The Back Page: A Video Games Podcast - podcast cover

The Back Page: A Video Games Podcast

Samuel Roberts and Matthew Castlewww.buzzsprout.com
Games media writers Matthew Castle (NGamer, Rock Paper Shotgun) and Samuel Roberts (PC Gamer, gamesTM, TechRadar) talk about video games and their years covering them professionally. Our logo is by John Strike, and our theme tune is by Barry 'Epoch' Topping (@nostoppingepoch on Twitter).

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last refreshed:
Follow this podcast in the Metacast mobile app to refresh it and see new episodes.
Download Metacast podcast app
Podcasts are better in Metacast mobile app
Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more

Episodes

Episode 134: Two Giant Men Replay Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jun 30, 20232 hr 4 min

Episode 133: Top 5 Final Fantasy Games

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 K...

Jun 23, 20232 hr 9 min

PC Gaming Classics Episode 3: Fallout

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). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jun 19, 20231 hr 50 min

Episode 132: Our 10 Most Anticipated Games From Not-E3 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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jun 16, 20231 hr 53 min

Episode 131: The Edge 10 Episode (with Chris Schilling)

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jun 09, 20231 hr 37 min

Episode 130: The Xbox 360 Draft

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...

Jun 02, 20231 hr 58 min

Episode 129: eBay Games Court is Back!

More listeners' pre-owned purchases go on trial in this latest version of the much despised Games Court podcast format. Enjoy, and deepest apologies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

May 26, 20231 hr 39 min

Episode 128: Two Giant Men Play The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....

May 19, 20231 hr 37 min

Episode 127: What We've Been Playing (Jedi Survivor, Redfall, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 DLC)

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. Hosted on...

May 12, 20232 hr 1 min

PC Gaming Classics Episode 2: Blade Runner

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

May 08, 20231 hr 41 min

Episode 126: How To Make A Video Game (with Jay Baylis)

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

May 05, 20231 hr 42 min

Episode 125: The Shinji Mikami Hall of Fame (with Rich Stanton)

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Apr 28, 20232 hr 21 min

Episode 124: The Best Games of 2015

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). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for ...

Apr 21, 20233 hr 7 min

Episode 123: The Best Star Wars Games

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Apr 14, 20232 hr 8 min

PC Gaming Classics Episode 1: System Shock 2

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.c...

Apr 07, 20231 hr 56 min

Episode 122: What We've Been Playing (Diablo 4, PSVR2, Tchia)

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 No...

Mar 31, 20232 hr

Episode 121: Two Giant Men Play Resident Evil 4 Remake

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mar 24, 20231 hr 57 min

Episode 120: From PC Zone to Writing Games (with Will Porter)

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mar 17, 20231 hr 30 min

Episode 119: The Capcom Games Draft

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mar 10, 20231 hr 55 min

Episode 118: Nintendo 3DS and Wii U Games Worth Grabbing Before The eShop Closes

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mar 03, 20231 hr 24 min

Episode 117: The Wii U Hall of Fame (with Ashley Day)

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Feb 24, 20232 hr 35 min

Episode 116: The Last of Us Revisited – and our Verdict on the HBO Show

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....

Feb 17, 20231 hr 50 min

Episode 115: The Wii and DS Years of Official Nintendo Magazine

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Feb 10, 20231 hr 40 min

Episode 114: What We've Been Playing (GoldenEye, Hi-Fi Rush, Fire Emblem Engage)

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Feb 03, 20231 hr 57 min

Episode 113: The Best Games of 2014

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, Yas...

Jan 27, 20232 hr 56 min

Episode 112: Pre-Owned Games Court Returns

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. H...

Jan 20, 20231 hr 43 min

Episode 111: 23 Wild Gaming Predictions About 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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jan 13, 20231 hr 44 min

Episode 110: New Year Mailbag

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jan 06, 20232 hr 4 min

The Best Video Game Boss Battles

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dec 30, 20222 hr 14 min

Episode 109: The Best Games of 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 soun...

Dec 23, 20222 hr 51 min
For the best experience, listen in Metacast app for iOS or Android