivers 2
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June 26, 2025
Finally, after a belated PS5 release, we dive deep into MachineGames' 2024 GOTY contender Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. The first half is spoiler-free, then the second half goes deeper into the story with some fun bonus nonsense to boot (wait until you hear Matthew's pitch for The Fugitive tie-in game).
This week's music is from the Indiana Jones and the Great Circle soundtrack by Gordy Haab.
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June 20, 2025
It's a bloody mailbag! Please save your shrugs for the end. Thanks for all the questions, as ever.
This week's music is from the Hotline Miami soundtrack by Perturbator.
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June 12, 2025
A new Nintendo console is here. Matthew is truly submerged in the Switch 2 experience, while Samuel has merely dipped a toe in the water. Here's how we're finding it so far.
This week's music is from the Mario Kart World soundtrack by Atsuko Asahi, Maasa Miyoshi, Takuhiro Honda and Yutaro Takakuwa.
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June 6, 2025
It's Matthew hosting the pod solo this week, and his guest is Geraint Evans, formerly of N64 magazine, NGC and Gamesmaster. These days, he's working at the publisher PQube.
This week's music is from the Phantasy Star Online Episodes 1 + 2 soundtracks by Hideaki Kobayashi and Fumie Kumatani.
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May 30, 2025
Matthew has almost finished the new Doom game, while Samuel has done about half of it – so that's the focus of this week's episode. Matthew also explains his appreciation of the new MercurySteam game, Blades of Fire, and digs deep into his never-ending playthrough of The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy on Switch.
This week's music is from The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy soundtrack by Masafumi Takada and Jun Fukuda.
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May 23, 2025
57 minutes and 13 seconds – that's the timestamp you want for all the game chatter, including two top 10 lists of the best games of 2005. Skip all the bullshit!
For everyone else? Enjoy tales of college woes and secret freezer politics. Nonsense podcasting awaits.
This week's music is from the Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater soundtrack by Harry Gregson-Williams.
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May 16, 2025
Our guest cancelled! Gah. Well, here's an episode we airlifted out of our collective asses. Hopefully it's not too bad with two days' notice to plan it.
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May 9, 2025
20ish listeners' pre-owned purchases go on trial before Judge Castle, as Games Court returns!
We also talk about this week's GTA 6 trailer, with a brief section on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, too. Do get in touch if you have any future Games Court entries, and we'll keep making them.
This week's music is from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 by Lorien Testard.
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May 2, 2025
It's time for another round of listener questions as we each recover from the 50 hours of games we played for last week's episode.
Did anyone need 100 minutes of mailbag questions? Probably not, but as ever: it happened.
Note: we recorded this week's episode before the Polygon and Giant Bomb layoffs if the tone around the games media chatter seems off.
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April 24, 2025
It's catch-up time, as a spring wave of fantastic games hit at once! All of the above, plus Bionic Bay and some Metroid series chatter.
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April 18, 2025
Much to the chagrin of Matthew, who had to edit it, the four-person draft is back! This time, Samuel, Matthew, Ashley Day and Dave Scarborough are fighting over the best games on Xbox 360 (note: some of them may not be the best, but that's for you to decide).
This week's music is from the Fable 2 soundtrack by Danny Elfman and Russell Shaw, plus the the Bayonetta soundtrack by Helena Noguerra, Bart Howard, as well as Norihiko Hibino, Takahiro Izutani, Masami Ueda, Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Rei Kondoh, Takayasu Sodeoka, Erina Niwa, Yoshitaka Suzuki and Naoto Tanaka.
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April 11, 2025
Later than usual, but hopefully worth it: Matthew plays all the Nintendo Switch 2 demos (except some ports no one cares about).
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April 3, 2025
Here are our thoughts on the new Nintendo console so far.
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March 28, 2025
After 30 minutes of chatter about Rebellion's new Game Pass survival game Atomfall, we try to pick the 10 games that best represent Britain as a virtual setting. Finally, we cap things off with a low-nutrition awards ceremony of British 'stuff' in computer games past and present.
This week's music is from the GoldenEye 007 soundtrack by Graeme Norgate, Grant Kirkhope and Robin Beanland.
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March 21, 2025
Matthew has played 20+ hours of Assassin's Creed for this episode, while Samuel turned it off after three and played Avowed instead. It's another 'what we've been playing' extravaganza!
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March 14, 2025
Who can pick the best 10 games on the Nintendo Switch? Eurogamer's Katharine Castle joins us to help figure this out, and to celebrate the hybrid console's healthy lifespan in our latest draft episode. Vote for the winner in our Discord's announcement channel.
This week's music is from the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe soundtrack by Shiho Fujii, Atsuko Asahi, Ryo Nagamatsu, Yasuaki Iwata and Kenta Nagata.
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March 7, 2025
We answer a heap more of your questions, including a really daft one about HP sauce on a pizza. Thanks for sending them in!
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February 28, 2025
Matthew finished Monster Hunter Wilds! Samuel didn't. This week we're joined by returning guest Joe Skrebels to discuss the newest game in Capcom's idiosyncratic series, as well as its meteoric rise in the West over the past decade plus.
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February 21, 2025
This week's guest is Dave Jewitt, formerly of GameSpot's brilliant Firearms Expert Reacts series, and newly of the channel EXP. He joins us to talk about how this great series of videos came to be...and ends by sharing his favourite 10 Warhammer video games (to the 15 sickos who kept asking for this, please enjoy). Find them at Patreon.com/watchEXP if you'd like to support the work of Dave and his collaborators, Chris and Adam.
This week's music is from the Warhammer 40,000: Darktide soundtrack by Jesper Kyd.
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February 14, 2025
We rewind the clock to 2004, and discuss some of the most important and influential games ever made (plus the demo of Mashed) across two top 10 lists.
This week's music is from the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas soundtrack by Michael Hunter, and the Final Fantasy X-2 soundtrack by Noriko Matsueda and Takahito Eguchi.
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February 7, 2025
Bestselling crime fiction author Tim Weaver is our guest this week. Of course, long-time print readers will know him best for his work on the magazines N64 and NGC! This is a Matthew-only episode, as the pair have known each other for years. Enjoy our deepest dive into '90s games mags yet.
This week's music is from the Mario Kart 64 soundtrack by Kenta Nagata.
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January 31, 2025
Our first 'now playing' episode of the year covers Dynasty Warriors: Origins, The Roottrees Are Dead, Neva, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Marvel Rivals and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2.
This week's music is from the Dynasty Warriors: Origins soundtrack by Masato Koike.
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January 24, 2025
Outside Xbox's Mike Channell joins us this week to discuss his journey from magazines like PC Format and OXM to being very well-known on the internet. Plus, in the second part, hear about Mike's more recent hobby of acquiring and maintaining old arcade machines!
This week's music is from the Daytona USA soundtrack by Takenobu Mitsuyoshi.
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January 17, 2025
The PlayStation 2 is arguably the greatest video games console of all time. Over 44 competing picks for the system's best games, Matthew, Samuel and two other Giant Men – Dave Scarborough and Ashley Day – will prove why. Vote for the winner in the announcements channel of the Back Page Discord.
This week's music is from the Katamari Damacy soundtrack by Yuu Miyake, Asuka Sakai, Akitaka Tohyama, Hideki Tobeta, Yoshihito Yano and Yuri Misumi, as well as the Gitaroo Man soundtrack by COIL, Tomohiro Harada and YUAN.
Find the full list of picks at Patreon.com/backpagepod.
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January 10, 2025
Games Court is back! 23 listeners' pre-owned purchases go on trial in front of Judge Castle. Only the pathetic attorney Samuel Roberts can save them (or help send them to their deaths).
This one is strong in the first half, drags for its third quarter, but brings the energy back for the final part. A net gain, for our great podcast!
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January 3, 2025
One hour of totally unfounded waffle and pointless commentary.
This week's music is from the Super Mario Odyssey soundtrack by Naoto Kubo, Shiho Fujii and Koji Kondo.
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December 27, 2024
Two top 10 lists of our favourite games from 2024.
This week's music is from the Balatro soundtrack by LouisF.
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December 20, 2024
Silly awards from silly men, ahead of the real GOTY pod next week. Thanks to this year's guests, too, for providing insights on their favourite games of 2024.
This week's music is from the FF7 Rebirth soundtrack by Mitsuto Suzuki and Masashi Hamauzu and the Helldivers 2 soundtrack by Wilbert Roget II.
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December 13, 2024
Each host must pick the best 10 games that have a score of 79 or less on Metacritic! But who will win out with that tricky criteria in mind? And what gold (if any) lies within the amber ranks of the reviews aggregator? Vote for the winning selection in the Discord announcements channel for the next week.
Some rules that might be handy to know:
Enjoy! This week's music is from The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story by Yûki Hayashi and Shogo Yamashiro.
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December 6, 2024
The quiz part goes on for far too long. The mailbag bit has some low energy answers. But: it is an episode of this podcast.
This week's music is from the No More Heroes soundtrack by Masafumi Takada and Jun Fukuda.
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November 29, 2024
Our favourite first and third party games on every PlayStation console, just in time for its 30th anniversary.
This week's music is from the Final Fantasy XV soundtrack by Yoko Shimomura.
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November 22, 2024
In part one, hear us discuss what it's like to work on a games magazine when it's closing down, the rise of prestige games mags, and why crowdfunded independent media is so hard to get off the ground.
A Profound Waste of Time founder Caspian Whistler joins us for part two. Hear about the creation of this successful prestige print project – and check out APWOT issue 5's Kickstarter here, which ends in a couple of weeks.
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November 15, 2024
Beefy games chat this week on all of the above – plus The Rise of the Golden Idol, FF7 Rebirth and Apex Legends.
Thanks to Matthew 'Big Matty C' Castle for the edits this week.
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November 8, 2024
We all have too many games to play. One of our favourite guests, Jay Baylis, joins us to discuss how we all gathered massive backlogs – and what can be done to cure it.
Matthew had a cold for this one. But he still went through and edited out all his coughs, bless him.
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November 1, 2024
Only Jeremy Peel can save The Back Page: A Video Games Podcast.
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October 25, 2024
We need an extra week to work on episode 200, so enjoy this great episode we made for our wonderful Patreon subscribers earlier this year.
Support us at Patreon.com/BackPagePod, and get more great episodes like this one.
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October 18, 2024
One of our favourite returning guests, Louise Blain (last on the pod in October 2021), discusses her current role as Creative Lead at Blumhouse Games. Their first published game, Fear the Spotlight, is out on October 22nd.
It's short but sweet! But next week probably won't be...
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October 11, 2024
Matthew is zagging on the new Atlus RPG, is surprised at how much he's enjoying Silent Hill 2, and is at odds with Samuel on the merits of the newest Zelda game, Echoes of Wisdom.
You'll laugh when you get to our predictions of the critical response to Metaphor...
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October 4, 2024
Returning guest Dave Scarborough (who?) joins us for our next three-person draft, focused on the PlayStation 4. Vote for the winner in our pinned tweet.
This week's music is from the Persona 5: Royal soundtrack by Shoji Meguro. Thank you to Matthew 'Mr Basil Pesto' Castle for the edits.
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September 27, 2024
A true mix of stuff this week, right up until the final minutes: UFO 50, Astro Bot (this time with spoiler chat), Tactical Breach Wizards, Peglin, Marvel Vs Capcom: Fighting Collection and Sumerian Six. Enjoy!
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September 20, 2024
The draft is back, this time with unofficial third host and PC gaming expert Jeremy Peel! Listen to 30 competitive picks from an amazing decade for PC gaming, then vote on the winner in our pinned Twitter poll @BackPagePod.
This week's music is from the VVVVVV soundtrack by Magnus Pålsson.
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September 13, 2024
So many good games to discuss this week! Astro Bot, Space Marine 2, Star Wars: Outlaws and the new Famicom Detective Club game. An array of treats, right up until the last few minutes of the episode...
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September 6, 2024
Cassette Beasts dev Jay Baylis returns to discuss how Japanese games have been perceived and discussed in the West since the 360 era.
This week's music is from the Persona 3 soundtrack by Shoji Meguro.
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August 30, 2024
In this oddly lengthy grab bag of an episode, Matthew talks about the first few hours of Star Wars Outlaws (about 25 mins in), Samuel explains what he ate at Gamescom 2024, and both of us answer questions from the listeners.
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August 23, 2024
With Andy Kelly's book on Alien: Isolation out this month, we grilled him on the game and his hottest Alien movie takes.
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August 16, 2024
Is Astro Bot out yet? No? What about Star Wars: Outlaws and Space Marine 2? Not right now? Still? Fine.
Then here's what we've spent our respective summers playing: an array of indie/double-A games ranging from disappointing to good. These include Anger Foot, Nobody Wants To Die, Another Code: Recollection, Thank Goodness You're Here and Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure. Plus, hear Matthew talk about the HD redo of the Ace Attorney Investigations games and Samuel ramble about Apex Legends nonsense (yet again)!
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August 9, 2024
Here's the final part of our Nintendo top 50 list. Find the full list to read at your leisure on Patreon.com/backpagepod!
This week's music is once again the Wii Shop Channel theme by Kazumi Totaka.
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August 2, 2024
The Godfather Part II of podcasts is here! In this episode, we fire through every major Nintendo series and compile a longlist of games to populate our top 50 first-party list.
Tune in next week for the third and final part – The Godfather Part III of podcasts, perhaps, where we'll arrange the top 50 on air. Does this mean that Sofia Coppola is Wario? Possibly.
This week's music is from the Last Window: The Secret of Cape West soundtrack by Satoshi Okubo.
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July 26, 2024
Part one of our three-part effort to create a Nintendo top 50 list is here! This episode explores the process of making list features when you're working on a magazine or website, and the compromises and decisions that lead to the final result.
Then, in the second half of the episode, we revisit the top 100 first-party Nintendo games from the final issue of ONM back in 2014, where Matthew explains the choices made. This sets the stage for what comes next...
Look out for parts two and three across the next couple of weeks.
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July 19, 2024
From great Metroidvanias to an impromptu Cheese Draft, it's time for another mailbag episode.
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July 12, 2024
Our guest this week is wrestler, video personality, consultant and all-round good guy Simon Miller! Simon discusses his days running NRevolution magazine alone, working on X360 Magazine with Samuel, creating The Miller Report at VideoGamer and watching THQ burn from the inside in the early 2010s. It's quite a career!
This week's music is from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past soundtrack by Koji Kondo.
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July 5, 2024
Whoever wins, you lose! Vote for the winner in the Back Page Announcements channel.
This week's music is from the Bayonetta soundtrack by Norihiko Hibino, Takahiro Izutani, Masami Ueda, Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Rei Kondoh, Takayasu Sodeoka, Erina Niwa, Yoshitaka Suzuki and Naoto Tanaka.
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June 28, 2024
Here's what we've been playing lately, featuring Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, Still Wakes The Deep, Mullet Madjack, a little on Crow Country, and a bit on Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance.
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June 21, 2024
The worst format in podcasting is back! For the first time since 2021, Samuel runs his pre-owned purchases past Judge Castle.
This week's music is from The World Ends With You soundtrack by Takeharu Ishimoto.
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June 14, 2024
With a hangover from 90 June livestreams, Matthew and Samuel each deliver their 10 favourites from the hype season.
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June 7, 2024
Matthew gets a well-deserved week off! Samuel's former colleague, Retro Gamer editor Darran Jones, steps into the draft dojo to celebrate Sony's first gaming handheld device. You get about 30 minutes of Darran talking about his career, then an hour of background preamble on the PSP, followed by 90 minutes of draft. Apologies in advance for the length, but hopefully it's a good listen! Vote for the winner @backpagepod on Twitter.
This week's music is from the LocoRoco soundtrack by Nobuyuki Shimizu and Kemmei Adachi.
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May 31, 2024
US games media royalty James Mielke (EGM, 1Up, GMR) is our guest this week. Hear about James' journey from comic book artist during Marvel's bankruptcy to becoming a key editor on a host of important media outlets throughout the '00s. Bonus: this episode contains another excellent Hideo Kojima interview anecdote.
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May 24, 2024
We each try and guess five mystery games based on snippets from their reviews in '00s games magazines. Feel free to play along! After that, enjoy our considered answers to a whole heap of questions, from the Nintendo Switch 2 to the ideal game based on Thunderbirds.
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May 17, 2024
Two Giant Men, 20 categories, dubious rules! Time for another draft episode, this time on the subject of video game soundtracks. Vote for the winner in the announcements channel of the Discord.
Most of the music used in the episode is credited in real-time, but the track in the break is an orchestral Phoenix Wright arrangement by Noriyuki Iwadare.
Here are the categories we select from:
Album Categories
1. RPG
2. Indie game
3. Shooter (FPS or otherwise)
4. Platformer
5. Game soundtrack where music plays a key role in the gameplay
6. Fighting game
7. Bleep bloop (retro game soundtrack - 16 bit or earlier)
8. '90s as fuck
9. Cult favourite
10. Free pick
Track Categories
1. Theme tune that rips
2. Battle theme that rips
3. Earworm of any description
4. Features lyrics
5. Ambient open world or world map music
6. Rhythm action favourite
7. The Yoko Shimomura category for a piano absolutely popping off
8. Boss theme that rips
9. Free pick
10. The Game Over category (this must play at your funeral)
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May 10, 2024
Here's what we've been playing lately: Stellar Blade, Animal Well, Octopath Traveler 2, Dark Forces Remaster and Pepper Grinder.
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May 3, 2024
Matthew speaks to one of his favourite authors, Stuart Turton. Hear about his exhausting creative process (seriously, you won't believe it), and what it takes to write a novel – including his latest, The Last Murder at the End of the World. Then, in part two, hear more about Stu's love of video games, which runs incredibly deep.
Samuel is away for this one. Matthew gets the name of the podcast slightly wrong at the start, but don't hold it against him.
This week's music is from the Return of the Obra Dinn soundtrack by Lucas Pope.
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April 26, 2024
This week's guest is IGN Managing Editor Rachel Weber, who probably has the most varied and fascinating career in games media of anyone who's appeared on the podcast so far. Hear about her transatlantic journey from OPM during the PS3 launch days to GamesIndustry.biz, Rolling Stone's Glixel channel and GamesRadar, before she landed at IGN.
This week's music is from the Lost: Via Domus soundtrack by Michael Giacchino.
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April 19, 2024
27 listeners' game purchases go on trial before the morally dubious Judge Castle. Can the defendants' even more compromised lawyer, Samuel Roberts, get them off (not in that way)? The worst format in British podcasting returns.
This week's music is 'PIMP' by Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band, as well as the Games Court theme by listener Adam Saucier.
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April 12, 2024
Two top 10 lists of the best games of 2003, and loads of bullshit about Matthew's mini-fridge and Samuel's week of work experience in the fire brigade. The games chat starts at 1 hour and 27 minutes if you'd just like the lists without the nonsense.
This week's music is from The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker soundtrack by Kenta Nagata, Hajime Wakai, Toru Minegishi and Koji Kondo.
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April 5, 2024
What we've been playing lately, featuring Dragon's Dogma 2, Rise of the Ronin and Helldivers 2, as well as some old Command and Conquer nonsense and listener questions.
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March 29, 2024
Former PC Gamer Senior Reporter Steven Messner is our guest this week! Hear about his epic reports of goings on in EVE Online and other MMOs – and that time the bastard Samuel Roberts betrayed him.
This week's music is from the Harvest Moon 64 soundtrack by Tsuyoshi Tanaka.
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March 22, 2024
We needed a sudden week off! Enjoy this 2022 episode on the best 7/10 games, the result of our amazing Patreon support.
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March 15, 2024
Matthew played 70 hours of FF7 Rebirth, while Samuel played a measly 14 hours. How's it going so far? Expect mostly spoiler-free chat in this episode – we explain how we approached spoilers right at the start to put your mind at ease.
This week's music is from the FF7 Rebirth soundtrack by Mitsuto Suzuki and Masashi Hamauzu.
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March 8, 2024
This week's guest is former Edge editor Alex Wiltshire. Hear about his era of the magazine, as well as his time working at Hello Games and Mojang.
This week's music is from the New Super Mario Bros soundtrack by Asuka Hayazaki, Hajime Wakai and Koji Kondo.
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March 1, 2024
Matthew has finally become a big FF7 head, ploughing through Remake in January and now being 50 hours deep into Rebirth. Hear his (spoiler-free) thoughts on the newer game in this episode. Plus! Samuel plays Balatro and the Tomb Raider remaster, while Matthew also squeezes some Helldivers 2 into this episode.
This week's music is from the FF7 Rebirth soundtrack by Mitsuto Suzuki and Masashi Hamauzu.
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February 23, 2024
Time for our first draft episode of 2024! It's the turn of the PlayStation, one of the most important consoles in history. Listen to the episode, then vote on who picked the best 10 games in the pinned tweet @BackPagePod on Twitter.
This week's music is from the R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 soundtrack by Kohta Takahashi, Hiroshi Okubo and Asuka Sakai, plus the Tekken 3 soundtrack by Nobuyoshi Sano and Keiichi Okabe.
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February 16, 2024
After some dense episodes, allow us this brief respite to answer a slew of listener questions. Who should play Link in the Zelda movie? Which song would we sing for Hideo Kojima during karaoke? What happened to the mythical 'boys across the river'? Learn all this, and more.
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February 9, 2024
Beloved guest Jeremy Peel drops by to discuss his new Patreon project, The Peel Perspective, as well as the art of writing a magazine or website feature about video games.
Did we nail this episode? Ack, not *quite*. As Matthew put it after the edit, it's fine. We didn't entirely have the right energy for it this week, nor did we have a tight enough plan to conquer such a big subject in the second half. Always lovely to have Jeremy back on, though.
This week's music is from the System Shock remake by Jonathan Peros.
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February 2, 2024
Two top 10 lists of our favourite games from 2002 (based on UK releases)...and a slew of ridiculous anecdotes about working in Homebase and studying GCSE Drama.
This week's music is from the Super Mario Sunshine soundtrack by Koji Kondo and Shinobu Tanaka, and the Ico soundtrack by Michiru Oshima, Koichi Yamazaki and Mitsukuni Murayama.
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January 26, 2024
Returning guest Ashley Day tells us about his love of the Sega Saturn, then gives us his ten favourite Sega developed (or published) games of all time. Spoiler alert: Football Manager 2009 doesn't make the cut.
This week's music is from the Shining Force 3 soundtrack by Motoi Sakuraba.
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January 19, 2024
We've been playing The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, Marvel's Midnight Suns, Suicide Squad Kills The Justice League, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (just the demo, mind), Assassin's Creed Nexus and Foamstars in this far-reaching episode. Some nutritious games waffle to cancel out last week's nonsense mailbag episode.
Enjoy!
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January 12, 2024
After several solid episodes in a row, The Back Page crashes down to Earth with a mailbag crammed with irrelevant questions about food. But you do get to hear about the famous person Matthew went to school with...
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January 5, 2024
After last week's belting return with the GOTY episode, it's time for something with far less meat on the bones as we roll out some bullshit gaming predictions for 2024.
This week's music is from the Persona 3 soundtrack by Shoji Meguro and the Nier: Automata soundtrack by Keiichi Okabe, Keigo Hoashi and Kuniyuki Takahashi.
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December 30, 2023
Our biggest episode of the year is here! Two top 10 lists of the best games of the year. More than three hours of pod, slightly later than planned (sorry about that).
Thanks so much for your patience while we took a much-needed break – but now we're back! Expect a full plan of what we're making in January in the next few days, including the return of the XL and XXL episodes.
This week's music is from the Cobalt Core soundtrack by Aaron Cherof.
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December 22, 2023
After a short break, we're back with a fun (allegedly) holiday special to see out the year – featuring special guests, our favourite Christmas-themed games and the Back Page alternative GOTY awards.
This week's music is from Bayonetta Origins, Final Fantasy 16, Fable 2 and Bully.
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December 15, 2023
From the XL Tier on Patreon.com/backpagepod – it's our rundown of the best James Bond movies. Enjoy!
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December 8, 2023
The 25 best Metal Gear moments across the entire series, with listener favourite guest Rich Stanton! If you enjoy this episode, this is the sort of thing we cook up on Patreon.com/backpagepod. We'll be back with regular episodes in late December.
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December 1, 2023
It's Matthew's first time through the original Final Fantasy 7. Ahead of the release of Rebirth in 2024, he explains what the hell is going on in disc one of this 26 year-old RPG, right up to the death of Aerith (and to a lesser extent, Cait Sith).
This is our last new podcast for three weeks! Thanks for listening all year – we'll be back soon. Free feed listeners can look forward to a couple of Patreon samplers.
This week's music is from the Final Fantasy 7 soundtrack by Nobuo Uematsu.
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November 24, 2023
Samuel and Matthew compete to pick the best selection of 10 licensed games, and discuss the wildly inconsistent history of games based on movies, TV shows, books and more. Matthew won this draft.
This week's music is from the Blade Runner game soundtrack by Vangelis and Frank Klepacki.
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November 17, 2023
The latest on what we've been playing, featuring Alan Wake 2, Chants of Senaar, Super Mario Wonder, The Talos Principle 2, the PlayStation Portal and the Oculus Quest 3. Plus: the last mailbag of the year! Who knows how this one ended up being so bloody long.
This week's music is from the Chants of Senaar soundtrack by Thomas Brunet.
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November 10, 2023
This week's guest is comedian, writer and streaming superstar Ellie Gibson, who talks us through her career at Eurogamer during the heyday of the PS3 and 360 era of games media.
This week's music is from the Sky Odyssey soundtrack by Kow Otani.
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November 3, 2023
A deep dive on the year's biggest PlayStation game with Dave Scarborough, sometime features editor of gamesTM.
This week's music is by John Paesano from the Marvel's Spider-Man 2 soundtrack.
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October 27, 2023
IGN's Simon Cardy joins us to celebrate the history of Remedy's games, including Max Payne, Alan Wake and even Quantum Break, as Alan Wake 2 finally becomes a reality. There's also a lot of fun chatter about Simon's work on IGN that you'll hopefully enjoy!
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October 20, 2023
Rob Pearson of PlayStation Access is our guest this week. Hear about Rob's unusual journey to YouTube fame via print media, and how Charlie Brooker and Jon Blyth inspired his hugely popular top 7 features.
This week's music is from the Final Fantasy IX soundtrack by Nobuo Uematsu.
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October 13, 2023
From GTA 3 to Silent Hill 2, 2001 was one of the best years in the history of games. In this episode, we each construct top 10s while sharing pointless details of our mixed fortunes as teenagers.
This week's music is from the Silent Hill 2 soundtrack by Akira Yamaoka.
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October 6, 2023
We've firmly entered silly season, and Matthew has finished Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. Does it change his take on the CD Projekt RED FPS/RPG? Find out in this episode, along with his early thoughts on Assassin's Creed Mirage, Samuel's thoughts on Resi 4's Separate Ways DLC, and both our thoughts on indie sensation Cocoon.
This week's music is from the Assassin's Creed Mirage soundtrack by Brendan Angelides.
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September 29, 2023
People Can Fly's Jamie Smith tells us about his career and things you only realise about games when you actually make them for a living. Then, in the last section, Jamie poses a series of impossible game design questions to both of us – see how we fare as backseat game designers!
This week's music is from the Call of Duty: Vanguard soundtrack by Bear McCreary.
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September 24, 2023
PC Gaming Classics reaches its conclusion (for now) as Jeremy and Phil pit Half-Life against Quake in the longest episode to date. Phil won the Review Wars segment of this one.
We hope you enjoyed this miniseries, and we're excited to see what Jeremy and Phil record next.
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September 24, 2023
The penultimate episode of Jeremy Peel and Phil Iwaniuk's PC Gaming Classics series finally lands on the free feed, investigating Trespasser: Jurassic Park, an all-timer Back Page draft pick.
Thanks to Jeremy and Phil for their hard work on this one!
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September 22, 2023
We've each played 25 hours of Starfield – here's what we thought.
This week's music is from the Starfield soundtrack by Inon Zur.
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September 15, 2023
Happy, you sickos? It's the latest entry in our bizarre Games Court format. 20 listeners submit their pre-owned game purchases (and lengthy life stories) to Judge Castle. Those found guilty will die...by Pikmin.
This week's music is by listener Adam Saucier.
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September 8, 2023
Matthew and Samuel compete to pick the 15 best Nintendo DS games – after an extremely long preamble. Vote for the winner in the pinned tweet @backpagepod on Twitter!
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September 1, 2023
Matthew is ill! Forgive us while we delay the DS draft a week and take it easy with a 'what we've been playing' pod. Matthew has played 10 hours of Sea of Stars, so we discuss that, the Doom mod My House, Armored Core 6, Paranormasight and Dredge.
This week's music is from the Doom 2 soundtrack by Bobby Prince.
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August 25, 2023
We answer a lot of listener questions in this week's episode. It's fun for the first hour, it sags in the second, but gets it back just at the end. A 6/10 episode. Thank you for your polite tolerance!
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August 18, 2023
One of our oldest and most popular episode formats returns as we count down the best games of 2016, a year that brought good news for everyone! Except Microsoft. And Nintendo. Everything from Uncharted 4 to Inside gets discussed in this bumper episode – alongside our (fairly dour) memories of the time working on magazines. Plus, hear all about Matthew's shattered knee at Gamescom yet again.
Note that there's a factual error in this episode: Samuel says they should make Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo perpetually available on modern formats including Steam, which it is. Last year's Capcom Fighting Collection features it, with online play!
This week's music is from the Hitman soundtrack by Niels Bye Nielsen and the Phoenix Wright: Spirit of Justice soundtrack by Noriyuki Iwadare, Toshihiko Horiyama and Masami Onodera.
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August 11, 2023
With Baldur's Gate 3 taking over the world, genre expert Jeremy Peel returns to discuss how RPGs have evolved since the days of the Infinity Engine games.
This week's music is from the Dragon Age: Origins soundtrack by Inon Zur.
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August 4, 2023
A simple but cheerful 'what we've been playing' joint this week, featuring Exoprimal, Telltale's comeback game The Expanse, 1998's Parasite Eve, Pikmin 4 and Viewfinder.
This week's music is from the Pikmin 4 soundtrack by Kenta Nagata, Asuka Hayazaki and Soshi Abe.
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July 28, 2023
Former Edge editor Margaret Robertson joins us to discuss working on the magazine from 2003-2007 and her career in game development. It's a good one, but then we always say that.
Check out Margaret's game in Fortnite, Fast Feud, at 2057-0506-7371, and follow her @marga_retro on Twitter.
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July 24, 2023
Jeremy Peel and Phil Iwaniuk take on the original X-Com: UFO Defense – or UFO: Enemy Unknown – as it was known in Europe. This miniseries was funded by our pals at Patreon.com/backpagepod!
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July 21, 2023
Matthew and Samuel compete to pick the best 10 games (and one HD collection) that represent the PS3's somewhat inconsistent library. Voting is closed, but Samuel won this draft by around 62% to 38%.
This week's music is from the Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots soundtrack by Harry Gregson-Williams.
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July 14, 2023
Kick back, take a seat! Pour yourself a tall glass of water. It's a simple update on what we've been playing lately, featuring Final Fantasy 16, Trepang 2, Master Detective Archives: Rain Code and Baldur's Gate 3. Plus: answers to a dozen or so listener questions.
This week's music is from the Final Fantasy 16 soundtrack by Masayoshi Soken.
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July 7, 2023
Our guest this week is PC Gamer Senior Editor Wes Fenlon, who talks to us about his career in games media, his newsletter Read Only Memo, and Nintendo during the GameCube/GBA episode. You'll also hear about some of the differences between UK and US games media, and a quick therapy session for Samuel's benefit. A lot of ground is covered in this one – enjoy!
This week's music is from Cubivore, probably? Matthew edited this one and didn't say where the music came from – and at the time of writing he's on a train to Belgium, so who really knows.
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June 30, 2023
Two large gentlemen replay MGS3 and discuss where the upcoming remake could make improvements. Then, in section 2, we rank the bosses of this all-time classic. Spoilers follow for a game that's nearly 20 years old.
This week's music is from the Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater soundtrack by Harry Gregson-Williams and Hibino Norihiko.
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June 23, 2023
Samuel and Matthew revisit the classic Square Enix/Squaresoft RPG series this week. Well, the bits they know about, anyway. Plus, hear what Matthew thinks of Final Fantasy XVI, which just launched on PS5.
This week's music is from the Final Fantasy XV soundtrack by Yoko Shimomura, the Final Fantasy XVI soundtrack by Masayoshi Soken, the Final Fantasy XIII soundtrack by Masashi Hamauzu and the Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers soundtrack by Hidenori Iwasaki, Ryo Yamazaki and Kumi Tanioka.
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June 19, 2023
On this month's PC Gaming Classics pod, Jeremy and Phil tackle 1997's Fallout, arguably the most important PC RPG of that decade. They delve into its creation, how its DNA filtered down to Bethesda's subsequent entries, and engage in another round of Review Wars (the voting for that one has closed, for those reading this on the free feed).
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June 16, 2023
From Doordash ads to a game that looks 90% like BioShock Infinite, these were our highlights from the past week of game reveals. Forgive some tired podcasting as we melt slightly in British weather.
This week's music is from the Persona 3 soundtrack by Shoji Meguro.
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June 9, 2023
Edge Deputy Editor Chris Schilling joins us for this week's episode. Hear about his career in games media, as well as the creation of the widely respected magazine. And yes: we talk about what it means when Edge awards a game a 10. Enjoy.
This week's music is from the Advance Wars soundtrack by Taishi Senda.
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June 2, 2023
Is the Xbox 360 the greatest console ever made? That's one of the questions we tackle on this episode before competing to pick the 10 best games on this celebrated platform across a variety of categories. Vote for the winner of the draft in our pinned tweet @BackPagePod. And remember, it's just a bit of fun! Except for the bits where we talk shit and take what the other person says very personally.
Samuel won this draft in the end, after Matthew initially took a strong lead.
This week's music is from the Mirror's Edge soundtrack by Solar Fields.
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May 26, 2023
More listeners' pre-owned purchases go on trial in this latest version of the much despised Games Court podcast format. Enjoy, and deepest apologies.
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May 19, 2023
Matthew has played 40 hours of the new Zelda, Samuel has played 10. How are they getting on? Expect very light spoilers for Tears of the Kingdom in this episode, and expect us to revisit this Nintendo epic in more detail at a later date.
This week's music is from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom soundtrack by Manaka Kataoka, Maasa Miyoshi, Masato Ohashi and Tsukasa Usui.
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May 12, 2023
Everything except Zelda is discussed in this week's episode! It's a 'what we've been playing' joint, featuring Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, Arkane's Redfall and Mad Max (2015), among other things. We also answer a ton of mailbag questions, some of which we might've answered before – who knows! It's a low energy 6/10 pod, recorded on a Bank Holiday, but don't worry: next week's Zelda pod should be a good one.
This week's music is from the Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed soundtrack.
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May 8, 2023
Episode 2 of our Patreon-funded miniseries is now live! Jeremy Peel and Phil Iwaniuk take a deep dive into Westwood's Blade Runner adventure game.
Note that the Review Wars segment mentioned in this episode has already been voted on by our Twitter followers – hear about the result in the next episode in June.
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May 5, 2023
Monster collecting RPG Cassette Beasts just launched on Steam via PC and Game Pass, and on May 25th it'll also launch on Xbox and Nintendo Switch. To celebrate, returning pod guest Jay Baylis (the cursed Sonic and Pokémon episodes) talks us through the creation of the game.
This week's music is from the Cassette Beasts soundtrack by Joel Baylis.
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April 28, 2023
With Samuel away, Matthew and returning special guest Rich Stanton from PC Gamer build a hall of fame from Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami's body of work.
This week's music is from the Resident Evil: Director's Cut by Makoto Tomozawa, Koichi Hiroki and Masami Ueda.
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April 21, 2023
Our popular series of best of lists returns with the 2015 edition, featuring two top 10s of the year's best games. Hear about Matthew and Samuel's burgeoning friendship during a press trip to Germany, and forgive us as we get tired towards the end of this episode since we recorded it on a Sunday night.
This week's music is from the Fallout 4 soundtrack by Inon Zur and the Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number soundtrack by The Green Kingdom (aka Mike Cottone).
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April 14, 2023
Samuel assembles a power ranking of the video games based on the Star Wars movies, and Matthew politely humours him.
This week's music is from the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic soundtrack by Jeremy Soule and The Force Unleashed soundtrack by Mark Griskey.
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April 7, 2023
We're taking a week off, but we're pleased to present free feed listeners with PC Gaming Classics, a miniseries funded by our kind Patreon supporters. Co-hosted by Phil Iwaniuk and Jeremy Peel, this first episode focuses on System Shock 2. We'll roll out the rest of the episodes each month, and we'll be back next Friday with an episode on the best Star Wars games.
This week's music is from the System Shock 2 soundtrack by Josh Randall, Ramin Djawadi and Eric Brosius.
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March 31, 2023
In this week's episode, Samuel suffers from jetlag and Matthew suffers from living as we recount what we've been playing lately – everything except Resident Evil 4 Remake, anyway. Games discussed this week include Celeste, Diablo 4, Tchia, Resident Evil 1 Remake and a slew of PSVR 2 stuff. We'll return with our next regular episode on April 14th, though Patreon folk will get a new XL episode in the meantime on the best Mario moments.
This week's music is from the Final Fantasy X soundtrack by Nobuo Uematsu, Masashi Hamauzu and Junya Nakano.
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March 24, 2023
We've both finished Resident Evil 4 Remake, which is out now! The original was an era-defining game for us, so what's the deal with this one? There are two parts here: a non-spoilery section then a more spoiler-y one. We hope you like it.
This week's music is from the Resident Evil 4 soundtrack by Misao Senbongi and Shusaku Uchiyama.
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March 17, 2023
Will Porter, former PC Zone editor turned game developer, is our guest this week. Hear about Zone's epic rivalry with PC Gamer and how it gradually died down over time, and learn about how Will ended writing for games like Alien: Isolation and Mafia: Definitive Edition.
This week's music is from the Mafia: Definitive Edition soundtrack by Jesse Harlin.
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March 10, 2023
The draft is back! Matthew and Samuel compete to pick the 10 best Capcom games from the developer/publisher's extensive and dazzling library. If you like fighting games, apologies in advance. Samuel won this draft.
This week's music is from the Devil May Cry 5 soundtrack by Casey Edwards and Ali Edwards, and the Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny soundtrack by Taro Iwashiro.
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March 3, 2023
On this week's shorter episode, Matthew fires through a whole bunch of recommendations to check out on 3DS and Wii U before their respective eShops close on March 27th. The full list can be found on Patreon.com/backpagepod if you miss any of it.
This week's music is from the Affordable Space Adventures soundtrack by Harry Damm.
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February 24, 2023
Our task this week is to construct a 10-game hall of fame (or perhaps hall of infamy?) for the Nintendo Wii U. Joining us to assemble the list is Team17's Ashley Day, formerly of Nintendo UK and gamesTM magazine. It's a good episode, and hopefully fair to a weird console that's rightly been mined to form the backbone of the Nintendo Switch's killer library.
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February 17, 2023
On this week's episode, we go deep on The Last of Us. We recall our original thoughts on the game from back in 2013 and give our verdict on the HBO show so far. Plus, Matthew talks us through his thoughts on the PS5 remake of the game. Apologies for the half-remembered bits. We'll explain the spoiler rules in the episode.
This week's music is from The Last of Us soundtrack by Gustavo Santaolalla.
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February 10, 2023
Former ONM editor and Mobilegamer.biz founder Neil Long is this week's guest. Learn what it was like to run the official UK magazine during the dominance of the Wii and DS era – including a few horror stories he'd probably rather forget.
This week's music is from the Dragon Quest 6 soundtrack by Koichi Sugiyama.
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February 3, 2023
Hi-Fi Rush, GoldenEye 007 and Fire Emblem: Engage are among the games we've been playing lately – those are the focus of this episode, along with a barrage of listeners questions that vary between insightful and nonsensical.
This week's music is from the GoldenEye 007 soundtrack by Graeme Norgate, Grant Kirkhope and Robin Beanland.
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January 27, 2023
After a long break, we're back with two top 10 lists from a year gone by – this time, 2014. Expect a mixture of mag recollections and deep analysis of the games that mattered (and some that didn't).
This week's music is from the Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney soundtrack by Tomohito Nishiura and Yasumasa Kitagawa, the Kalimba soundtrack by Magnus Damgaard, Lennart Kiel and Asger Kirkemann Strandby, and the Mario Kart 8 soundtrack by Shiho Fujii, Atsuko Asahi, Ryo Nagamatsu, Yasuaki Iwata and Kenta Nagata.
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January 20, 2023
Our most interminable podcast format, Games Court, returns! 18 listeners' pre-owned games purchases go on trial in front of the corrupt Judge Castle, who delivers shaky justice from the courtroom of his dubious island nation. From Zelda on the CD-i to Jasper Carrott's Golden Balls on Wii and DS, it's an absolute treasure trove of nonsense this week. Sorry again for the continued existence of Games Court.
This week's music is from the No More Heroes soundtrack by Masafumi Takada and Jun Fukuda.
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January 13, 2023
From Indiana Jones to a Nintendo Switch successor, it's time for 23 more ridiculous predictions founded on no basis of fact whatsoever.
This week's music is from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild soundtrack by Manaka Kataoka, Yasuaki Iwata and Hajime Wakai.
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January 6, 2023
Easing ourselves back in to another year of podcasting, we tackle more than 20 listener questions – from our favourite videogame box art to the best games we never finished. Samuel was suffering with Covid during this episode, so it's a slightly gentler one than normal.
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December 30, 2022
On this week's episode, we're taking a bit of time off! So enjoy this sample of our Patreon content – one of 18 additional episodes funded by our supporters at Patreon.com/BackPagePod. See you next week when regular service resumes.
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December 23, 2022
2022 was undoubtedly a blockbuster-deprived year, but it was still a strong 12 months for games in many other ways. Our two top 10 lists reflect that state of affairs. Enjoy this nearly 3-hour rundown of our favourites from 2022, which is our last new games pod of the year as we take a short break ahead of January's episodes (though free feed listeners still have something cool to look forward to next week). Thank you for your support, and happy holidays!
This week's music is from the Norco soundtrack by Andy G.
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December 16, 2022
On this week's episode, we each try to assemble the 'dream' RPG party across 14 categories. Predictably, we each created nightmares instead. Matthew won this draft, if you're coming to this episode late.
This week's music is from the Final Fantasy VIII soundtrack by Nobuo Uematsu.
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December 9, 2022
Three-time special guest Andy Kelly is back to discuss his exit from games media after 18 years – and to share eight review scores he feels he got slightly wrong from his time working on PSM2/3, PC Gamer and The Gamer. Matthew and Samuel, meanwhile, shed some light on their own decisions to move on in years past.
This week's music is from the Disco Elysium soundtrack by British Sea Power.
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December 2, 2022
Did someone buy Capcom this year? Did Nightdive remaster the N64 South Park FPS? Did Samuel play FF14? We revisit our 22 predictions from the start of the year to see just how wrong we were – though a couple did pay off.
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November 25, 2022
Matthew and Samuel both played God of War Ragnarök. But Matthew actually finished it! Enjoy this almost entirely spoiler-free take on the year's big blockbuster. If you want to know nothing about Ragnarök, consider putting this one on hold – but it doesn't spoil anything more than a review would.
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November 18, 2022
Samuel finally played Cyberpunk 2077 properly, and had a (mostly) good time! This episode interrogates CD Projekt RED's RPG/shooter, two years after release and firmly outside the shadow of the marketing campaign that made it such a headache to write about in the first place.
This week's music is from the Cyberpunk 2077 soundtrack by P. T. Adamczyk, Marcin Przybyłowicz and Paul Leonard-Morgan.
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November 11, 2022
A Plague Tale: Requiem, FF7 Remake, Stay Out Of The House and Taiji are among the games discussed in our first 'what we've been playing' episode in two months. Plus: 80 minutes of listener questions are answered, from the irrelevant to the insightful. Enjoy!
This week's music is from the Gradius Advance soundtrack by Shigemitsu Goto, Hirofumi Sano and Kaori Takazoe.
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November 4, 2022
Ahead of the release of Ragnarök, we rank all the God of War games from 2005's original up to the 2018 PS4 entry – minus the odd Facebook game or mobile title. Enjoy. Once the new one drops, we'll discuss where it places in a future episode.
This week's music is from the God of War 2 soundtrack by Cris Velasco, Ron Fish, Gerard Marino and Mike Reagan.
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October 28, 2022
The wonderful 101st episode of The Back Page attempts to build a 5-game hall of fame from the entire PlatinumGames catalogue. Plus, Matthew has been reviewing Bayonetta 3 on Switch – hear his thoughts on the latest (but perhaps not greatest) entry in the hack-and-slash brawler series.
This week's music is from the Bayonetta 2 soundtrack by Norihiko Hibino, Takahiro Izutani, Masami Ueda, Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Rei Kondoh, Naofumi Harada, Satoshi Igarashi, Hitomi Kurokawa and Takayasu Sodeoka.
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October 21, 2022
It's a clip show. Enjoy the clips.
Thanks so much for listening and supporting us. Here's to 100 more.
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October 14, 2022
Indie developer Lucy Blundell (One Night Stand, the upcoming VIDEOVERSE) joins us to discuss one of Matthew's favourite genres: the (usually) non-horny visual novel.
This week's music is from the 428: Shibuya Scramble soundtrack by Naoki Sato and Hideki Sakamoto.
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October 7, 2022
We're joined by Ben Hanson of MinnMax on this episode, who shares a bunch of great stories from his many years making videos for Game Informer's elaborate cover features. Hear about the times he visited Kojima Productions and Square Enix, among other studios.
This week's music is from the Final Fantasy XV soundtrack by Yoko Shimomura.
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September 30, 2022
More listeners' pre-owned purchases go on trial this week, from classic JRPGs to a hilariously rough PS3-era shooter – and a grim fate awaits anyone who gets on the wrong side of Judge Big Sammy.
Apologies in advance if you hate Games Court.
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September 23, 2022
From The Getaway to Sleeping Dogs, this week Judge Matthew Castle puts the open world games that followed in GTA 3's wake on trial. Jeremy Peel returns to help make the cast for Driv3r, among other games.
This week's music is from the Driv3r soundtrack by Marc Canham.
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September 16, 2022
From Monkey Island to Full Throttle, we try to boil down the complete library of Lucasarts adventure games into five representative titles – building a hall of fame, the concept of which we stole from a film podcast we like. Former GamesTM editor Ashley Day joins us for this one. Note that our originally scheduled episode, GTA clones on trial, is now coming next week.
This week's music is from The Secret of Monkey Island soundtrack by Michael Land and Patrick Mundy.
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September 9, 2022
Matthew talks us through his many hours agonising over a Splatoon 3 review in this week's episode, which features a detailed breakdown of what's new (or not) in Nintendo's latest online shooter. Plus, we break down key examples of new Nintendo series from the past year and explain what they represent in the overall breadth of its output.
This week's music is from Bayonetta 2.
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September 2, 2022
Saints Row, Arcade Paradise, Symphony of War, Ryse: Son of Rome, Splatoon 3, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron and Escape Academy are among the games discussed in this month's episode. Plus: we try and clear a mountain of your listener questions with increasing weariness.
This week's music is from the Rogue Squadron soundtrack by Chris Hulsbeck.
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August 26, 2022
It's draft revenge time! Who can pick the 10 best games released during the years 2000-2005? Vote for the winner @backpagepod on Twitter. We'll update this episode description when a winner has been declared.
This week's music is from the Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 soundtrack by Frank Klepacki.
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August 19, 2022
This week's guest is former Edge editor Nathan Brown, who now runs the newsletter Hit Points (support his Substack at hitpoints.substack.com). Hear what goes into an Edge [10], as well as thoughts on Destiny, E3, Street Fighter and the world of videogame consulting.
This week's music is from the Destiny soundtrack by Marty O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori and the Street Fighter II soundtrack by Yoko Shimomura and Isao Abe.
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August 12, 2022
Samuel and Matthew ask each other to guess the game based on quotes taken from '90s games magazines – then answer a whole suite of listener questions in part two.
This week's music is from Final Fantasy VIII, composed by Nobuo Uematsu.
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August 5, 2022
Is Valve's handheld PC all it's cracked up to be? Yes! In this episode we celebrate its strengths, highlight its limitations and discuss the games we've been playing on it.
This week's music is all from our theme tune's composer, Barry Topping (@nostoppingepoch).
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July 29, 2022
Slightly later than usual, RockPaperShotgun EIC Katharine Castle rejoins us to discuss the Xenoblade Chronicles series in enormous detail. Hear Matthew's thoughts on Xenoblade Chronicles 3 after 140 hours of playing it, and enjoy a great new quiz known as 'Xenoblade ingredient or '90s drug slang?'.
This week's music is from the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 soundtrack by Kenji Hiramatsu and the Xenoblade Chronicles X soundtrack by Hiroyuki Sawano.
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July 22, 2022
Two top 10 lists of the best games of 2013, in our usual style. Don't miss our episodes on the best games of 2006-2012 if you haven't heard them already.
This week's music is from the Grand Theft Auto V soundtrack by Tangerine Dream and Woody Jackson, and crikey, what a banging piece of music 'No Happy Endings' is.
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July 15, 2022
We undertake another grand project: building a library of the very best games for the Nintendo Switch, starting with 5 (technically 6) of our absolute favourites. Want to know what those are? Listen to the episode, or find the games we discussed in this episode below...
Ready?
Spoilers!
Here we go...
Super Mario Odyssey, Metroid Dread, Astral Chain, Into the Breach and Ori and the Blind Forest/Ori and the Will of the Wisps.
This week's music is from the Super Mario Odyssey soundtrack by Naoto Kubo, Shiho Fujii and Koji Kondo.
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July 8, 2022
Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, Sniper Elite 5 and TMNT: Shredder's Revenge are discussed in this round-up of games we've been playing this month.
Our theme tune, which plays in full this week at the very end, is from Barry Topping as ever.
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July 1, 2022
More listeners go on trial for bad pre-owned games purchases – this time with Judge Big Sammy making the verdicts. As ever, games court delivers zero nutritional value, but we have some laughs along the way.
Our theme tune comes from the brilliant Barry Topping, composer of Paradise Killer.
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June 24, 2022
PC Gamer's Phil Savage rejoins us for an episode all about Bungie's Destiny. Hate Destiny? Fair enough! You may still enjoy the first 24 minutes of this podcast for general games chatter. For Destiny players, prepare for two hours of chatter from a genuine expert that goes deep into the series' history – including the top 5 Destiny 2 guns, and the top 5 things to do in the game.
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June 17, 2022
Matthew is away this week! Returning guest Jeremy Peel kindly steps in to replace him, as we count down our 10 personal most anticipated games, based on whatever E3 was this year – from Redfall to Final Fantasy 16.
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June 10, 2022
Samuel and Matthew each compete to pick the 10 best PC games released in the years 1990 to 1999 – the poll is closed now but Matthew won this one.
This week's music is from the Command & Conquer: Red Alert soundtrack by Frank Klepacki.
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June 3, 2022
Returning guest Andy Kelly joins us to discuss his love of Sega's Dreamcast, and his new Alien: Isolation book, Perfect Organism, which you can back on Unbound: https://unbound.com/books/perfect-organism/
This week's music is from the Shenmue soundtrack by Takenobu Mitsuyoshi and Yuzo Koshiro.
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May 27, 2022
The Centennial Case, Tunic, Gears Tactics, Eternal Threads and Little Cities are among the games we discuss in this week's episode, which was painfully recorded across three evenings. This week's music is from The Centennial Case soundtrack by Yuki Hayashi.
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May 20, 2022
This week's guest is Tim Clark, brand director of PC Gamer with a long history of working on the official PlayStation magazines. Get ready for another top-drawer story about Hideo Kojima, among many other tales from games media history.
This week's music is from the Killer7 soundtrack by Masafumi Takada.
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May 13, 2022
In this week's episode, Samuel catalogues the Star Wars games that exist between simple notions like light and dark – these are the 6 and 7/10 Star Wars games that are nonetheless interesting in a bunch of ways. A full best Star Wars games episode is coming later this year, so look forward to that.
This week's music is from the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed soundtrack by Mark Griskey.
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May 6, 2022
Former Edge editor Jen Simpkins joins us to discuss some highlights of her years working in games media, and how she ended up working with the bright minds of the Dreams community at Media Molecule.
Find the Playdate drawing Jen mentioned attached to the corresponding episode post on Patreon. Looksley's Line-Up is the DSi game mentioned early in the episode. Find the GameDeveloper.com article Jen mentioned here: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/marketing/ad-infinitum-handling-community-curation-on-a-cosmic-scale-in-dreams
This week's music is from the Persona 5 soundtrack by Shoji Meguro.
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April 29, 2022
It's another mailbag episode, with about 20 minutes of what we've been playing at the start as a chaser. It's probably too long, yet again, but it covers everything from our favourite TV genres to trends in games that we miss. Enjoy!
One factual error in this episode: Sunset Overdrive was released in 2014 rather than 2015.
Our theme tune is by Barry 'Epoch' Topping (@nostoppingepoch on Twitter).
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April 22, 2022
On this week's episode, we revisit all three Max Payne games. Section 1 is about Remedy's creation of the third-person shooter series that popularised bullet time, while section 2 covers Rockstar's effort to contemporise the character in Max Payne 3. Hopefully you'll agree we do Max justice.
Then, the final section has to be heard to be believed.
This week's music is from the Max Payne soundtrack by Kärtsy Hatakka and Kimmo Kajasto, and the Max Payne 3 soundtrack by HEALTH.
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April 15, 2022
IGN's Joe Skrebels joins us for another round of indie game recommendations – and 20 minutes of very welcome Dragon's Dogma chat. 15 more games enter our hall of fame in this episode. Hopefully you'll hear about something you've never played before.
This week's music is from the Thumper soundtrack by Brian Gibson. Our theme tune is by Barry 'Epoch' Topping.
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April 8, 2022
Two top 10 lists of the best games of 2012, in our usual style. Love the podcast and want more? Head to patreon.com/backpagepod to unlock two additional episodes a month.
This week's music is from the Catherine soundtrack by Shoji Meguro, and the Kid Icarus: Uprising soundtrack by Motoi Sakuraba, Yuzo Koshiro, Masafumi Takada, Noriyuki Iwadare, Yasunori Mitsuda and Takahiro Nishi. Our theme tune is by Barry 'Epoch' Topping.
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April 1, 2022
The top 5 Kirby games, and detailed thoughts on Kirby and the Forgotten Land for Nintendo Switch. Enjoy!
This week's music is from the Kirby and the Forgotten Land soundtrack by
Yuuta Ogasawara, Hirokazu Ando, Jun Ishikawa and Yuki Shimooka, and the Kirby's Epic Yarn soundtrack by Tomoya Tomita. Our theme tune is by Barry 'Epoch' Topping (@nostoppingepoch).
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March 25, 2022
It's a simple 'what we've been playing' episode, featuring Ghostwire: Tokyo, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Tunic, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy and Monster Train – not to mention a ton of listener questions about random nonsense.
This week's music is from the Tunic soundtrack by Terence Lee and Janice Kwan, and our excellent theme tune is by Barry 'Epoch' Topping (@NoStoppingEpoch on Twitter).
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March 18, 2022
Who can pick the 10 best PS Vita games in our latest draft episode? And who will pick the best PSone and PSP games to supplement their selections? Matthew and Samuel compete to build the best library for Sony's fan-favourite handheld device.
This week's music is from Hotline Miami by Scattle, and our theme tune is by Barry 'Epoch' Topping.
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March 11, 2022
Judge Castle returns to decide whether 18 or so listeners must die as a result of dodgy secondhand eBay purchases. This episode is slightly too long, but hopefully you'll be amused.
This week's music comes from Barry Topping, composer on the brilliant Paradise Killer — it's our brand new theme tune!
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March 4, 2022
Samuel and Matthew have played Elden Ring for a combined 37 hours – here's what they think so far.
This week's music is from the Elden Ring soundtrack by Yuka Kitamura.
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February 25, 2022
Matthew's seen the Uncharted movie, which is a nice excuse for a deep dive into one of our favourite PlayStation series.
This week's music is from the Uncharted 4: A Thief's End soundtrack by Henry Jackman, and the Uncharted 1-3 soundtracks by Greg Edmonson.
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February 18, 2022
Jon Hicks, formerly of Official Xbox Magazine, joins us to revisit the 360 era through his experiences of the time.
This week's music is from the Halo: Reach soundtrack by Michael Salvatori and Marty O'Donnell.
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February 11, 2022
Matthew Castle Productions and Big Sammy Holdings are each taking on Game Pass. Who built the best gaming subscription service?
Matthew won this one.
This week's music is from the Snatcher soundtrack by Konami Kukeiha Club, The Sims 4 soundtrack by Ilan Eshkeri and the Kid Icarus: Uprising soundtrack by Motoi Sakuraba, Yuzo Koshiro, Masafumi Takada, Noriyuki Iwadare, Yasunori Mitsuda and Takahiro Nishi.
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February 4, 2022
Dying Light 2, Windjammers 2, Resident Evil 4 VR, NEO: The World Ends With You and more are discussed in this episode about what we've been playing in 2022 so far.
This week's music is from the Unpacking soundtrack by Jeff van Dyck and the Windjammers 2 soundtrack by Seiichi Hamada, Hiroaki Yoshida, Harumi Fujita and Sylvain Hellio.
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January 28, 2022
Cassette Beasts co-developer Jay Baylis joins us to discuss the long history of Pokémon games, subjecting Matthew to his idea of torture. Hear about the best games in the series across different categories from a genuine expert.
This week's music is from the Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl soundtrack by Shota Kageyama, Junichi Masuda, Go Ichinose, Hitomi Sato and Morikazu Aoki, the Pokémon Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby soundtrack by Shota Kageyama, Minako Adachi, Hideaki Kuroda and Hitomi Sato, and the Super Smash Bros Ultimate soundtrack by Shota Kageyama, Go Ichinose, Hitomi Sato, Junichi Masuda and Minako Adachi.
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January 21, 2022
Another overly long mailbag episode is here! 25 of your questions about gaming (yes, and Bath restaurants) answered.
This week's music is from the TimeSplitters 2 soundtrack by Graeme Norgate and The Secret of Monkey Island soundtrack by Michael Land and Patrick Mundy.
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January 14, 2022
Matthew and Samuel compete to pick the 10 best Wii games – the same game cannot be picked more than once. Samuel won this draft, by 67% to 33%.
This week's music is from the Wii Sports Resort soundtrack by Ryo Nagamatsu, the Super Mario Galaxy 2 soundtrack by Mahito Yokota, Ryo Nagamatsu and Koji Kondo, and The Last Story soundtrack by Nobuo Uematsu.
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January 7, 2022
Samuel and Matthew each pick 11 predictions for the year ahead in gaming, all based on absolutely no information whatsoever. It's a light episode, and Samuel's audio is a bit crap. Sorry about that.
This week's music is from the Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 soundtrack by Frank Klepacki and the Xenoblade Chronicles soundtrack by Ace+.
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December 31, 2021
Our GOTY episode is here! Two top 10 lists of the best games released in 2021, with almost no crossover between the selections. Enjoy.
This week's music is from the Bowser's Fury soundtrack by Daisuke Matsuoka and James Phillipsen, the Rhythm Doctor soundtrack by fizzd, Winston Lee and foxiand, and The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles soundtrack by Yasumasa Kitagawa and Hiromitsu Maeba.
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December 24, 2021
As The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring movie turns 20 years old, we revisit every game based on the films from Peter Jackson. From The Two Towers to The Third Age, there are some real gems in among the 7/10 tie-ins.
This week's music is from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers on GBA, based on the music of Howard Shore, and the Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Middle-earth: Shadow of War soundtracks by Garry Schyman and Nathan Grigg.
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December 17, 2021
Back in episode 7, we made 21 gaming predictions about 2021. How right or wrong were we? In this episode, we put ourselves on trial, discussing everything from N64 games on Switch to PS5 haptics. It's a silly episode, like all of them. Enjoy.
This week's music is from the Binary Domain soundtrack by Mitsuharu Fukuyama and the Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory soundtrack by Yoko Shimomura.
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December 10, 2021
What else we've been playing in 2021, including Luigi's Mansion 3, Resident Evil 3 Remake and more.
This week's music is from the 428: Shibuya Scramble soundtrack by Naoki Sato, Hideki Sakamoto and Shingo Yasumoto and the Deus Ex soundtrack by Alexander Brandon, Dan Gardopée and Michiel van den Bos.
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December 3, 2021
In this episode, Samuel ranks the seven mainline Halo games to date, and both Samuel and Matthew weigh in on the wonders of Halo Infinite multiplayer.
This week's music is from the Halo: Reach soundtrack by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori and the Halo 5: Guardians soundtrack by Kazuma Jinnouchi.
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November 26, 2021
Who can build the best hypothetical mini console, Matthew, representing GameCube, or Samuel, representing the original Xbox? As both consoles have turned 20 years old, in this episode we'll revisit the libraries of each in a competitive format.
Wondering who won this one? It was Matthew, with around 60% of the vote.
This week's music is from the Super Mario Sunshine soundtrack by Koji Kondo and Shinobu Tanaka, the Metroid Prime soundtrack by Kenji Yamamoto and Kouichi Kyuma, The Simpsons: Hit and Run soundtrack by Marc Baril, Jeff Tymoschuk and Allan Levy, and the Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne soundtrack by Kärtsy Hatakka and Kimmo Kajasto.
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November 19, 2021
The latest in our series of flashback episodes focuses on a year that brought us Batman: Arkham City, Skyrim and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Matthew and Samuel each pick their 10 favourite games from 2011, and throw in a whole host of honourable mentions.
This episode's music is from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim soundtrack, the Pullblox soundtrack by Shoh Murakami and the Xenoblade Chronicles soundtrack by Yoko Shimomura.
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November 12, 2021
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty released 20 years ago this week. In this episode, PC Gamer's Rich Stanton joins us to discuss the game's themes and legacy as a PS2 classic.
This week's music is from the Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty soundtrack by Harry Gregson-Williams, Rika Muranaka and Carla White.
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November 5, 2021
In our episode 50 special, Matthew and Samuel talk through the entire process of making a games magazine from start to finish, including 15 things that can go wrong. Plus: our thoughts on the GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition, early GOTY chatter and much more.
This week's music is from the Apex Legends soundtrack by Stephen Barton, the Metroid Dread soundtrack by Kenji Yamamoto and the Returnal soundtrack by The Haxan Cloak.
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October 29, 2021
It's Halloween! Horror expert and presenter Louise Blain joins us to pick out 15 cool spooky games, from Eternal Darkness to Silent Hill 4: The Room.
This week's music is from the Silent Hill 4: The Room soundtrack by Akira Yamaoka and the Stories Untold soundtrack by Omar Khan.
Here's a link to the PC Gamer piece Samuel mentions in this episode: https://www.pcgamer.com/how-a-spooky-game-about-being-alone-on-a-server-launched-an-accidental-arg/
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October 22, 2021
Steve Burns, formerly of Videogamer.com, joins us to discuss Grand Theft Auto III as Rockstar North's groundbreaking open world game turns 20 years old. Hear about its impact on games at the time, its best moments and how GTA would evolve in subsequent entries.
This week's music is from the Grand Theft Auto III soundtrack by Craig Conner and Stuart Ross.
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October 15, 2021
GameSpot's Tamoor Hussain kindly joins us to discuss his career from CVG to working in the US, and to help us rank the Batman: Arkham games to mark the tenth anniversary of Arkham City.
This week's music is from the Batman: Arkham Knight soundtrack by Nick Arundel and David Buckley, and the Batman: Arkham City and Arkham Asylum soundtracks by Nick Arundel and Ron Fish.
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October 8, 2021
Judge Matthew Castle puts 16 of our listeners on trial for bad secondhand games purchases, and public defence attorney Samuel Roberts has been assigned to defend them. Who will live and who will die? Plus, hear about our favourite arcade games in this week's episode.
This week's music is from The Testament of Sherlock Holmes soundtrack by Alexandre Dudko and the Metroid: Other M soundtrack by Kuniaki Haishima.
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October 1, 2021
Our guest this week is journalist and author Simon Parkin. Hear how Simon broke the news of Hideo Kojima's departure from Konami, among many other fascinating industry stories, and learn how he turned reviewing GBA games into a career writing for The New Yorker.
This week's music is from the Gunstar Heroes soundtrack by Norio Hanzawa, the Final Fantasy VII soundtrack by Nobuo Uematsu and the Segagaga soundtrack by Tsuyoshi Kaneko.
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September 24, 2021
To mark the 25th anniversary of the N64's release in North America, Matthew and Samuel each compete to pick the 10 best games on the system for a hypothetical N64 Mini console. After you've heard our selections, you can vote for the winner @BackPagePod on Twitter until the end of September. Note that this episode was recorded before Nintendo confirmed N64 games were coming to the Switch Online service.
The winner of this episode was Matthew Castle.
This week's music is from the Rogue Squadron soundtrack by Chris Hülsbeck, the Super Smash Bros. soundtrack by Hirokazu Ando and the Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon soundtrack by Shigeru Araki, Yusuke Kato, Saiko Miki and Yasumasa Kitagawa.
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September 17, 2021
We've finished Deathloop! Enjoy spoiler-free impressions of Arkane's latest game from Samuel, Matthew and our guest, the brilliant freelance writer Jeremy Peel. In hour two, hear about the history of the immersive sim, with chatter about Deus Ex, Thief and more games that defined Deathloop's lineage.
This week's music is from the Deathloop soundtrack by Tom Salta and Ross Tregenza, the Deus Ex soundtrack by Alexander Brandon, Michiel van den Bos and Dan Gardopee, and the Deus Ex: Human Revolution soundtrack by Michael McCann.
Here's where Warren Spector's definition of the immersive sim comes from: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/postmortem-ion-storm-s-i-deus-ex-i-
Here's Jeremy's oral history of Deus Ex: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/deus-ex-at-20-the-oral-history-of-a-pivotal-pc-game
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September 10, 2021
Two very different top 10 lists from 2010, one of the best years of gaming in modern memory. The usual mix of magazine memories and news from the time. That's it! Enjoy.
This week's music is from the Red Dead Redemption soundtrack by Bill Elm & Woody Jackson, the Halo Reach soundtrack by Marty O'Donnell, the Alan Wake soundtrack by Poets of the Fall and Petri Alanko, and the Super Mario Galaxy 2 soundtrack by Mahito Yokota, Ryo Nagamatsu and Koji Kondo.
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September 3, 2021
Judge Matthew Castle will decide if defendant Samuel Roberts lives or dies over a series of dodgy games purchases! Enjoy this sequel to our 15th episode from back in March, and hear our thoughts on Deathloop (after 7 hours with a preview build) and No More Heroes 3.
This week's music is from Silent Hill: Shattered Memories by Akira Yamaoka, the No More Heroes 3 soundtrack by Nobuaki Kaneko, Jun Fukuda and Kazuhiro "MEEBEE" Abo, and the Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulation soundtrack by Noriyuki Iwadare.
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August 27, 2021
Katharine Castle of Rock Paper Shotgun returns to the podcast this week, as we each recommend five indie games we like. That's 15 recommendations in total! Plus: another baffling listener question about Yuji Naka.
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August 20, 2021
Dan Dawkins, former editor of PSM2 and current Content Director of Games and Film at Future, joins us to discuss his long history in games media. You'll hear some of the best games magazine stories on this podcast yet, including encounters with Hideo Kojima and how PSM2 (and later PSM3) popularised the Let's Play format in a pre-YouTube age.
This week's music is from the Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots soundtrack by Harry Gregson-Williams, Nobuko Toda, Shuichi Kobori and Kazuma Jinnouchi, the Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty soundtrack by Harry Gregson-Williams and the Ico soundtrack by Michiru Oshima, Koichi Yamazaki and Mitsukuni Murayama.
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August 13, 2021
What if Sony released a PS2 Mini? And what if it was good? In this week's episode, Matthew and Samuel each pick 10 games to be released with a hypothetical PS2 Mini. Head to the poll on our pinned tweet @BackPagePod to vote on who picked the best games, and we'll announce the winner on a future episode!
The winner of this episode was Samuel.
This week's music comes from the Gitaroo Man soundtrack by COIL, Tomohiro Harada and YUAN, the Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater soundtrack by Norihiko Hibino and Cynthia Harrell, the Final Fantasy XII soundtrack by Hitoshi Sakimoto, Hayato Matsuo and Masaharu Iwata and the Silent Hill 2 soundtrack by Akira Yamaoka.
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August 6, 2021
It's a simple podcast about the games we've been playing in 2021 so far – both old and new. From The Last of Us Part 2 to Neo: The World Ends With You and Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, we cover plenty of ground in this episode, and answer your questions about open world games and video game theme parks.
This week's music is from the Judgment soundtrack by Hidenori Shoji, Yuri Fukuda and Saori Yoshida, The Last of Us Part 2 soundtrack by Gustavo Santaolalla, and the Hades soundtrack by Darren Korb.
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July 30, 2021
Take a spoiler-free dive into the Phoenix Wright series and its various spin-offs, as Matthew gives his verdict on the long-awaited The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, and reels off the 10 best entries in this immortal Capcom visual novel series.
This week's music: Phoenix Wright ~ Objection! 2013 (Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies), Investigation - The Core (The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles), Godot ~ The Fragrance of Black Coffee (Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations) and Athena Cykes ~ Courtroom Révolutionnaire (Ace Attorney: Spirit Of Justice) by Noriyuki Iwadare, Yasumasa Kitagawa, Hiromitsu Maeba. Toshihiko Horiyama and Masami Onodera.
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July 23, 2021
With Valve moving into the handheld market, we reflect on whether there's a place for a Switch-style PC in this episode. Plus! In a sequel of sorts to our Bad eBay Games Court episode, Big Sammy Holdings and Matthew Castle Productions are moving into the hardware market – hear us conceptualise the (fictional) perfect handheld games console.
This week's music is from the Heavy Rain soundtrack by the late Normand Corbeil, the Control soundtrack by Petri Alanko and Martin Stig Andersen, and the Space Harrier soundtrack by Hiroshi Kawaguchi and Yu Suzuki.
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July 16, 2021
Matthew has played The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD, which is out now. Does he still think it's worth an Edge 10 a decade later? Find out in this episode, and discover where it ranks in Matthew's list of the top 10 Zelda games to date. Expect lots of deep dissection of Nintendo's series from a genuine expert.
This week's music is from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time soundtrack by Koji Kondo, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword soundtrack by Hajime Wakai, Shiho Fujii, Mahito Yokota and Takeshi Hama, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening soundtrack on Nintendo Switch by
Ryo Nagamatsu and The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker soundtrack by Kenta Nagata, Hajime Wakai, Toru Minegishi and Koji Kondo.
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July 9, 2021
Two top 10 lists of the best games of 2009, from Uncharted 2 to Batman: Arkham Asylum. First, we'll tell you what was going on in the media in 2009, then we'll delve into a solid chunk of recommendations. Don't miss our episodes on the best games of 2006-2008, too, as we slowly work our way through the past two decades of gaming history.
This week's music is from the Uncharted 2 soundtrack by Greg Edmonson, the Spirit Tracks stage soundtrack from Super Smash Bros Ultimate arranged by Michiko Naruke, the Little King's Story soundtrack by Yutaka Minobe and the Let's Tap soundtrack by various artists.
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July 2, 2021
How do you write about a game that's not actually finished yet? In this episode, we dig into the art of writing games magazine cover features, covering weird demos and dealing with the hype cycle in general. Hear about our experiences visiting the studios behind Pokémon and Assassin's Creed, and more embarrassing stories about throwing hot chocolate in toilets and going to the bathroom on a New York City freeway.
This week's music is from the Deus Ex: Mankind Divided soundtrack by Michael McCann and Sascha Dikiciyan, and the Devil May Cry 5 soundtrack by Casey Edwards, Ali Edwards and Cliff Lloret.
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June 25, 2021
Indie developer Jay Baylis (Wargroove, Lenna's Inception) joins us to talk about Sonic's history in time for the Sega icon's 30th anniversary. You'll hear two top 5 lists of the best Sonic games, and a lot of chatter about his highs and lows. Please don't unsubscribe! Find Jay's work on Cassette Beasts @byttenstudio on Twitter.
This week's music is from Sonic CD by Naofumi Hataya and Masafumi Ogata, and the Sonic Unleashed soundtrack by Tomoya Ohtani, Fumie Kumatani, Kenichi Tokoi, Hideaki Kobayashi and Takahito Eguchi.
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June 18, 2021
E3 2021 is finally over! Hear our thoughts on this year's conference as we each count down our 10 favourite announcements from the show, and format them into a hypothetical games magazine.
This week's music is from the WarioWare, Inc: Mega Microgames! soundtrack by Ryoji Yoshitomi and Kyoko Miyamoto, and the Metroid: Samus Returns soundtrack by Daisuke Matsuoka.
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June 11, 2021
The Guardian's Keza MacDonald kindly joins us on this episode to discuss her long career in games media, and whether E3 still matters in 2021. Hear about some of our E3 memories, and learn about the different ways the show has changed over the years.
This week's music is from the Demon's Souls soundtrack by Shunsuke Kida, and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword soundtrack by Hajime Wakai, Shiho Fujii, Mahito Yokota and Takeshi Hama.
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June 4, 2021
This week, we're answering 22 more of your questions. Where would we set a Yakuza game? Should games reviewers always finish the game first? What were our favourite playground rumours about games? We answer all of these and more – plus we discuss the results of last episode's draft.
This week's music is from the Final Fantasy X soundtrack by Junya Nakano and the It Takes Two soundtrack by Gustaf Grefberg and Kristofer Eng.
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May 28, 2021
Microsoft has been on a spending spree in acquiring developers over the past few years, from Obsidian to buying the entirety of Bethesda. In this episode, Matthew and Samuel can each pick 6 game developers to build a new publisher – but it's competitive, and they can't pick any of the same choices. After you listen, head on over to @BackPagePod on Twitter to cast your vote on who won!
The winner of this episode was Samuel.
This week's music is from the Hades soundtrack by Darren Korb, and the Toy Story on Genesis soundtrack by Andy Blythe and Martin Joustra, based on the original song by Randy Newman.
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May 21, 2021
Andy Kelly from PC Gamer joins us to talk through what makes a great detective game, whether it's a compelling mystery, a certain type of setting or something else. Get a deep dive into the genre, then a heap of recommendations as Andy and Matthew each count down their 5 favourite detective games.
This week's music is from the LA Noire soundtrack by Andrew Hale, the Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir soundtrack by Kenji Yamamoto, the Return of the Obra Dinn soundtrack by Lucas Pope and the Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations soundtrack by Noriyuki Iwadare.
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May 14, 2021
With Mass Effect: Legendary Edition now available, we're revisiting the original Mass Effect trilogy in this episode, a defining HD-era series of games. What impact did it have on the RPG genre, for better or worse? What happened to BioWare in the years afterwards? And what future does the series have, if any?
This week's music is from the Mass Effect 2 soundtrack by Jack Wall and the Mass Effect 3 soundtrack by Clint Mansell and Sam Hulick.
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May 7, 2021
We've both finished Resident Evil Village, and in this spoiler-free episode we'll talk you through our thoughts on the eighth entry in Capcom's brilliant survival horror series. In the second half, Matthew and Samuel will count down their 5 best Resident Evil games from across the series.
This episode's music is from the Resident Evil 4 soundtrack by Misao Senbongi and the Resident Evil 5 soundtrack by Kota Suzuki.
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April 30, 2021
From Dead Space to Grand Theft Auto 4, 2008 was a phenomenal year in gaming. In this episode, hear Samuel and Matthew count down their respective top 10 best games of 2008 lists, and flash back to the big events of this year in the HD generation console wars.
This week's music is from the Fable 2 soundtrack by Russell Shaw, the No More Heroes soundtrack by the Genki Rockets, and the GTA 4 soundtrack by Michael Hunter.
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April 22, 2021
In this sequel episode to 'Games Review Scores We Got Wrong', hear more about our process of assigning scores to classic games as we pick out the times we got it right. It's two men, getting defensive about old review scores. What makes a better podcast than that?
This week's music is from the Resident Evil 6 soundtrack by Akihiko Narita and the Metal Gear Rising Revengeance soundtrack by Jamie Christopherson and Jason Miller.
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April 16, 2021
PC Gamer's Phil Savage joins us for a Yakuza-themed special episode, which covers pretty much the entire history of Sega's series as it finds new fans on Xbox Game Pass. Hear about the 5 best games in the Yakuza series, and learn about the best starting point if you're a new fan.
This week's music is from the Yakuza 0 and Yakuza 6 soundtracks by Hidenori Shoji.
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April 9, 2021
This week, we discuss 10 of our best games magazine covers, and explore the stories of how they each got made. Hear about how issues of PC Gamer, Official Xbox Magazine and Official Nintendo Magazine came together.
See the covers discussed in this episode for yourself here: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/backpagegames/back-page-covers-from-heaven/
This week's music is from the Nights: Journey of Dreams soundtrack by Tomoko Sasaki and Naofumi Hataya, and the Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain soundtrack by Akihiro Honda, Ludvig Forsell and Stefanie Joosten.
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April 2, 2021
With the PS3 and PS Vita stores both closing this summer, here are 10 games worth grabbing before the digital storefronts vanish forever. We also discuss the disappointing form that led to Sony's decision to do this, and ponder what console manufacturers actually owe us when it comes to preserving their old games.
This week's music is from the Metal Gear Solid soundtrack by Takanari Ishiyama, Gigi Meroni, Kazuki Muraoka, Lee Jeon Myung and Hiroyuki Togo, and the God Hand soundtrack by Masafumi Takada and Jun Fukuda.
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March 26, 2021
You sent in 31 questions about gaming, ranging from demo discs to how games are reviewed, and we answered them! This week, we pause for breath, and just enjoy a Q&A with our listeners. Regular service resumes next week.
It's a very straightforward episode, but it covers a wide range of subjects, even if it's about 30 minutes longer than it should be. This week's music is from the Deus Ex soundtrack by Alexander Brandon, Dan Gardopée and Michiel van den Bos.
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March 19, 2021
The Nintendo 3DS turns 10 years old this month in the US and Europe, and in this episode, we're counting down the system's best games. We're joined by a special guest (and former employee of Matthew's) to supercharge our Nintendo expertise: IGN's Joe Skrebels! Hear about the history of this system, and learn about the many highlights of its library.
This week's music is from the Fire Emblem: Awakening soundtrack by Hiroki Morishita and Rei Kondoh; the Super Mario 3D Land soundtrack by Asuka Hayazaki, Takeshi Hama and Mahito Yokota; the Kid Icarus: Uprising soundtrack by Motoi Sakuraba, Yuzo Koshiro, Masafumi Takada, Noriyuki Iwadare, Takahiro Nishi and Yasunori Mitsuda; and the Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright soundtrack by Tomohito Nishiura and Yasumasa Kitagawa.
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March 12, 2021
This week's episode is all about interviewing the people who make games. Are we good at it? What makes a great interview? From Phil Spencer to Yuji Horii, too, you'll hear about 10 of the most notable exchanges we've had while working in the games media over the years.
This week's music is from the Super Smash Bros Brawl soundtrack by Takahiro Nishi, Shogo Sakai, Masaaki Iwasaki, Yutaka Iraha, Keigo Ozaki and Kentaro Ishizaka, and The Secret of Monkey Island soundtrack by Michael Land and Patrick Mundy.
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March 5, 2021
Samuel Roberts stands accused of crimes against good taste – will the honorable judge Matthew Castle find him innocent or guilty, based on 18 dodgy eBay games purchases made over the past 12 months? We also talk about the idea of collecting games generally in this episode, and reveal how big our Steam libraries are.
This week's music is from the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City soundtrack by Lex Horton and the Phoenix Wright trilogy soundtrack by Masakazu Sugimori and Akemi Kimura.
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February 26, 2021
From Uncharted: Drake's Fortune to Crackdown, which were the best games of 2007? Matthew and Samuel share their top 10 lists, and delve into their memories of covering the early days of HD console gaming.
This week's music is from the God Hand soundtrack by Masafumi Takada and Jun Fukuda, the Halo 3 soundtrack by Marty O'Donnell and the Hotel Dusk: Room 415 soundtrack by Satoshi Okubo.
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February 19, 2021
The long-awaited Nintendo Direct hit this week, and we've picked out 12 highlights for discussion, from No More Heroes 3 to Skyward Sword HD. It's definitely not just an excuse to hear some more of Matthew's great Nintendo thoughts and anecdotes, but hey, it's a nice bonus.
This week's music is from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword by Hajime Wakai, Shiho Fujii, Mahito Yokota and Takeshi Hama.
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February 12, 2021
Mario's greatest Wii U outing has landed on the Nintendo Switch, and this week, we discuss its place in the 3D Mario pantheon. Is it better than Galaxy? Definitely not. Odyssey? Nope. But it is still pretty great.
We also talk about the challenges of writing about Mario with our first ever guest, Katharine Castle of Rock Paper Shotgun! This week's music is from the Super Mario 3D World soundtrack by Mahito Yokota, Toru Minegishi, Koji Kondo and Yasuaki Iwata.
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February 5, 2021
Our two top 30 games of the generation lists conclude this week, as we each read out our personal 15 best games on PS4, Xbox One and Wii U.
This week's music is from the Mario Kart 8 soundtrack by Shiho Fujii, Atsuko Asahi, Shinji Hosoe, Ryo Nagamatsu and Yasuaki Iwata, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild soundtrack by Manaka Kataoka, Yasuaki Iwata and Hajime Wakai.
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January 29, 2021
Two top 30 lists of the best games on PS4, Xbox One and Wii U from the past 7 or 8 years – this episode covers games 30-16 on both our lists. Part 2 is coming next Friday. Enjoy.
This week's music is from the Prey soundtrack by Mick Gordon, the Danganronpa V3 soundtrack by Masafumi Takada and the Final Fantasy XV soundtrack by Yoko Shimomura.
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January 22, 2021
We've both played a lot of Hitman 3, and in this episode, we celebrate IO Interactive's World of Assassination trilogy and explore why it's one of modern gaming's greatest achievements. If you're a fan of Agent 47's many murders of nasty billionaires, this episode is for you.
This week's music is from the Hitman 2 soundtrack by Niels Bye Nielsen.
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January 15, 2021
Matthew and Samuel discuss the art of making covers for games magazines. See the covers discussed in the episode for yourself using this link: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/backpagegames/the-back-page-magazine-covers/
If you're having trouble using the link on your podcasting app of choice, you'll also find them on Twitter @BackPagePod.
This week's music is from the Pillars of Eternity soundtrack by Justin E Bell, the Mass Effect Andromeda soundtrack by John Paesano and the Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright soundtrack by Tomohito Nishiura and Yasumasa Kitagawa.
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January 8, 2021
In this 2021 preview episode, we sum up what's new with the next-gen consoles (and PC! And Nintendo!) in the coming 12 months. We also serve up 21 gaming predictions for the next year – from Cyberpunk 2077 DLC to Master Chief appearing in Smash Bros, it's all based on very few facts, and we hope you enjoy it.
This week's music is from the Baldur's Gate 3 soundtrack by Borislav Slavov.
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December 31, 2020
Wow, 2020 was the worst! Luckily, the games were pretty good, and in this episode, we each count down our personal top 10s of the year. From Doom Eternal to Final Fantasy 7 Remake, start off 2021 by capping off the last 12 months of fantastic games.
This week's music is from the Final Fantasy 7 soundtrack by Nobuo Uematsu and the themes of Destiny 2's Prophecy dungeon by Michael Sechrist, Skye Lewin, Michael Salvatori and Josh Mosser.
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December 25, 2020
The story of CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077 is now much bigger than the game itself. Still, in this episode, Matthew discusses his 70 hours playing the glitchy but nonetheless fascinating game, while Samuel throws questions at him about the game's best quests and why it's not a very good immersive sim. In the second half, we discuss the ways in which writing about big games has changed over the years. Note that this episode was recorded before Sony pulled Cyberpunk 2077 from sale on the PlayStation Store - the conversation around this game has changed quickly...
This week's music is from the game's soundtrack by Marcin Przybyłowicz, PT Adamczyk and Paul Leonard-Morgan, as well as the Super Mario Galaxy soundtrack by Koji Kondo and Mahito Yokota.
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December 18, 2020
From Twilight Princess to Gears of War, travel back to the dawn of HD gaming in our 2006-themed retrospective podcast. Matthew and Samuel both count down their top 10 games from that year, and recall the biggest news headlines, from Peter Moore's ludicrous GTA 4 tattoo to the PS3's pricing disaster. Get ready for a comfy 2.5 hours of nostalgia (hopefully not in an unbearable way).
This week's music comes from the Bully soundtrack by Shawn Lee, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess soundtrack by Toru Minegishi, Asuka Ohta and Koji Kondo, and the Rhythm Tengoku soundtrack by Tsunku and Masami Yone.
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December 11, 2020
IO Interactive: nobody does it better? James Bond is the theme of this week's episode, as we discuss the Hitman developer's recently announced 007 game, and what it might look like. We also delve into the history of Bond on consoles and PC. Predictably, GoldenEye 007 comes up, but so too do the deeply average PS2-era likes of 007 Nightfire and Everything or Nothing. Plus! Jokes about George Lazenby. This week's music is from the GoldenEye 007 soundtrack by Graeme Norgate, Grant Kirkhope and Robin Beanland, as well as the No One Lives Forever soundtrack by Guy Whitman.
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December 4, 2020
What goes into awarding a game a 7/10 review score? And what happens when you get it wrong? This week, we discuss 10 or so games where the review scores we decided on many years ago didn't stand the test of time. From Epic Mickey to Metal Gear Solid 4, it's a spicy podcast. This week's music is from the MGS4 soundtrack by Nobuka Toda. Our logo is by John Strike.
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November 27, 2020
Two next-generation consoles just launched: the PS5 and the Xbox Series X, both of which have sold out worldwide. We've played games on each, and this week we talk about their launch line-up, as well as the history of each company's consoles. Plus: which console had the best launch line-up of games ever? The answer may or may not surprise you. This week's music comes from the Assassin's Creed Valhalla soundtrack by Einar Selvik.
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