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.

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Episodes

Episode 159: 24 Gaming Predictions About 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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jan 05, 20241 hr 50 min

Episode 158: The Best Games of 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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more info...

Dec 30, 20233 hr 21 min

Episode 157: The Back Page Holiday Special

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

Dec 22, 20232 hr 18 min

James Bond Movies Ranked (from the Patreon)

From the XL Tier on Patreon.com/backpagepod – it's our rundown of the best James Bond movies. Enjoy! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dec 15, 20232 hr 41 min

The Best Metal Gear Solid Moments

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

Dec 08, 20232 hr 55 min

Episode 156: Two Giant Men Play Final Fantasy 7 (Disc 1)

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. Hosted o...

Dec 01, 20232 hr 8 min

Episode 155: The Licensed Games Draft

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

Nov 24, 20231 hr 58 min

Episode 154: What We've Been Playing (Alan Wake 2, Super Mario Wonder, PS Portal)

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

Nov 17, 20232 hr 42 min

Episode 153: From Jak & Daxter to Eurogamer (with Ellie Gibson)

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

Nov 10, 20231 hr 14 min

Episode 151: Alan Wake 2 and the Games of Remedy (with Simon Cardy)

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

Oct 27, 20232 hr

Episode 150: The Art of PlayStation List Making (with Rob Pearson)

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

Oct 20, 20232 hr 11 min

Episode 149: The Best Games of 2001

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

Oct 13, 20232 hr 50 min

Episode 148: What We've Been Playing (Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, Assassin's Creed Mirage, Resi 4: Separate Ways, Cocoon)

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

Oct 06, 20231 hr 44 min

Episode 147: Things You Only Realise When You Make Games

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

Sep 29, 20232 hr 34 min

PC Gaming Classics Episode 6: Quake Vs Half-Life

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

Sep 24, 20232 hr 40 min

PC Gaming Classics Episode 5: Jurassic Park: Trespasser

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

Sep 24, 20231 hr 49 min

Episode 146: Two Giant Men Play Starfield

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

Sep 22, 20231 hr 50 min

Episode 145: eBay Games Court: The Mediocre Return of a Dubious Podcast Format

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

Sep 15, 20231 hr 59 min

Episode 144: The Nintendo DS Draft

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

Sep 08, 20232 hr 50 min

Episode 143: What We've Been Playing (Sea of Stars, Armored Core 6, My House, Dredge)

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

Sep 01, 20231 hr 47 min

Episode 142: The Dreaded Mailbag

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

Aug 25, 20232 hr 5 min

Episode 141: The Best Games of 2016

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 Tu...

Aug 18, 20232 hr 41 min

Episode 140: Old RPGs and Baldur's Gate 3 (with Jeremy Peel)

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

Aug 11, 20231 hr 55 min

Episode 138: Edge in the '00s (with Margaret Robertson)

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

Jul 28, 20231 hr 36 min

PC Gaming Classics Episode 4: X-Com: UFO Defense

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

Jul 24, 20231 hr 28 min

Episode 137: The PlayStation 3 Draft

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

Jul 21, 20232 hr 14 min

Episode 136: What We've Been Playing (Final Fantasy 16, Trepang2, Baldur's Gate 3)

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

Jul 14, 20232 hr

Episode 135: Nintendo in the '00s (with Wes Fenlon)

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 ...

Jul 07, 20232 hr 12 min
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